Topower Vintage Round Bottom Barstool Review 2024

Are you big, tall, or heavy? Has that fact frustrated you on your quest to find furniture that’s big and strong enough for you to use? If so, you’re certainly not alone.

Big and tall folk tend to be excluded from significant portions of the home furniture market because the big, established brands tend to focus on the segment of the market weighing 250 to 300 pounds.

It’s easy to understand why. That weight range accommodates about 90% of the market, and designing more robust furniture is more difficult and expensive. There’s not a ton of money in it.

The good news is that a variety of smaller brands have taken advantage of the fact that the big brands have steered clear of the market for the most part and moved eagerly into the space. If you know where to look, you can find a surprising variety of excellent furniture that’s rugged and robust enough to support you, and this awesome stool by Topower is a great example of that.

Topower isn’t exactly a household name, so it’s unsurprising if you haven’t heard of them. If you’re a fan of vintage or industrial décor schemes, then the Topower Vintage Round Bottom barstool belongs on your shortlist for consideration. It’s not perfect and is somewhat narrowly focused. As we said, it won’t impress you if you’re not a fan of the vintage/industrial aesthetic. Still, if you are a fan, you will be thrilled.

In the following sections, we’ll tell you everything this versatile stool has to offer and its shortcomings and limitations so you’ll have everything you need to decide if this is the piece of furniture you’ve been looking for. Let’s jump right in and take a closer look!

Key Features of Topower Vintage Industrial Barstool

When you set eyes on the Topower Vintage Round Bottom barstool for the first time, your first impression will likely be strong. It will probably either be love or loathing at first sight. It has an utterly unique vintage/industrial look that will either be a perfect fit with your home’s décor scheme or clash and look totally out of place.

Although we love the look, we understand that many people won’t, so it ranks somewhat lower in aesthetic flexibility. It doesn’t blend seamlessly with most home décor schemes. It has a cool, fun ‘Steam Punk’ vibe, which tends to make it a fairly narrowly focused piece of furniture aimed squarely at a specific type of buyer.

Variants

If you decide that you’re the type of person this stool was made for, when you order yours, you can choose from one of the following configurations:

Whatever variant you select, the seat swivels 360 degrees, and the swivel action is smooth. Aesthetics aside, below are the basic stats that define this model:

Chair Specifications

A few notes and observations about these numbers: First and foremost, note the weight of the stool. It’s heavy for its size because it’s made from cast iron that’s been treated to be rust-resistant. Don’t worry about scratching or scuffing your floors; the stool has rubber feet to keep that from happening.

Given the sturdy material it’s made from, it should come as no surprise that it can support quite a lot of user weight. And sure enough, the 440-pound weight limit is impressive. The seat diameter is a bit underwhelming for bigger, heavier folk, but it’s a bar stool. It’s not the seat you’ll spend endless hours sitting on, so the smallish seat diameter won’t normally be a huge problem.

We’ll have one more thing to comment on regarding these numbers, but we’ll do that in the next section.

Adjustability and Comfort

One of the many things we love about this little stool is its height-adjustable. Its versatile height adjustment range starts at 24.21” and runs to a maximum height of 28.15”, which means that this is both a bar height and a pub height stool. That’s perfect because if and as your needs change, it can still adapt.

Comfort-wise, it’s about what you’d expect from a bar stool, saying you won’t mind sitting on it for short periods. Even if you get the padded and upholstered seat, there’s not enough block foam padding to comfortably sit on for more than a couple of hours at a stretch. There’s only about 2” of padding, after all.

We believe the variants featuring wooden seats are far superior to the padded version. The upholstery is PU, which isn’t known for its durability and will start showing its age by cracking and peeling after about a year of moderate to heavy use.

If you decide to go with the padded seat, the good news is that there isn’t a ton of upholstery to deal with. This means having the Topower Vintage Industrial barstool reupholstered will be inexpensive when the time comes. 

You can pick a more durable material you like and maybe invest in some memory foam to enhance your comfort. The frame itself will last you for years with proper care. Honestly, no matter what type of upholstery the company used, eventually, you’d have to replace it anyway, but the frame is virtually indestructible.

Some Assembly Required

Most of the furniture sold online today comes unassembled, and the Topower American Antique Industrial barstool is no exception. Fortunately, there aren’t many pieces to contend with, and the instructions are straightforward, so the assembly process is simple and can be completed in minutes.

While this product does come with an expert assembly option, the cost for that service is nearly equal to the price of the stool itself. Given how easily the stool goes together, we can’t, in good conscience, recommend spending the money to have someone else put it together. However, if you’re just dead against the idea of doing it yourself, it’s good that the option is available.

Pros and Cons of Topower Vintage Industrial Barstool

This is a good, versatile bar stool; we like everything about it. The only potential drawbacks are these:

Aesthetically, it’s hit or miss. You’ll either see it and feel as though you have to have one, or the look of the stool will put you off, and you’ll give it a pass without so much as a second thought.

Topower is a small company with limited support capacity. Although the production quality is high, if you happen to run into problems, you’ll likely have to jump through a few hoops to get the support you’re looking for, which is common among smaller brands.

Topower Vintage Round Bottom Barstool Review Conclusion

From a pure functionality standpoint, this is a perfect bar stool. However, aesthetics will be the deciding factor here, and not everybody will be a fan of the look. Given that, we provisionally recommend the Topower Vintage Round Bottom Barstool.

Recommended Reading

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We evaluated the Flash Furniture Hercules “X” Back Barstool’s rugged design and impressive weight capacity for big and tall users.

References & Resources:

• Bar Stool Buying Guide, Instyle Seating.
• Vintage Inspired Bar Stools!, Debbiedoo’s.
• Vintage Industrial DIY Bar Stools, The DIY Village.