Stools and Kitchen Chairs - Not Matchy Matchy

A friend of mine is in the market for new furniture after a whole house reno. First on the shopping list are three kitchen counter stools for the island and six chairs to use with her Crate and Barrel Avalon 45" White Table. 

Picking chairs and stools that work together in the same room feels impossible!!! Before we started online shopping, we went looking for inspiration from pinterest and the experts - blogs! I found slightly outdated counter stool round ups on pinterest, and Emily Henderson has a great piece on what chairs for what table. Except, when the kitchen table is right next to the island, what do you do? Most kitchen photos from magazines show off the table grouping or the island - so I didn't find much help there. It felt like over and over again we would find the perfect chair and then get stumped by the stool. The stool is definitely the more difficult item. I mean I was this close (*holds thumb and figure about an inch apart up to the screen*) to going matchy matchy. But I knew we could do better than that!

Here are some of the combos we came up with:

1. Silas - CB2
2. Soots - Mobilia
3. Riviera Backless - Serena & Lily
4. Lyla - EQ3
5. Germain - CB2
6. Vienna - Crate and Barrel
7. Twist - Urban Mode
8. Metal and Rattan - Williams Sonoma
9. Skol - Allmodern
10. Lace - Allmodern
11. Zariyah - Wayfair
12. Woven - Allmodern

We ended up picking chairs and stools that in no way relate to each other. The stools relate to the kitchen (more specifically the lights and drawer pulls), and the chairs are awesome on their own.  The Spenser Stool and the Lovell Chair, are both from Anthropologie (also pictured, Flint by CB2)

Thanks!
-S
(For C and Nat!)

ps. This is how you do it! Prospect Heights Kitchen by Interior Designer Louisa G. Roeder