The Most Helpful Furniture Piece You May Ever Own

How many times have you been sitting in your favorite chair with a cup of coffee in one hand and a book in the other, and you needed the simplest thing: a little side table that was just the right size so you could put down your cup and turn the page? Maybe you’ve been looking for a little lamp table or side table for years, but nothing has filled the bill. Perhaps everything you’ve looked at was too expensive, too big, too tall or just too much of the same old thing.

Let me encourage you to consider the Chinese garden seat. This little ceramic drum is as useful as a Swiss Army knife and as helpful as the perfect butler.

The Right Thing

One design guideline I try to follow in any room is to have some kind of table by every chair or sofa. This has more to do with comfort, convenience and hospitality than anything else. If you’re sitting in a room, you will invariably need a place to set something down, and if there’s no table, that thing will end up either in your lap or on the floor.

But a table by every chair can make a room look awfully crowded if you’re not careful — more like a furniture store than a home. That’s why a garden seat is often just the right thing. It functions as a table but is “other” enough to lend variety; it will also prevent the feeling of too many tables and will fit where an actual table would just be too big or intrusive.


Can you see how a table, rather than this garden seat, might not be the right thing here? The garden seat is subtle and unobtrusive — it doesn’t detract from the very special coffee table, but still adds textural interest and provides the convenience of a table.

Note: Some people call them garden seats, and some call them garden stools. Which one is it? The answer is: Both are right. It just depends on what you’re used to.


In this case the garden seat is the right thing because it is a careful extension of the sculptural pieces placed very thoughtfully on the bookcase — extending a needed touch of blue into another part of the room and adding a surface for flowers to rest on. It’s just the right thing in this very meticulously planned living room.


In the enticing bathroom seen here, a garden seat is, again, just the right thing. In this case, juxtaposed against the fantastic soaking tub, it acts as a sculptural object. But it’s also like a patient and discreet butler (pardon my anthropomorphizing) waiting to hold your bathrobe or towel.


The Right Height

These little beauties are always the right height when positioned next to a chair or sofa. They just seem to be exactly where your hand and arm naturally go when you want to put down your coffee cup …


… or need a place on which to rest your iced tea or gin and tonic.


A garden seat just seems to know its place, how to be tucked in right next to a chair and be the perfect height for comfort and convenience.


The Right Size

There are many rooms where two chairs need to be placed side by side and quite close to each other. The space between can be quite the decorating conundrum. I don’t want to leave the spot empty, because it would make the chairs seem lonely and unconnected to the rest of the room. But where am I going to find a table that can fit that little space?

Garden seat to the rescue! It’s as if they were designed specifically to fill that gap; they’re just the right size.


In this bedroom there was the additional need for access to the door. The garden seat comes through again because it’s just the right size.


Something bigger would have felt clumsy here and would have blocked passage around the desk.


The Right Solution

This patio needed a cocktail table. There are many common-looking ones available, but what a clever idea to top a trio of garden seats with a glass round. The glass provides a consistent surface for eating and drinking, without obscuring the color and art of the garden seats.


Garden seats can also be a great solution for the shower — especially if you don’t have a built-in seat. It also gives you a surface for soaps, brushes or washcloths. And what could be prettier and more compatible with the wet environment of a shower than something made for the garden?


The Right Color

One of the things that makes garden seats so right for decorating is the wide array of colors. Most tables and ottomans and benches will be some neutral shade: brown, beige, black or white. But a garden seat can add a strategic color statement that couldn’t be added any other way.

I love this pair of lime-green garden seats with the navy-blue cushions on the sofa. I admit my partiality to lime green and navy — the entry hall of our first house had a Schumacher lime-green and navy wallpaper, which may sound garish but was absolutely fantastic. (And I must add that they’re the colors of the Seattle Seahawks. Go Hawks!)


A pop of tangerine adds some vim and vigor to a sedate poolside setting.


Lime green comes to the rescue again in this pale blue living room, adding a certain something that gives the room a lift. If you need a jolt of color, or just a soft whisper, garden seats are perfect because of the seemingly limitless color choices.


The Right Shape

Although the barrel or drum shape is the most traditional, there is a large range of choices. Here the barrel shape harmonizes nicely with the cabriole legs of this French writing desk, while providing additional seating when people visit.


But there’s also square …


… and octagonal …


… and spool…


Porcelain Q’ing Garden Stool - $539… and whatever you’d call this shape … just to list a few. From a design perspective, all this variety of shape and color is awesome. I would be hard-pressed to find a room where one of these great little objects wouldn’t be a useful and beautiful addition.Buy on Houzz


The Right Seat

Lest we forget, the garden seat was actually designed to be a seat! In many rooms — especially living and family rooms — there are large chairs and sofas that are like permanent fixtures. But I always like to include what I call a pull-up chair in these rooms …something lightweight and portable. And a garden seat is a great candidate to fulfill this need. It can be placed against a wall or under a console or sofa table, and can easily be pressed into service when the need arises.

Whether on a rooftop patio …


… or in a hospitable living room, a pair of garden seats makes perfect pull-up seating.


Blue-Green Porcelain Garden Stool - $143.95The Right Price

Isn’t it lovely that such a useful and beautiful object is readily available and doesn’t have to break the bank? When you think of all the handwork and artistic thought that goes into producing most garden seats, the cost is quite reasonable.

I really like the texture and color of this example, as well as the price.Buy on Houzz


Emerald Green Temple Garden Stool - $389This square version is more expensive, but I love the shape, the color and the pierced work, and can think of several places in my little bungalow where it would be just right.

I also keep my eyes open for garden seats when I’m shopping at thrift stores, garage and estate sales, and consignment stores. Sometimes I’ll see a fantastic iteration for well under $100, and I’ll feel like the cat that caught the canary.Buy on Houzz


There’s just something right about garden seats. Whether they’re the right height, size, shape, color or price, they’re so often the right solution for many a design need. The Chinese garden seat is a fantastic addition to anyone’s interior design vocabulary!

More: 12 Things Side Tables Can Do For You

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