Furniture Stools for All Tastes and Styles

A stool is considered one of the earliest forms of seat furniture. It obviously bears many functions and similarities to chairs. It consists of a single seat, without back or armrests, on a base of either three or four legs. A stool is distinguished from chairs by their lack of arms and a back. Variants exist with one, two or five legs and these stools are referred to by some people as “backless chairs”.

The origins of stools seem to be lost in time. They are known to be one of the earliest forms of wooden furniture. Percy Macquoid claims that the turned stool was introduced from Byzantium by the Varangian guard.

During the medieval period, seating consisted of benches, stools and the very rare examples of throne-like chairs as an indication of status.

The backstool really represents an intermediate step between the development of the stool and the chair. A simple three-legged turned stool would have its rear leg extended outwards and a crossways pad attached.

Turned backstools led to the development of the 3-legged turned chair, where the backrest is widened and supported by diagonal spindles leading down to extensions of the front legs. In time these diagonal supports became larger, higher and more level, leading to what is the turned armchair design.

Interesting Fact: Several kingdoms and chiefdoms in Africa had and still have traditions of using stools in the place of chairs as thrones. One of the most famous of them, the golden stool of the Asantehene in Ghana, was the cause of one of the most famous events in the history of colonized Africa, the so-called War of the Golden Stool between the British and the Ashanti.

We hope this mini history lesson on stools was informative!

Now check out the variety of stools you can shop for, below are some popular suggestions:

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