I am a lurker with a problem. I recently renovated my kitchen and ordered custom stools for my island. Now that they are here I cannot use them because they are too short.

I have a standard 36" island. I ordered three 24" leather counter stools from Hancock and Moore. When my beautiful stools came, I sat down and was shocked to find myself at chest level with my island. And I am 5'8" tall!

My DH measured the stools and found the wooden frames are 22 inches tall. I spoke with the owner of the store where I ordered the stools. He said stools are measured from the tallest point of the seat. He also said it is standard that there is some "give" in a leather seat. That was the first I heard of that. I would think, depending of the padding, that a stool height could vary quite a bit using that criteria. I assumed the measurement went from the floor to the top of the seat edge, not the raised middle of the seat.

Is there a standard? Has anyone else experienced this?