Japanese studio Naoya Matsumoto Design has launched a collection of simple kitchen stools that are painted at the top and left with a natural finish lower down.

Designed for breakfast bars, the wooden Dear K stools feature a disc-shaped seat and matching larger footrest below.

The components are held together by four plank-like legs attached perpendicularly to the curve of the seat and footrest.

"I wanted to design a kitchen counter stool, because I think good food leads to people's delight," said Naoya Matsumoto, who set up his eponymous studio in 2013.

"By not using a square, the stool has a simple shape. From whichever angle it's seen, the beautiful, tireless design is considered," the designer told Dezeen.

The seat and top half of the legs are finished with a thinned grey, black or white paint that allows the grain of the white ash wood to show through.

The footrest and bottom half of the legs, which would get scuffed if painted, are left with a natural finish.

"Grey suits every kind of clothes," said Matsumoto. "Paint can tear off the bottom so it just wasn't applied in the first place."

Previous projects from the studio include a pop-up bar in a Japanese gallery, the interior of which was clad in swathes of crumpled tracing paper.

Photography by Kazuaki Michishita.