Thursday, July 15, 2010

Kitchen Banquettes

Lately I have been a bit obsessed with kitchen banquettes. I am considering how to create one in my own home. I love the way banquettes add a cozy eating space to any dining or kitchen area. They add a sense of "built-in" history to your home as if it was a fixture from years ago.

Banquettes can be created rather easily. Either built in or created with the proper furniture.



Banquettes are great space savers for your home, and can be nestled into an unused corner.

You can accent your banquette with beadboard for the classic cottage style, or consider adding decorative wood molding. Maybe even paint it an accent color to brighten up your kitchen.

The bench portion of the banquettes can even be created with stock upper kitchen cabinets.

One great asset to having a kitchen banquette is the provided additional storage. Make sure you have the benches made with a hinge top or front cabinet doors for easy access to stored items.

Of course don't forget the fun part of decorating your banquette with accent cushions and pillows to perk up your kitchen, giving a cozy place to sit and a practical space all in one.

A banquette can be a simple as a straight built in bench with a table pulled up to it.


OR...create a window seat, then pull up a table to the bench when additional seating is needed, giving you double pleasure and usefulness.



Maybe you would like to consider adding a kitchen banquette to your home, giving it a sense of history and long-term appeal!

(Photos courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens)


4 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos Denise. Wonderful idea for seating in the kitchen/dining room.

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  2. Nice ideas. I have a bay window in my breakfast room and have considered creating a banquette there. It would look great and free up traffic flow:)

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  3. Love, love, love it! We're in the process of doing a knockdown/rebuild on our little old house at the moment and one of the main criteria for choosing a plan was that it either had a banquette or it would be simple to add.
    Really looking forward to seeing it come together, just impatient for it to all be done now (but realistically will probably be at least a year before it's finished).
    Kim

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  4. Kim, be sure to take pictures and send them back to me. We can do an update on this blog post and show what you have done! Can't to hear how it turns out!

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