TikTok Highlights The Pros Of Suspended Seating In Your Kitchen
If you're looking to upgrade your kitchen from bland to HGTV-worthy, start by shopping for quality bar stools to find a style that's fit for you. The seats you choose for your kitchen island play a big role in how the space is experienced. The number of chairs you select and the way you space them out will determine how accommodating the island will be when people gather in the kitchen. Similarly, the presence or absence of features like backrests, footrests, cushions, and chair legs will all impact your kitchen experience in different ways.
One unique style for bar stools involves installing them on the island structure to get fixed, suspended seating. This type of seating is highlighted in a TikTok video by Seating Innovations, which demonstrates how suspended seating is a great option for a builder-grade home because it makes cleaning easier and eliminates floor marks from chair legs. Suspended seats leave out the feature of chair legs, but they defintely bring in many benefits.
Suspended seating simplifies floor cleaning and maintenance
First, installing suspended seats on your kitchen island or eat-in dining table will make cleaning easier because you can simply sweep or vacuum without having to move chairs around. If spills and crumbs are common in your kitchen, this can go a long way to maintaining cleanliness without uneccessary effort. As noted in the TikTok video posted by Seating Innovations, suspended seats also help keep your floors protected from scuffs. When there are no chair legs to mark the floor, you won't have to worry about adding caps to the tips of the legs and fixing scratched wood flooring over and over.
Another pro of suspended seats is that they don't fall over, which removes a common safety risk that comes with using bar stools. They also save space. Because they don't have legs to take up that area from the seat to the floor, suspended seats can make the kitchen feel a bit roomier. This makes them an excellent option for smaller kitchens where you need to maximize space.
Seating Innovations shares that one of the main pros of the swing bar stools from the TikTok video is the chairs always staying in place. As a permanent fixture, they are a one-and-done solution that makes it easier to focus on other things in the kitchen. They also provide the option to add footrests if that's needed for more comfort.
How to get suspended seating right
One major concern with suspended seating is the capacity to hold up a lot of weight and different chairs have their specific limits and installation instructions. In a follow-up TikTok, Seating Innovations explains that the weight limit for the company's chairs depends on the type of subfloor the chairs are being attached to. Wood subfloors can hold up to 325 pounds per chair while concrete can hold up to 500. Conversely, the original swing-out stool from 1stDibs has been tested to hold over 1,000 pounds.
Maker Table warns against mounting its metal and wood swing stool directly on drywall or thin wood and states that blocking should be used if it is being mounted to something other than a solid surface or concrete. But as long as you're having suspended seating properly installed, and you're aware of the weight limitations, the benefits of this seating option make it well worth your consideration.