Most people buy this kind of thing to match a sofa, when the real question is what the room needs it to do, and those are often two different pieces of furniture entirely.
Color wise, you want something that can sit next to whatever else is going on in the room without arguing with it. A natural wood tone, a woven neutral, a slipcover in oatmeal or a soft stone gray, these all let the piece disappear a little when you need it to and stand out when you've put a tray and a lamp on it. Bright colors and bold patterns look wonderful in the showroom and then fight with every single thing you already own. If you want personality, put it in a cushion or a throw you can change, not in the frame itself, because a bench or stool is one of those things you keep for a decade while everything around it changes twice.
Sizing is where most of the regret lives. Measure the actual gap, not the general area, leave at least a foot of walking space around anything you put at the end of a bed or in front of a sofa, and check the height against what it needs to sit next to, a bench that's two inches taller than your coffee table looks like a mistake every time you walk past it. For bar stools, measure from the floor to the underside of the counter and leave about ten inches of clearance, and count your actual counter depth before you decide how many will fit, because showroom photos always have more room than your kitchen does. A cheap version usually gets the proportions wrong somewhere, legs too thin for the top, a seat just a touch too deep, and you feel it every time you sit down even if you can't say exactly why.
These earn their place in almost any home, but differently depending on the season and the space. A storage bench in a mudroom or entry solves the boot pile before it starts. An ottoman in a small living room does double duty as seating and surface when people actually show up. Bar stools make sense if you have counter seating you never use because the stools are wrong. A good footstool near a favorite chair gets used every single evening once it exists, and ignored completely if it's the wrong height.
If you own none of these yet, start with a solid ottoman in a neutral fabric, something that can take a tray, a foot, or an extra guest at a moment's notice.
I'd put mine in the living room first, right in front of the chair nobody wants to get up from.