I want to inform you about a stool. Yes, a stool. I’m about to write over a thousand phrases about a piece of furniture that you sit down on, and I’m no longer even sorry about it.
This is the Piccolo stool, and it has been sitting in my kitchen for eight months now, and I suppose about it more than any practical person has to. Not in a bizarre way—in a “this honestly expanded my everyday life, and I desire to inform every person about it” way.
Let me provide an explanation for how I acquired here, due to the fact that the story is nearly as ridiculous as the truth that I’m writing this in the first place.
The Kitchen Island That Ruined Everything
About a 12 months ago, my associate and I offered our first house. It’s a small place, nothing fancy, it has this kitchen island that the preceding proprietors installed, and when we first noticed it all through the showing, we thought it was great. Look at all that counter space! We can prep meals here! We can consume breakfast here! This is height-grown-up living!
What we did not assume about—because who thinks about this earlier than they certainly stay somewhere—is that we had no stools for the island. The preceding proprietors took theirs when they moved, which, truthfully enough. So we had this lovely kitchen island and nowhere to sit.
“No problem,” we said, like idiots. “We’ll simply purchase some stools.”
Do you understand how challenging it is to purchase stools? Like, simply purchase them? Not simply seem to be at them onlineand suppose “yeah, these appear nice,” however s, sincerely commit to buying stools that you will have to appear at every single day in your kitchen?
We spent three months searching for stools. Three. Months. We went to Ikea twice. We scrolled with the aid of Wayfair for hours. We walked through Target searchingfort their stool preference with the depth of human beings makinaan strive to defuse a bomb. Every stool used to be as soon as each too tall, too short, too modern, too rustic, too expensive, too cheap-looking, too uncomfortable, or definitely too… wrong.
Meanwhile, we’re ingesting breakfast standing up at the kitchen island like we’re at some kind of sad standing-only restaurant.
Enter the Piccolo (By Complete Accident)
I observed the Piccolo stool due to the fact I wasn’t even searching for stools anymore. I’d given up. I used to be on Instagram, procrastinating on genuine work, scrollingthroughu domestic sketch posts, and anybody had posted a photograph of their kitchen renovation. Nice kitchen, did not care, was once about to preserve scrolling—and then I noticed the stools.
They had been small, simple, wooden, with these tapered legs that come what may regarded each present day and timeless. They did not appear like they had been making an attempt too hard. They simply looked… right.
I screenshot the photo, zoomed in, tried to parent out if there was once a manufacturer seen anywhere. Nothing. So I did what any determined character does—I commented on the post asking where they acquired the stools.
The man or woman replied, six hours later: “Piccolo stools! Got them from a small fixtures company. They’re on Amazon now, I think?”
I searched “Piccolo stool Amazon” without delay and located them. $89 each. Not low cost sufficient to be suspicious, no longer high priced sufficient to feel like robbery. The evaluations had been weirdly enthusiastic—people writing more than one pparagraphabout stools, which must have been my first clue that sosomethingascinating used to be occurring here.
I sold two of them. They arrived 5 days later.
Why This Stool Is Weirdly Perfect (And I’m Not Just Saying That)
Okay, so here is the place I attempt to give an explanation for why a stool—a STOOL—has been well worth questioning about for eight months.
First, the height. The Piccolo is 24 inches tall, which is interestingly the preferred counter height. I’ve sat on lots of “standard counter height” stools that felt wrong. Too excessive, and your knees are in your chest. Too low and you are sitting up for your espresso likeana infant at the grown-up table. The Piccolo sits at precisely the proper peak, where my toes contact the flooring easily, and my fingers relax naturally on the counter.
These thingare s more than you would think. I work from home a few days a week, and I’ve started out ingesting lunch at the kitchen island whilst looking at movies on my laptop. Before the Piccolo, I’d both stand and consume (weird and uncomfortable) or take a seat on the sofa with a plate in my lap (also bizarre and uncomfortable). Now I can really sit down like a regular human and consume my sandwich without my throat hurting.
Speaking of backs: I have this decrease returned thing. Not serious, simply one of these disturbing contemporary human troubles, the place sitting in desk chairs all day for years has mademey again forever aggravated at me. Most stools make this worse due to the fact that they have no returned support, so you end up hunching ahead or perching awkwardly.
The Piccolo does not have a lower back either—it’s a stool, not a chair—but something about the seat form makes you take a seat up straighter naturally. I assume it is due to the fact that the seat is barely contoured, so you automatically settle into the proper role. My bodily therapist asked me a few months in the past if I’d been doing the posture workouts she recommended, and I had to admit I’d totally forgotten about them, but my back had been feeling higher anyway. Pretty positive it is the stool.
The Design Thing (That I’m Trying Not To Be Annoying About)
I’m no longer a format person. I cannot inform you about Scandinavian minimalism or mid-century present-day aesthetics or whatever. But I can inform you that the Piccolo stool appears desirable in my kitchen, except searching like it is making an attempt to be noticed.
It’s made of strong oak, which sounds fancy, however isn’t—it’s simply timber that appears like timber and feels sturdy when you take a seat on it. The legs are tapered, which means they’re thicker at the pinnacle and thinner at the bottom, and interestingly, this is a format aspect that makes furnishings seem much less clunky. I did not comprehend this before. Now I note tapered legs on everything.
