Kitchen Nook Makeover | Adding a Banquette Bench
Hi there, my name is Bettina from OhEverythingHandmade and I am a new contributor here at Remodelaholic! I love to DIY, and hopefully I will inspire some of you out there with my tutorials.
My first tutorial is about our kitchen nook makeover, we have always been short on chairs. So, we (my husband and I) build a bench from scratch, which extended the kitchen visually, and gave us more seating options.
This is what we our kitchen nook looked before:
Only 1 guest was allowed to sit with us. Oh wait, that explains it all!
How to Build a Banquette Bench
Step 1.
Build the frame for your bench. I’d love to give you the exact measurements, however I am pretty sure we all have different kitchen layouts. So, I’ll skip the measurements, but I will add the material we used.
12- 2×4’s is all you need to build the frame for a 12’x6′ bench.
- measure the area where your bench is going to be installed
- make sure you choose a comfortable hight for your bench
- cut your 2×4’s, and use a kreg jig to make vertical holes for your screws
Step 2.
We thought about cutting out the base board, but something told me not to. We simply attached a 3/4-inch thick board onto the wall, to close the gap. This board was also used to secure the bench to the wall.
- If you leave your baseboard on the wall, make sure to have some boards available to fill in the gap.
- Should you not have a baseboard, continue with securing the bench frame to the wall. I recommend using good screw hooks!
Step 3.
Now, we give the frame a nice look, by attaching 3/4-inch plywood (your home improvement store will cut the wood for you) to the front.
- Measure the front, and the sides of your bench frame
- Our baseboard was sticking out, so I cut the shape for it out with a table saw (leftover base board always comes in handy)
- We used 1 sheet of 3/4-inch plywood, and I had some scrap wood for the sides
- You also need some trim to give the bench a finished look
- I used white 3/4″x3″ trim
Step 4.
I used the trim to hide the ends. Cutting the trip at 45 degree did the trick.
- Gorilla glue
- Nail gun
- Miter saw
- Electric sander
Step 5.
Ready to be painted!
First coat of three.
Step 6.
Attach the bench to your wall now, and measure the top. It is always important to measure again once the bench is installed. Our wall was slightly uneven, which through off some of our previous numbers.
- 1 sheet of 3/4-inch plywood
- 3/4-inch paintable, Iron-on wood veneer
- Veneer cutter
- Iron
- Electric sander (sand the plywood before painting)
- Wood filler
Step 7.
I attached the plywood with screws to the frame and filled in the holes with wood filler.
- Let wood filler dry 2-8h depending on the size and depth
- Sand
- Paint
- Add trim along the wall to hide gaps
All done! I am working on the cushions which will be added shortly!
Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, should you have any questions please post them below.
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Crushing on banquette bench arrangements? Try these on for size!
How to Create a Corner Art Gallery Banquette
Design a Banquette with Built-in Bench and Bookcases
Create a Sunny Corner Banquette
Betty is a “stay at home mom” by day, an aspiring entrepreneur, crafter, DIYer and blogger by night. She loves to share budget-friendly home improvements, fun DIY projects and nifty, thrifty makeovers with you on her blogOh Everything Handmade.
Molly is a farmhouse-obsessed DIYer who likes her dogs and long walks on the beach. Find more of her shiplap and burlap style at MyWebsite.com.
Great tutorial and it looks amazing.
Thank you Marty, we love the BENCH and I am already working on the cushions for it!
I love this! Great job. I am wanting to do this with my kitchen. Do you know about how much this cost you? Thanks!
Hi Angela, Thank you so much. It was around $250 for the entire project. ( around $200 with military discount )
I love this transformation. Adds a little extra seating for sure and a great use of the overall space. The tutorial is very detailed and easy to follow. I will be adding this to my bookmarks for later use!
It also amazes me that you were able to do so much without spending a fortune and make it look so elegant.
Thanks Steven, means a lot! And to top it all, we had lots of fun doing this makeover.
Where did you get your chandelier? I love it
You buried the wall outlet! That’s not good I hope you moved it in out or removed it from in the basement. Never bury electric.
Love it. I have thought of doing this, but was concerned about the windows being at seat level. Do you have kids? How will you handle the glass being at the back of the seats?
What table and chairs are these?!? 🙂
I love the idea! Can you tell me what kind of paint you used. Obviously without a cushion it will get some wear
Do you think it would be ok to build these and use them without attaching to the wall? Attaching to the walls in our kitchen is unfortunately a no-go due to low windows and I’d like for them to be moveable.
Also, my plan is to make these with hinged lids so I can use all that bench space for storage. I’ll also use the Sherwin Williams hgtv marshmallow white tint with the Valspar cabinet enamel paint for the benches (it’s the same paint I used for my kitchen cabinetry). Super excited to get started on this project! Thank you for sharing such detailed plans!