Decorating & Design
Do This One Thing To Host A Holiday Crowd
Updated on November 2, 2017
Make sure guests are well-fed and comfortable this season with space-saving seating. Dining benches have been gaining popularity in recent years because they give the feel of a restaurant banquette, and they’re in tune with the trend of more communal dining. Take a look at a range of stylish ideas below.
For casual, in-kitchen dining, a mohair bench adds a touch of cozy luxury to a weekend home’s vintage farmhouse-style dining table. Bonus: it can seat two children easily.
Tour this country home on H&H TV.
Everyday family-style dining benefits from the ease of a simple bench. To keep it from looking too much like a picnic set up, the black bench and table are contrasted by curvy, Gustavian-style chairs that strike a more formal note.
Think beyond the bench and kick things up a notch with a tufted sofa with back support for guests, like this one in the pretty dining room of H&H editor-in-chief Beth Hitchcock.
Feeding a crowd at the cottage? Double up on two benches, like Cory DeFrancisco does at his Muskoka retreat. The benches can be easily moved under the window and the chairs rearranged around the table once the meal is over.
Karen Kain, artistic director of The National Ballet of Canada, picked out the bench in her cottage, and ringed the table with a charming mismatch of chairs. A custom cushion makes the bench an even more comfortable place to dine.
Tour this cottage on H&H TV.
Curving its way around the table, this sofa-style banquette can seat a major crowd in the home of fashion czar Joe Mimran and his wife designer Kimberley Newport-Mimran. The round Saarinen-style table curves perfectly into this chic nook.
In designer Sarah Hartill’s kitchen, the flip-up banquette also conceals dishes and appliances that her family doesn’t use everyday. She made sure the upholstery was hard wearing, and can conceal spills.
This West-Coast vacation home’s open concept dining area is a convivial place to host a Thanksgiving celebration. The two modern benches can be rearranged on each side with chairs at the end for smaller groups.
Benches built to match the design of a sleek table and dining chairs by Christophe Delcourt merge seamlessly into the ends of the table in this sophisticated dining room.
A long upholstered bench is dressed up with a graphic patterned throw to give this Muskoka cottage’s seating solution some extra flair.