8 Tips For Designing Banquette Seating At Home

Everyone wants the booth at a restaurant, so why not add one to your home?

It’ll become the hub of your house — trust us! Here are eight expert tips for designing stylish, cozy and functional banquette seating at home. Scroll down!

1) Banquettes need less room than conventional dining chairs — which require space behind each chair for circulation — making them perfect for tight dining spaces like the one in this condo.

2) Storage benches with built-in drawers optimize a banquette’s real estate and provide a place to stash extra placemats, runners, napkins and more.

3) Center lighting over the table, as was done with this Scandinavian-inspired pendant, which measures 34 inches across. It echoes the pale tones of the wood and upholstery fabrics.

4) Indoor-outdoor fabrics are a designer’s secret weapon in family kitchens. For this banquette, Olivia Botrie used an easy-to-maintain fabric in a fun pattern instead of reaching for vinyl.

5) A corner provides a natural spot to wrap a cozy kitchen banquette around two walls. This one’s channelled back and rounded corners are right on trend while a tiered pendant emphasizes the tall ceiling.

6) Banquette seats should measure 18 inches or more in depth (not including the back support) to provide maximum comfort. Upholstered back cushions can be various heights, or you could opt for a cozy collection of loose pillows — or both, as Sarah Birnie did.

7) Pedestal tables are the preferred pairing with banquettes, as they allow diners to slide easily around the banquette and ensure that no one has a pesky table leg to straddle. Tables can also have a smaller footprint as diners tend to sit more closely together.

Kitchens + Baths

8) Get the look of a banquette with a high-backed sofa-style bench. Here, a long-armed sconce is an innovative alternative to a typical pendant lamp.