Built-in solutions

Southern Living, Mar 1998 by Joyner, Louis

Borrowed from the past, builtins provide space-saving seating that's a favorite with all the family.

Where's your favorite place to sit in a restaurant? Perhaps a table for two by the window, or a cozy booth. As these three examples show, with careful use of built-in seating you can create special places for casual dining at home.

Built-ins can make very effective use of space. (That's why restaurants use booths.) Because there's no need to make allowance for pulling a chair back to get to the table, built-in seating needs only about 22 inches of space between the table and wall.

BANQUETTE

Little Rock architect John Allison and his wife, Mary, added an L-shaped banquette as a comfortable eating area in their 1920s home. "The banquette seemed to be the best solution," says John. "It gives you a whole lot of seating in a small area."

With a 45-inch-diameter table and two chairs, the eating area easily accommodates four people, and more in a pinch. The banquette was a favorite spot for the Allisons' children-now grown-to do homework, snack, watch TV, even nap.

Many banquettes have a flat seat, but this one has a sloping back as well. The angles make the built-in more comfortable. "We had designed some booths for a restaurant, and I used the same angles," says John. The 21/-inch-thick cushions are covered with a vinyl-laminated fabric for easy cleanup; hook-and-loop tabs hold them in place. Drawers below hold seldom-used items. (To page 132)

WINDOW SEAT

For clients Cathy and Byron Wright, Houston architect Tom Wilson designed a window seat that could double as a banquette (see photo above, right). Below a pair of large casement windows, the seat provides a good spot for reading. For large gatherings, such as kids' pizza parties, the Wrights pull the table close to the window, allowing room for two or three children to sit side-byside and share the end of the table.

Tom frequently uses built-in seating in his designs. "I like banquettes," he says. "As a child, I thought those little spaces were wonderful." For a new house, window seats and other built-ins can give the charm often associated with a much older house. "Even if you never sit there, it adds a little romance to the room," says Tom.

Although the seating at the Wrights' home has the look of a nook recessed into a wall, it is actually created by the adjoining storage and display cabinets projecting out from the walls. Builder Mike Kelly explains that the cabinets were installed and then the spaces around them were filled in with 1/4-inch birch plywood painted to match the walls. "We tied it all together like it was one big unit," says the builder.

ALCOVE

For another house in Houston, Tom created a delightful alcove off the dining room. Just the right size for a small table and two chairs, the sunny, bookfilled area is a favorite spot for the owner and her young daughter.

Although the space has the look and feel of a box bay, it is actually formed by two storage areas that notch into the corners of the dining room. "I needed to fit a coat closet into the entry hall," explains the architect. "And I wanted to keep the dining room and living room on axis. Doing all these practical things when you are trying to do a very clean plan creates some interesting features."

The coat closet in the entry and an outdoor storage area left just enough room for the &foot-wide cased opening that lines up with three pairs of doublehung windows. On either side of the alcove, 12-inch-deep shelves hold books and other items. "I love putting bookshelves in a dining room," says the architect. "It gives some display space for decorative things."

BUILT-IN SOLUTIONS

Pages 130-132: Architecture for Allison home by John Allison, Allison Architects, 300 Spring Building, Suite 717, Little Rock, AR 72201, (501) 376-0717;

Architecture for Wright home by Tom Wilson, Tom Wilson Architects & Ass ciates, 2809 Virginia, Houston, TX 77098, (713) 523-7451, (a new office in Dallas is scheduled to open in June).

Construction by Mike Kelly, Michael Kelly Builders, Inc., 4010 Bluebonnet Blvd., Suite 104, Houston, TX 77025, (713) 665-0250.