Counter Stools.

Because we don't have a dining table or chairs in our small inventory of home furnishings, we really felt the purchase of some counter height stools for our 'breakfast bar' was critical to bringing us some much needed sanity. We do hope to find a dining table/chairs in the near future, but because of my obsessive compulsive need to explore every option on the planet before making a decision, it's bound to be some time before we are ready to make that investment. In the meantime, I've been crawling all over the world wide web in search of the right stools for our kitchen. I started by eliminating anything upholstered. While I love the idea of having a pop of print on the counter stools, the reality is that there are ALWAYS going to be children sitting in these, so I might as well save myself the heartache of ravioli being smeared all over them and cut out upholstery all together. Farewell Louis XVI stools:


Moving on, the next thing I eliminated was anything without a back. I don't need to explain the number of bumps and bruises that would occur with children on a backless counter height stool, so I won't. But I was loving these Tulix style counter height backless stools:

Here's the chair version of the same style...aren't they fun?


So I was left with deciding whether to do a painted/stained finish, or something made of metal/aluminum. Ultimately, I decided that nearly EVERYTHING in this cabinet covered house is painted...and with cabinetry on 10 walls of the main level alone, could I really handle another painted white piece of furniture? And with the dark black granite and the dark stained floors, a stained finish really wasn't all that appealing either. So I said goodbye to this little number that caught my eye on Overstock.com


I settled on a stainless looking finish to continue the vintage feel of the kitchen that will tie in nicely with the polished nickel hardware and fixtures and are also super functional in terms of me hosing them off out back. I purchased them through Home Decorators and think they will be a nice compliment to the kitchen.

They are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, on Gloria's first birthday! Somehow I find this fitting as isn't it true that first birthdays are really about mom and dad celebrating we survived the first year of our daughter's life? Perhaps we'll have a seat on them after the girls go to bed and have ourselves a celebratory drink:-)