The Iconic Stool I’ve Used in Every Single Room of My House
If celebrated Finnish architect Alvar Aalto — the creator of the simplest, but most iconic stackable stool — were still alive today, I’d be sending him fan mail.
His creation, the Stool 60, may not look like anything special to the contemporary eye — it’s a circle of plywood with three bent plywood legs. But what made the Stool 60 so revolutionary when Aalto designed it was the technical feat of bending of the wood.
In the late 1920s Alvar Aalto and furniture manufacturer Otto Korhonen developed and patented the technique for cutting and steaming birch to make it pliable, and it’s this process that let him design the Aalto Stool 60. The bent L-shaped legs mount simply and directly to the underside of the seat with no need for complicated connecting elements. (Aalto later put the L-leg to use in a whole host of different furniture pieces.)
A genuine Aalto has never been in my budget (they retail for about $345 a piece), but I’ve owned many knockoffs. (FWIW, I’ve seen the real deal, and it’s worth its price tag for the superior solid birch wood and high-quality finishes.) And through the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that Aalto’s creation is the most versatile stool ever.
Aalto’s ingenious design can be a stool, a side table, a bedside table, or even a plant stand. Plus, the Stool 60 stacks like a dream: A major plus for small-space dwellers like myself. The stools sit neatly on top of one another with the legs aligning into a spiral as they stack higher. And — perhaps best of all — you can still use the stools while they’re stacked. A stack of two works well as a table next to your couch or a perch for a houseplant. And a larger stack of Aalto stools is perfect for an office conference room, a classroom, or even a café.
My first Aalto-esque stools were a pair of IKEA’s Frosta stools (since discontinued in the U.S.), which I used as bedside tables in a long-ago apartment in Brooklyn. I quickly figured out that when I had a dinner party, I could clear off the alarm clock and books and bring them out to the dining table to squeeze in two more guests. Later, I scored a trio of vintage stools of unknown provenance at a yard sale, which have moved with me and shuffled around my different homes.
And because they’re so lightweight and portable, I’ve used them in every room of my home — including the bathroom, where they’ve even held a stack of towels. I’m constantly shuffling them around. For example, we don’t have a television in our bedroom, so when I was feeling sick and wanted to watch a movie in bed, I was able to move two stools into place at the foot of my bed to prop up the TV. And when my son wanted to play “store,” we brought two into his room and placed a plank of wood on top to stand in as the shop’s counter. Our stools even frequently make the journey out to our building’s shared garden.
If you’re looking for a piece of furniture that will go the distance and adapt to all your future homes, consider the Stool 60 and its many imitators. I can guarantee you’ll find dozens of ways to use it.