I’m at a point in my life where I’m team stools over chairs, and I truly believe stools deserve to be given way more credit than they get. Stools are often overlooked, maybe because they occupy minimum space, and aren’t really overbearing. But these traits are what make stools so great in my opinion! I mean, they’re compact, and a great space-saving furniture option for our modern homes. They are also super portable. And, we’ve put together a collection of stool designs that not only provide a healthy seating experience while promoting a good and stable posture but most of them are created from sustainable materials as well. From a minimal stackable stool with slim wooden legs to a rustic stool made using leftover grain from beer – these well-designed stools are the furniture pieces you need to add to your home.
1. Drum
The Drum stool is minimal, elegant, stackable, and not to mention sustainable! At first glance, the Drum stool looks like a cute little wine cork to me. But when you dig deeper, you realize it has much more to offer than its adorable good looks.
Why is it noteworthy?
Teixeira picked materials such as cork and wood to build the stool, instantly rating it high on sustainability. Cork was used to create the seat, while wood was the material of choice for the legs.
What we like
- The cork seat features round trimmed surfaces, giving it a rather fun and playful shape
- The trimmed seat is further supported by slim wooden legs that effortlessly blend with the seat, creating a furniture piece with a cohesive and harmonious personality
What we dislike
- We’re not sure how comfy the trimmed cork seat would be to sit on for longer durations of time
2. The Plastic Translation Stool
Called the Plastic Translation Stool, this intriguing stool design attempts to reinterpret the lines of a plastic stool, creating a form that is similar and yet completely unique, allowing the wooden stool to possess its own unique character.
Why is it noteworthy?
The wooden legs alone, however, won’t be enough to offer the same stability as the plastic counterpart, so an additional element had to be added. This element comes in the form of Birch plywood buttresses. These buttresses distribute some of the force evenly across the beechwood legs, which, in turn, hold the buttresses together. The result is increased architectural stability and visual amplification, which gives the design an upgraded look.
What we like
- Doesn’t require screws or nails to be assembled
- A more sustainable option to the plastic stool
- It’s like a fun design puzzle
What we dislike
- Options to customize the stool are currently missing
3. Mask Stool
Design brand Mater designed the ‘Mask Stool’. Now, what makes the Mask stool so unique or special? It’s the fact, that it has been built using the spent grain from brewery Carlsberg’s beer production, at the Danish film festival 3 Days of Design.
Why is it noteworthy?
The Mask Stool is built using a sustainable design technology that Mater developed. Mater developed this technology alongside the Danish Technological Institute and the University of Copenhagen. The technology merges and mixes fiber-based materials with plastic waste.
What we like
- Utilizes an innovative new sustainable technology
What we dislike
- The aesthetics of the stool are quite odd-looking, and may not be appreciated by everyone
4. The Balanco Stools
The Balanco stools were designed during the pandemic to provide kids and adults with something to play and engage with! Besides being interesting playthings, the stools are great seating options, inspired by rocks and boulders. You can stack the stools in different forms and patterns, in turn creating art in the process.
Why is it noteworthy?
The idea for the Balanco stools came from the Japanese practice of stacking pebbles to create towers. Traditionally, the pebbles mostly consist of rounded forms, designers Lisa Lai and Joel Wong decided that chiseled rock-like shapes would create more visual dynamism while offering a variety of flat surfaces that are ideal for stacking and layering.
What we like
- The poufs are deceptively light
- The individual surfaces remain relatively flat, so they stack on each other rather beautifully
- Inspired by rocks and boulders
What we dislike
- Made from felt, there is a higher chance of staining this design
5. The Tie Stool
The Tie Stool is made up of three bent plywood strips that effortlessly lock into one another, creating a tripod form that is comfortable to sit down on. Besides its unique design, the sheer simplicity of the stool, and the use of minimal materials make the stool quite a beauty.
Why is it noteworthy?
Fabricating the Tie Stool would require a few simple steps. The three plywood strips can, in fact, be split into 6 total parts (you can see the parting lines). The individual parts are formed using high pressure and temperatures that cause the plywood to bend and retain its shape, and cutting/finishing processes are performed on the parts to make them interlock into one another.
What we like
- The entire stool can potentially be flat-packed and shipped to customers
- It’s stackable
What we dislike
- Its compressed design means it needs a tabletop to add more space on the stool