“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Think back to your favorite restaurant. You arrive with your family, slip into a booth, and enjoy the cozy space with the ones you care about while eating delicious food. What if you could have this experience in your own home? Well, you can. All you need is the right banquette design.

It’s time to ditch that old school dining table and chairs and replace it with kitchen banquette booth seating. These seats will create an intimate dining space or cozy nook where your family can gather. Consider these banquette seating ideas when creating your custom banquette dining nook.

1. Alcove Banquette Seating

Many homes beg for banquette seating with their built-in alcoves. These spaces look like notches out of the main room. You’ll typically find them in your kitchen area. To create an alcove style banquette seat, you’ll line all three sides with bench seating. You can leave the third side open, or place a chair or two there.

What’s nice about this style of banquette seating is that you can customize the shape to fit the available space in your home. It could be a deep space with a rectangular shaped table or more shallow where the table runs horizontally. Perhaps your alcove is round, and you have a single curved bench seat that wraps around the majority of the table.

2. Bench Seat Banquette Seating

You don’t need to have an alcove to have banquette seating. All you need is a space where you can build a bench. Then arrange your table in front of the bench with chairs on the other side.

Source: @katiemonkhouseinteriors via Instagram

Source: @lisabrooksdesigns via Instagram

A hard bench with no backrest will be uncomfortable to sit on for long periods. So make your bench more comfortable with upholstery. Place a fabric-covered foam pad on the banquette seat to cushion the sitting surface. Then place several throw pillows on top for people to lean against.