Poseur Tables and Bar Stools: Standing Height Socialising

Poseur tables are the tall ones. Bar height, chest height on most of us, the table you lean on with a coffee rather than sit down at with a laptop. Every office I have seen fitted with one ended up using it more than the sofas, and I have a theory about why.

Nobody commits to a poseur table. You stand at it for four minutes, say the thing you came to say, and go back to your desk. A sofa asks for a decision. A tall table asks for nothing, so people use it without thinking, and a corner that gets used without thinking is the only kind of breakout corner that works.

What makes a poseur table a poseur table

Height. Our Italia round table on the trumpet base comes at 114.5cm as a poseur, or 72cm if you want the same table at dining height, and that difference is the whole product. At 114.5cm a person of average height rests their forearms on it standing up. At 72cm they sit at it. Same 25mm top, same weighted 580mm disc underneath, same four diameters from 60cm to 120cm, six finishes and three frame colours. Ten year guarantee either way.

The base matters more on a tall table than a low one. Everything is further from the floor, so a light base wobbles, and a wobble at chest height feels like a fall. The trumpet base is a single post on a weighted disc, which does two things. It stays put when six people lean on it at once, and it leaves nothing underneath but floor. Stools tuck fully home. There is no shin-height rail to catch yourself on.

If you want something longer for a canteen wall, the rectangular version runs from 120cm to 180cm wide on a black frame, with the same 72cm or 114.5cm choice.

Pairing stools to poseur tables: the sum that matters

This is where poseur corners go wrong, and it is always the same mistake. The stool is bought for the look, and the sitting is an afterthought. The number you want is the gap between the seat and the underside of the top. For most people it should land somewhere between 25cm and 35cm. Less than that and your knees hit the table. More and you are perched on a shelf with your elbows up round your ears.

For a 114.5cm poseur table that means an 80cm seat. Our Florence high stool sits at exactly that, so does the Carmen with its arms and wooden frame, and both give you a 34.5cm gap, which is the comfortable end of the range for a tall table. The Turin in the photograph has a 70cm seat. That is a stool for a lower counter, somewhere around 95cm to 100cm, and I would not put it under a 114.5cm table however good it looks there.

Seat heights across our bar stools, so you can do the sum yourself:

• Florence and Carmen high stools: 80cm seats, the match for the 114.5cm poseur height

• Turin: 70cm seat, backless, stackable, two footrests, for counters around 95cm to 100cm

• Brayford and Charford bistro stools: 65cm and 64cm seats, kitchen worktop height

• Hepscott: 53cm, and the Stowe at 46.5cm is a chair that happens to look like a stool

Footrests, and the four hour rating

A stool without a footrest is a stool people slide off within ten minutes. Feet need somewhere to go, and on a stool that somewhere is either a rail or the base of the table. The Turin has two rails at different heights for exactly this reason. The trumpet base on the Italia gives you a disc to rest a heel on. Either works. Neither is optional.

Read the usage rating too. The Turin and the Florence are rated for eight hours. The Brayford, Charford and Hepscott are rated for four, which is honest. They are bistro stools for lunch and a chat, not for someone working a laptop from a poseur table all afternoon. If your tall table is going to double as touchdown desking, buy the eight hour stool.

Why the poseur corner beats the sofa

I said I had a theory. Standing height puts people at eye level with anyone walking past, so conversations start that would not start if one person were sitting and the other standing over them. It is also quick. Nobody settles in, so nobody feels they are interrupting by joining. And it takes very little floor. An 80cm round table with four Turins stacked in the corner overnight is a breakout area in under two square metres.

The sofas still have a job. People want somewhere soft to sit with a sandwich. But if I had the budget for one or the other in a small office, the tall table wins, and it is not close.

Look at the poseur and bar height tables and the bar stools together, one tab each, and check the seat height before the colour. If a white top suits the room, the white office tables page puts every white-topped table we sell on one screen, so you can see the poseur next to the coffee table it will share a room with.