Need to seat more people at your kitchen table but there’s not enough room for a larger one? Install a built-in seat or bench, like a restaurant booth, otherwise known as a banquette. When sketching out your kitchen renovation, draw a banquette into a corner and solve seating and storage challenges in one fell swoop. While most popular in kitchens, banquettes can appear in a number of nooks throughout the home. Best of all they create an intimate, cozy dining experience.
Create an Eat-in Kitchen You’ll Love: Banquettes work well in smaller spaces because fewer chairs mean less wasted space. While sitting at a traditional kitchen table, you need at least three feet of space to push your chair back. However with a banquette, one side is a fixed bench you slide into…no chair shuffling required, making it a great solution if you want to create an eat-in kitchen with limited space. Even better, banquettes can accommodate a greater number of diners than a comparably sized table and chairs.
Make it Fit Your Decor:Because they’re designed for the room, banquettes adjust easily to any decor. If you have a sleek, modern kitchen, you can install one with clean lines. For a 1950s touch, you can make it look like it sprang right out of an old-fashioned diner. Enhance your country kitchen with scattered pillows in gingham and calico. Not limited to a rectangular shape, semi-circular banquettes are also quite common. Work with your kitchen renovation company to design the perfect banquette for your space.
Design Considerations for Comfort and Convenience:When you plan a kitchen renovation make sure you combine form with function. Banquette seating should be no more than 20 inches from the floor and seats should be no more than 20 inches deep (take the amount of padding into account). A space of 200 square feet can accommodate 4-6 people. If you’re installing it in the kitchen, choose fabrics that are easy to clean. Remember that banquettes are a great place to add storage within the seating. Hinge the top like a piano bench or install drawers or cupboards underneath.
Seating Solutions in Other Rooms:Banquettes are a great idea anywhere you have space and a need for seating and storage. Add a lovely window seat in the living room or hallway. Tucked into a nook in the study or library, a banquette is a great place to read or scrapbook. Is the space an awkward shape like under a bay window? No worries; your home renovation company can custom build your new seating to fit almost anywhere.