The end is this herbal mild oak colour that goes with essentially everything. Our kitchen cupboards are white, the counters are grey, and the stool just… fits. We had pals over for dinner a few weeks ago, and two separate human beings complimented the stools. People do not generally praise stools. But right here we are.
The Part Where I Almost Returned Them
I have to point out that I nearlydispatchedd these lower back in the first week. The container arrived, I pulled out the first stool, and it was… smaller than I expected. Not shorter, simply more compact. More delicate-looking than the picture suggested.
I sat on it nervously, satisfied it would break or experience flimsiness. It didn’t. It felt solid. But I nonetheless wasn’t sure. It seemed nearly too simple, like possibly I have to have sold something with greater presence, extra visible weight, more… something.
My associate sat on it. “This is truly comfortable,” she said.
“But does it seem to be weird?” I asked. “Like, too small?”
“It appears like a stool,” she said, which was once erect and unhelpful.
I left them on the island for a few days, except for committing to maintaining them. Used them for breakfast, for lunch, and for late-night snacks whilst scrolling through my phone. And someplace in that time, they stopped being “the new stools I’m now not positive about” and began being “the stools.”
By the time the return window was about to close, I realised I hadn’t concept of returning them in over a week. They’d simply end up in the kitchen. Part of the each day routine. The region, the place I sit down and drink my espresso,o and examine the information, and faux I’m going to begin my day productively.
What I Learned About Furniture (Against My Will)
Here’s something I did not count on to research from shopping for stools: occasionally the proper piece of furniture is the one you end up noticing due to the fact it simply works.
Before the Piccolo stools, we had been searching for stools that made a statement. That appeared impressive. That we ought to factor in and say, “Look at our cool stools.” And it truly is why we could not locate anything—we have been attempting to purchase furnishings that would perform, not fixtures that would function.
The Piccolo would not perform. It simply sits there being a stool. And by hook or by crook, this is precisely what we needed.
I’ve begun noticing this sample in different furnishings choices now. The exceptional stuff in our residence isn’t always the stuff that appears the most surprising or costs the most money. It’s the stuff we use every day, barring questioning about it. The studying chair is simply the proper stage of comfort. The bookshelf that holds exactly the proper quantity of books. The lamp that offers precisely sufficient light.
This sounds apparent when written out; however, it wasn’t apparent when we were shopping for fixtures. We had been focused on fashion and look, and whether or not some thing regardedas top in photos. We weren’t wondering about the everyday actuality of residing with these objects.
The Unexpected Side Effects
A bizarre aspect befell after we bought the stools: we commenced the usage of the kitchen island sincerely. Like, honestly, the use of it.
Before, it used to be simplya greater counter house, the place we might pile mail and grocery luggage and random stuff that did not have a home. Now ithass come to be this gathering spot. I sit down there in the morning with coffee. My associate sits there in the nighttime with a glass of wine whilst I cook dinner. When pals come over, human beings naturally gravitate to the island and sit down on the stools while we’re putting out in the kitchen.
The kitchen feels more social now, which sounds dramatic for what is actually simply including seating; however, it is true. Having a cosy vicinity to take a seat in the kitchen modified how we use the space.
We additionally stopped consuming dinner on the couch, which has been desirable for us in ways that are likely too personal to get into in a blog post about stools. But basically: having an acceptable area to sit down and devour made us extra intentional about meals, which made us discuss extra for the duration of dinner, which extended our evenings in general.
Again, I’m conscious ththat is sounds like I’m attributing way too much existence enhancement to a piece of furniture. But I’m simply reporting what happened.
Should You Buy This Stool? (The Actual Question)
Look, I do not understand your life. Maybe you do not have a kitchen island. Maybe you have a kitchen island; however, it is at a distinctive height. Maybe you hate stools on principle. Maybe you already have stools that you love.
But if you are in the market for counter-height stools and you are worn out of searching for preferences that are both too expensive, too cheap-looking, too uncomfortable, or simply too much, the Piccolo is well worth considering.
It’s $89, which isn’t always nothing; however,r it is additionally now not “$300 per stool” money. It’s stable and well-made except for being fussy. It’s cosy and ample for prolonged sitting, without wanting a cushion or back support. It appears precise except searching modern in a way that’ll sense dated in two years.
Most importantly, it simply works. You take a seat on it, it helps you, and you go about your day. Which is precisely what a stool has to do, and precisely what took us three months to determine that we have been searching for.
The Conclusion (Because Apparently This Needs One)
I’m ending this weblog spostabout a stool by acknowledging that yes, I simply wrote 1,500+ phrases about a stool. My English instructors would both be proud or concerned, and I’m no longer positive which.
But this is the thing: the objects we stay with matter. Not in a materialistic “you want fancy stuff” way, however, in a “your surroundingsimpacts your everyday experience” way. And now and then, a simple, well-designed, properly-functional piece of fixtures can without a doubt enhance your existence in smallbutr significant ways.
The Piccolo stool elevated my mornings, improved my lunch situation, helped my lower back pain, made my kitchenmorer social, and spaced appears desirable doing it. That’s really worth $89. That’s really worth 1,500 words.
