Here's one way to secure booth seat: Build it at home

Oakland Tribune, Jun 28, 2003 by Patricia Dane Rogers, Washington Post

HOW many times, whether in a clattery coffee shop or an elegant five-star restaurant, have you asked the person showing you to a table if, by chance, a booth were available? What's coveted in public is just as cool at home: comfortable, high-back upholstered benches - - or as the French might say, banquettes. "People love them," says Gail Green, a designer in this spring's trend-setting Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Manhattan. "They're such a cozy, private and comfortable concept of continuous side-by-side seating." McLean, Va., designer Barbara Hawthorn, who often recommends banquettes for private homes, points out yet another virtue: "They're great in tight spaces." Which is why the design is a staple of diners, RVs, private jets, yachts, dining cars on trains -- places where every inch counts. "You can slide right into it without the need for the two- foot pull-out area behind it that you'd need for chairs," Hawthorn says. "A typical dining arrangement requires at least that much space for chairs to be pushed back from the table. You need room for access, serving and clearing." Moreover, banquettes can be adapted to just about any configuration: straight, curved, L-shaped, one-sided or face-to-face. Curved models range from gentle crescents to three- quarter circles and tight U-shapes ideal for small niches. Straight banquettes can fit flush against a wall, beneath a window, or perpendicular to the wall, even in tiny kitchens. "Imagine looking down a galley with a six-foot stretch of wall at the end," says Hawthorn. "You could easily put in a two-seater." And a corner with four feet to spare on either side would be plenty of room for an L- shapped banquette. If space from front to back is skimpy, she says, "skip the back and go for throw pillows." Banquettes have a long track record, beginning as upholstered benches in aristocratic 17th- century Parisian households. During the reign of Louis XIV, according to furniture historians, they were often upholstered in Savonnerie carpets and curved to fit into window niches. On this side of the Atlantic, they were popular in turn-of-the-20th-century bungalow breakfast nooks, 1950s diners and in the considerably grander digs done up by American designers Elsie de Wolfe and Billy Baldwin. Now they seem to be making a comeback. Architect Sarah Suzanka, author of the bestseller, "The Not So Big House" (Taunton Press, 1998), praises their space-saving attributes and features several in her follow-up, "Creating the Not So Big House." Chris Casson Madden, a writer, home furnishings designer and cable television host, has showcased several banquettes on her HGTV program "Interiors by Design" and in her books. "I like them for lots of reasons," she says. "You can seat a lot more people on them as opposed to chairs, store things in them and use them to soften a corner of a kitchen, since most kitchens tend to be hard-edged. Banquettes with a pretty upholstered base are great in a small kitchen where you'd otherwise have too many legs -- four chairs and a table and you're easily up to 20 legs."

Hollywood style

On one of his recent shows, TLC's indefatigable design maven Christopher Lowell replaced a table and chairs in a kitchen alcove with an elaborate "Hollywood" banquette made from plywood doors ( www christopherlowell.com). As always, he assures his viewers.

Well, maybe. On a scale of 1 to 5, according to a banquette- building segment on the cable D.I.Y. Network, a build-and-upholster banquette project is rated a 3 ( www">wwwdiynetwork .com).

Kitchen designers also note an uptick in requests -- "a little banquette revival," says Jennifer Gilmer, principal of Jennifer Gilmer Kitchen & Bath Ltd. in Chevy Chase, Md., who enclosed a client's back stoop to make room for a '50s-style kitchen model.

Gilmer special-ordered hers from a banquette maker that sells to design professionals, but there are many retail sources, especially for retro styles. Among them: the Chair Shop, an Alexandria, Va., warehouse with custom as well as ready-made banquettes by special order. Chair Shop prices range from $300 for a straight 44-to-48- inch banquette in plain vinyl ($515 in the popular'57 Chevy-look in sparkle vinyl) to $1,650 for an L and $3,000 for a three-quarter circle. Online sources include www">wwwvintagevending .com, www">wwwcooksclassics .com and www">wwwkpetersen .com. Also look for restaurant liquidation sales.

Clients of Bob Schafer, owner of the Kitchen Guild in Washington, wanted a banquette to coordinate with a kitchen. He used the same cabinets for the banquette base as in the rest of the kitchen; banquette cabinets, however, were installed door-side-up so they could be used for toy storage.

Dining seats

Banquettes are also an alternative to traditional dining-room seating. "A long formal table surrounded by a dozen chairs can be off- putting," says Todd Davis of Brown-Davis Interiors, a former Georgetown firm now with a suburban Maryland office, which helped the Clintons with both their post-presidency houses. "A round table with curved banquette seating on one side and a few chairs on the other is friendlier."

The firm used just such an arrangement for Washington clients Kim Snedden and her husband, John, owner of Rocklands Barbecue & Grilling Co. "It's modern yet cozy -- a lovely brown leather banquette around a 70-inch-round Barbara Barry pedestal dining table, with pull-up chairs from Crate & Barrel," says Kim Snedden.

Anyone considering a banquette should ponder a few basic guidelines. "Seat height is critical. So is clearance under the table," says designer Walter Gagliano, who created the decor for D.C. Coast, Tenh Penh and other high-end Washington area restaurants.

The average banquette seat is ideally 18 or 19 inches high, firm and not too deep, "so you sit upright," Gagliano says.