G-Milan Stool (Gold Legs): sizes, finishes and where it works

The G-Milan Stool (Gold Legs) is upholstered in velvet with ribbed detailing, stands on gold legs and has an integrated handle so it can be picked up and moved. The listing offers it as a footrest, as extra seating or as an accent piece, and gives one size: 49 x 55 x 97cm. It is the odd one out on our bar stools page: it is the only one here whose listing describes a handle for carrying it.

Start with the figures, and check which is the height

The listing prints "49 x 55 x 97cm" without saying which figure is which, and here that genuinely matters. A stool described as a portable footrest and a stool that is 97cm tall are two different pieces of furniture. Ask the shop to confirm the height and, if you are buying it to sit at a counter, the seat height as well. Neither is labelled, and the seat height is never the same as an overall height once there is any back or shaped top involved. It is a quick question, and it decides whether the piece does the job you have in mind.

The three finishes

The listing gives ivory, dark grey and black, and the finish is chosen on the product page. A note on the third: the description says black while the finish selector lists a crushed black, so if the exact black finish is important to your room, ask us which it is before ordering.

• Ivory against gold legs is the lightest of the three. The listing gives no cleaning guidance or rub rating, so ask us about living with a pale velvet before it goes in a kitchen or a hallway.
• Dark grey is the easiest to place alongside the grey velvet stools in the rest of the range.
• Black gives the strongest contrast with the gold.

The legs are gold on all three. That is worth holding against the rest of the room, because most of the other stools here are on chrome bases. Mixing warm and cool metals in one kitchen can be done deliberately, but it is better decided on purpose than discovered on delivery.

The handle is the point

An integrated handle is a small detail that changes how a piece gets used. A stool with something to grip gets carried to wherever it is needed: pulled over as a footrest in front of a chair, moved to the end of a table when there is one guest too many, taken into a bedroom as a seat at a dressing table. A stool with nothing to hold tends to stay where it was put. The listing gives no weight for this one, so if it has to be carried upstairs or lifted often, ask us what it weighs.

So if you are weighing this against a fixed counter stool, the question is not only how it looks. Decide whether you want a seat that lives at the island, or a piece that moves around the house. If it is the first, one of the dedicated counter stools is the safer buy.

What it sits with

At an island, the Chelsea 01 Dark Grey Bar Stool and the Lewis Bar Stool are both velvet stools on chrome bases with proper backs, listed at 54 x 48 x 102cm and 58 x 50 x 98cm. For something broader, the Mayfair Bar Stool (Lion Knocker) is listed at 64 x 60 x 100cm. A G-Milan in dark grey works as the spare seat alongside any of them without having to match.

Before you order

What the listing does not tell you: the seat height, the overall height confirmed against the listed figures, a weight limit, whether it arrives assembled, the finish on the gold legs, or a rub rating for the velvet. Nothing in it describes a swivel or an adjustable height. Measure the space it has to fit, and ask us the rest.

Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.

There are seventeen photographs on the G-Milan Stool (Gold Legs) page. If none of them shows the finish you are after against the gold legs, ask us and we will check.