My flat is 42 square metres. I've lived in it for three years and I love it — it's mine, it's central, and I've made it work. But there is one problem that has followed me since I moved in: seating. I have a sofa, I have a desk chair, and for a long time that was it. When anyone came over, we'd end up perched awkwardly on the sofa arm or I'd drag the desk chair into the living room like some kind of furniture hostage situation.
I needed extra seating. But I didn't have the floor space for another chair that would just sit there taking up room between uses. I needed something that could appear when required and disappear when not. I needed a folding stool — but one that didn't look like it belonged in a school canteen.
The Problem With Most Folding Stools
I spent a few weeks looking. The market for folding stools splits pretty cleanly into two camps: cheap and ugly, or expensive and still somehow not quite right. The cheap ones are fine for a campsite but look out of place in a home you've put any thought into. The expensive ones are often beautiful but feel like overkill for something that's going to spend most of its life folded against a wall.
I wanted something in between. Solid enough to actually use comfortably. Compact enough to store without thinking about it. And good-looking enough that I wouldn't feel the need to hide it when it was out.
Why I Chose the Orsina Hinata
The Orsina Hinata Folding Stool caught my eye because of the wood veneer seat. Most folding stools at this price point use plastic or basic fabric — the veneer immediately put it in a different visual category. It looked like a piece of furniture rather than a piece of equipment.
The dimensions also worked. At 9x39cm folded, it's genuinely slim — the kind of thing you can slide behind a door or lean against a wall in a hallway without it becoming an obstacle. I have a narrow corridor between my kitchen and living room that I'd mentally earmarked as the stool's home, and the Hinata looked like it would fit there without drama.
The space-saving design was clearly thought through rather than just marketed as a feature. The folding mechanism looked clean and the overall silhouette — both open and closed — was considered. That matters when you live somewhere small. Everything you own is on display all the time.
First Impressions Out of the Box
It arrived flat-packed but assembly was minimal — a few minutes at most. The wood veneer seat is the first thing you notice in person: it has a warmth and texture that photographs don't fully capture. It's not trying to look like solid wood; it's clearly a veneer, but it's a good one. The grain is consistent and the finish is smooth without being plasticky.
The frame feels solid. There's no flex when you sit on it, no wobble, no sense that it's going to give way. I'm not a small person — I'm 85kg — and it held me without complaint. The folding mechanism clicks into place cleanly and releases without effort. It's the kind of mechanism that makes you feel like the product was engineered rather than just assembled.
How It Changed My Day-to-Day
The practical difference has been bigger than I expected. I use the Hinata almost every day now — not just when people come over. It lives in the corridor folded up, and I pull it out when I'm eating at my coffee table, when I want a seat in the kitchen while something's cooking, or when I'm on a video call and want to sit somewhere other than my desk. It's become the most versatile piece of furniture I own.
When friends come over, it comes out without any awkwardness. It looks intentional rather than improvised. One friend asked where I'd got it within about ten minutes of arriving. That's the test, really — if a guest notices it positively rather than politely ignoring it, you've made a good choice.
A Few Months In
I've had the Hinata for about four months now. The veneer seat has held up well — no chips, no lifting at the edges, no signs of wear beyond a very slight patina that honestly makes it look better. The frame shows no signs of loosening. It folds and unfolds as smoothly as it did on day one.
If I had to find a criticism, it's that the seat is firm rather than padded — which is fine for shorter sits but not something you'd want to spend three hours on. For its intended purpose as occasional extra seating, though, that's not a real issue. It's a stool, not an armchair.
Who It's For
If you live somewhere small and you've been putting off solving the extra seating problem because everything you've found is either ugly or impractical, the Orsina Hinata Folding Stool is worth a serious look. It's also a genuinely good option if you have a home office that doubles as a guest room, a kitchen that needs occasional seating, or anywhere else where a permanent chair would be too much but no seating at all isn't quite enough.
You'll find it in the Folding Stools collection, and it also sits within the broader Folding Chairs & Stools and Chairs ranges. If you're furnishing more broadly, the Furniture collection is worth exploring too.
Small flat living is about making every square metre count. The Hinata does that without making you feel like you've compromised on anything. That's a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
— Theo Marchetti, 42-square-metre flat dweller and reluctant furniture minimalist
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