Key West Publishing :

You see, we had had the same bar stools for years. Sturdy steel mounted saddle bar stools, embedded in the concrete foundation, I mean they were in there like they were never going to get out. But once we got around to the redesigning of the bar, this began to be a problem. The seats were comfy – padded leather bar stools which made you never want to get out of them, which is nice for keeping your regulars in. But the seats of the bar stools were far gone and, when we looked around, we found out that they don't even make that style any more.

Now, with the kind of bar stools which mount into the ground, the permanent kind which don't get knocked over or get thrown in fights, you'd think that they'd make them modular, with seats that can be easily interchanged. Not so. We looked all over, and every bar stool manufacturer had different diameters of seats, and many couldn't even be removed. Not much point to having bar stools which will last forever, with seats that won't, is there.

To rip the bar stools out of the concrete would have cost a fortune, and after we had already designed the bar around having to keep them in the same place, it wouldn't have exactly made sense to do anyway. To get completely custom stools would have been a pretty penny too. It's a good thing that I'm good with my hands. I had to hand re-upholster each of the stools myself.

At the beginning, I was livid and grouchy, but once I realized the fun of getting to pick out, design, and build the bar stools myself, I warmed up to the idea. Now, the pub has re-opened, and everything fits in perfectly. The patrons love the new look, and business has never been better. Now, if I could only find some new help who would actually don their jobs!