a kitchen banquette bench {planning it out}

A while back I shared with you some images and ideas I had for a kitchen banquette bench. My eat in kitchen is large enough for my round kitchen table and 5 chairs. Even though we have the room for it I haven’t been too happy with the layout for a while. First of all the table fits five people and only five people. I want my kitchen table to work for the whole family, and maybe a couple more on occasion. It is almost 17 years old and still in great condition so I’m thinking of relocating it to the basement as a game table. For now it is constantly moving around the kitchen. It needs to be pulled away from the wall in order for everyone to fit around it. This means that when the meal is over there are chairs in the middle of my kitchen that then need to be pushed back in. I’m always putting chairs back in their place.

Another little item that bothers me is that the table is never centered under the pendant lamp. It’s a small issue but it bothers me nonetheless. I also want my children to do their homework on the kitchen table. My oldest has been using the dining room table since at homework time there always seems to be crayons and crackers in her way, left by my two boys. A larger table would work better for us.

So my whole idea to revamp my eat in kitchen area has a couple end goals. More seating, a larger table, and something stationary. A rectangular table would work much better than my round one in a kitchen like this.

My first project will be the seating. I’m going to walk you through the entire process starting with my banquette bench.

My wall has 60 inches of available space for a bench. It also has some strangely placed outlets that I would love to cover up. After deciding a bench would work best along the wall I quickly decided a bench with a back would work even batter. It would add some color and texture to my otherwise dark kitchen. I started looking at different option to create a bench. I could buy an mudroom style bench and create a built in look. I could also buy refrigerator cabinets and create a bench as well. Ready made furniture like some of the pieces from IKEA were too wide so I was looking at either of those two options, both of which meant I would have to spend some money.

I sat down on my living room sofa and started sketching out some ideas one evening and happened to look up at my entertainment unit. I’ve been trying to sell this piece for quite a while, as I explained here. All of a sudden I saw the possibility of what could be done with such a sturdy piece. I jumped up and took some measurements (it was perfect!) and quickly called my brother to 1. see if this was possible and 2. see if he had the tools and would help me pretty please.

Since he likes to come along on my crazy idea adventures he said yes and yes. The entire family came over and we started cutting! The piece that had been dictating my living room was gone and I was actually left with two pieces that were both used. The bottom would became the bench for the kitchen banquette. No need to purchase furniture or cabinets. I was using something I already had. I might have cut up a perfectly good piece of furniture but I made a piece that I was unhappy with work for me. I now pretty much love it. And it fits perfectly with just enough room for my pantry door to open.

I have some work ahead of me because I’m hoping the end result of the bench will look something like this…

tobi fairley vis Houzz

So are you wondering what I did with the top? I was planning on getting rid of it until I realized it was the perfect size (after some work) for another project I had on my mind. My daughter had previously been making homes for her American Girl Dolls out of large cardboard boxes. They fall apart pretty quickly. We wanted to make something sturdier and were planning on building a house from scratch. Well now those dolls have a more permanent home in our house…

Over the next couple posts I’ll walk you through each step of the transformation process. I’m still pinching myself that I was able to get rid of this piece, but still use it for two projects without spending any additional money! Up first will be how I measured and remeasured a couple times. Stay tuned…

a kitchen banquette bench {planning it out}

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