Small Home Style: Three Design Ideas for Modern Banquette Dining

Hello! Typically I reserve Mondays for my series Small Home Style, but I’m in the process of making some changes to my dining room, which got me thinking about when I first designed the space! Check out my IG Stories here, to see what just arrived in the mail #HappyMailDay for my dining room.

I love clever ways to style a small dining room, and I couldn't wait to share! One of the game changes in my small dining room has been swapping out a round dining room table and chairs for banquette seating. Before in my dining room, I was only able to seat four people comfortably, anyone extra was pushing it. Having an eat-in style kitchen with door openings to my living room and laundry room made it tricky to be able to host people other than my family of four.

Once we added a freestanding banquette to our dining room, it opened up our entire small dining room and provided us with additional seating. I’m now able to seat seven people around my table when the leaf is in and most likely could squeeze in one more person comfortably! The beauty of banquette dining in a small dining room, is having continuous seating, instead of several chairs that take up extra room. 

Today, I’m sharing my three favorite design ideas for Modern Banquette seating and chair combinations. I’m super excited about this post this #GameCharger post sharing how to make the most of a small awkward dining space / eat-in style kitchen or larger dining room that needs some help to make the room feel cozier and well thought out. 

ONE: Freestanding Banquette  

Freestanding upholstered banquettes, look fantastic in small dining rooms and easily give off a feeling of comfort + sophistication. Dress them up with pillows in varying sizes and throws to add color and pattern. Consider using a small settee with the appropriate height for a dining room. This look is one of my favorites! 

In my dining room, I’m able to seat three on the banquette comfortably. I found ours at World Market a few years back; sadly they no longer carry them. However, I this one from West Elm is affordable and allows you to configure your seating in three ways. 

image via Modern Sofas 

image via Vogue 

image via Architectural Digest

TWO: L - Shape Banquette

L Shaped Banquettes are perfect for those odd small corners in a dining room and look beautiful when butted up against a kitchen. L Shape banquettes help give the illusion of a wider space and create continuous seat. For this look you can opt for built-ins or freestanding banquette benches if you have enough wall space availble. 

image via BHG

image via Style At Home

THREE: Built-in Bench Banquette 

Built-in bench banquette is so pretty! This design idea can be custom built or DIYed using upper kitchen cabinets to create a base. Another fantastic reason to goes this route is hidden storage. Instead of wasted space, you can have drawers in the bench that pull out for additional storage make it easy to access linens and mics. kitchen items. 

image via BHG

image via BHG

image via Style At Home

Designing a well thought out space when you have dining small is crucial to your sanity, trust me! Consider how you use your dining room space and how your dining room flows with the layout of your home to help you best determine which banquette dining setup will work the best. Here's another look at the banquette in my dining room. 

By centering our freestanding banquette under our window, it allowed me to make the most of our nine-foot wide dining room. Yes, friends, my dining room is only nine feet wide! Having a freestanding banquette also allowed me to room to place a small bar cart in our dining room, giving is extra storage and made it feel grown-up. 

What are some of the challenges you've faced in your dining room?

Patio Transition to Fall

Sunday afternoon my husband and I spend a few hours cleaning off our patio: sweeping away the debris, deciding on which plants were a lost cause and planting new ones. It feels so good to get everything freshened up on the patio as we slowly head into fall. Even though the Calendar says, it's mid-September, in Sacramento we’ve had plenty of days of 90+ degree weather. Frankly, friends, it's been hot, and I’m over it. Thankfully, the weather seems to be finally cooling off, and there are lots of 80 degree days ahead! Which means lots of outdoor time, including easy dinners dining al fresco. I’ve recently made updates to our patio that I’m excited to share, plus what I’m tackling this fall. 

I’m a huge fan container gardening; I’m all about the more plants on a patio, the better! I recently moved the large lime tree that was on my front porch to my patio. Two things happened.

ONE. The tree seemed to not like being in more direct heat and sun since it no longer had the covering of the front porch and 

TWO: The tree didn’t get watered enough during the triple digit days. Sadly it dropped leaves, I trimmed a lot of the branches back, and even though it's not full as it once was, I think it will make a come back over the new few weeks. 

The scale of the lime tree looks perfect next to the sofa; I love the combination. Above the sofa, I hung an outdoor mirror I picked up over the weekend at Target. I’m obsessed. The mirror looks incredible paired with the sofa. I love how my patio has slowly been evolving over the past couple of years. When the season changes the mirror along with the cushions will be stored in the garage. 

I also added two new pillows to the sofa, giving the sofa a nice full look. The mud-cloth inspired pillows look incredible with the existing pillows. White cushions can be so hard to clean clean, and having the outside can seem impossible. To keep the cushions on our outdoor sofa and chairs clean, we use outdoor furniture covers when not in use. I love these from Amazon; they're affordable and oversized. During the rainy season, I store the cushions in a large cushion storage bag. 

On my coffee table, I added a large wood base terrarium filled with succulents. I found the terrarium at Home Goods, and found a twin version here. Look a little closer; they’re all faux plants! To make the terrarium appear real, I lined the bottom of the glass container with dirt and added small rocks on top filling the inside with a variety of faux succulents. The great thing about using faux plants is longevity and not having to remember to water. Plus faux plants have come such a long way in the past few years, gone are the days of bad looking cheap plastic plants. Under the coffee table, I have a basket filled with throw blankets, I love keep on hand outside for chilly nights. 

This fall, we plan on tackling two small projects that will enhance the overall look of our patio. 
Above our DIY Bar Cart, we plan on adding a large chalk board. Chalk boards are so much fun and even better when they’re outdoors! We also want to add lighting and hang baskets from our pergola to create two light sources, one above the lounge area of the patio and the other above our dining room table. 

Just like that, its already the weekend! My weekend plans include planting some plants in the empty containers and getting lots of lounging on the sofa.