What height should a bar stool be?

Selecting the correct bar stool height for your table can appear confusing. 

Here's a quick guide to finding what bar stool height you need.

What height should a bar stool be?

The top of your bar stool should be approximately 30 cm (so 1 foot) lower than the top of the table you'll be sitting at. So if you have a table 75 cm high, you want a bar stool that's about 45 cm high (by 'about' we mean ideally 45 cm high, but 40 - 50 cm high would feel fine too). 

The reason for this gap is because it's an unwritten standard in the furniture industry - most of the chairs / tables you've sat at will have a gap of 30 cm (1 foot) between the chair and the table, so if you sit at a table that's much larger than this gap, it'll just feel 'off'. 

There's also an issue of thigh clearance - will you have enough of a gap between your table and the chair to fit your thighs under without hitting the underside of the table? This will usually not be an issue if you stick to the 30 cm / 1 foot rule above, though you do see some tables with very chunky rails on the underside of the tabletop. These tables generally don't look fabulous, and you'll probably avoid these instinctively. 

The other, more common, issue with tables with chunky rails is that something you put underneath - e.g. the arms of a chair, or a filing cabinet, etc., won't fit because of the chunky rails. Fortunately, we design our furniture to account for this - our tables and desks have thin tops to maximise underneath clearance, while still remaining strong and stiff.

Check out our Bar Stools and Bar Tables. They're available in different sizes and heights, and we can also custom make them to fit. They're also just about the best bar stools and tables you'll find.