I’VE ALWAYS WANTED… A BANQUETTE Built-in seating isn’t just for restaurants and cafes. It’s perfect for home dining, too!

No longer just for trendy cafes and restaurants, a padded built-in seat is a practical solution when space is an issue

What is banquette seating? Banquettes are built-in mass seating arrangements, most often in a kitchen or dining area, that are fixed along a wall or into a corner nook in order to maximise the available seating in any given space. Banquette seating is most often found in cafes and restaurants, but now appears in many residential projects and smaller homes.

1 f lexibility rules

Banquette seating is ideal for tricky layouts and tight spaces as it can be customised to fit a window bay, corner, wall or nook, plus it’s great for those who love to entertain as it allows you to fit more people into one area. “The shape of the banquette is usually dictated by the layout of the space,” says Mikayla Rose of Melbourne design studio Heartly, “but wrapping a banquette around a corner can also look fabulous.” Banquette seating can be adjusted to suit any style of home, from midcentury and contemporary to coastal and country, and you can even add hidden storage, or make it a flexible working, dining and entertaining space.

2 style decisions

This sort of seating can be designed to fit into a large open-plan space, or into a small complex space. It can be curved in an Americandiner style, or it can be built in straight along a wall, fitted into a corner or positioned under a window. “We often design banquette seating in smaller open-plan spaces as they can save valuable floor space,” says Mikayla. “Banquette seating can be an excellent way to build in additional hidden storage, which is often highly valuable in smaller spaces,” she adds. “If the available space is really tight, then we try to ensure the back rest isn’t too bulky. In larger spaces, we might choose to make the upholstery cushioning more substantial and really go to town making the banquette a place to kick back and relax.” Mikayla says that banquette seating is well suited to open-plan homes because it can create a link between a large open kitchen and its adjacent living area.

3 upholstery options

You’ll need fabric that is robust enough to withstand people sliding in and out of the seat on a daily basis. Tough leather, linen, wool and bouclé all fit the bill. “I love leather, but I’m happy to embrace the patina developed with aniline leathers coloured with soluble dyes. If you can’t cope with leather ageing, then a corrected grain option (leather embossed with artificial grain) is a good choice. There are also some faux leathers that are quite beautiful. If the banquette seat is not going to be used regularly or enjoyed by kids, then there are many more fabric options available,” says Mikayla. “Right now, a quilted line-stitch detail on fixed upholstery is popular, as is a small French flange on loose cushions.”

4 add-ons

Banquette seating is the perfect way to stealthily add a little extra under-seat storage to your home. This most common way to do this is by putting the seat top on hinges, allowing it to open up toy-box style. Just ensure that storage is factored into your design from the get-go, so there aren’t any design mishaps once a table is set against the seat. You want to be able to lift the lid without it getting stuck beneath the table. Alternatively, you could have drawers installed into the base of the banquette seating for super-organised pull-out storage, or have the base hollowed out so baskets can slide under the seat.

5 lighting

Lighting can really enhance banquette seating, and Mikayla recommends an offset feature light on the wall behind the banquette area for ambience, or a structural pendant light over the dining table to create intimacy. A wall lamp on a flexible arm that can be moved to suit different lighting needs is another great option.

La Casa Bison leather, $123.20 per m, Warwick Fabrics. Ralph Lauren ‘Signature Seto Texture’ fabric in Indigo, $342 per m, Radford Furnishings. Mokum ‘Canvas 12547’ fabric in Nude, $297 per m, James Dunlop Textiles.

A pendant will zone your dining area and provide mood lighting