The kitchen banquette

This weekend we will be finishing our little kitchen by tiling the backsplash and adding trim to the top of the cabinets. Sometimes we jump around from project to project and finish things as we have the time and resources. Tile has been put on the back burner as other more important projects jumped in line, so I'm excited to see it finished. As we prepare for the big backsplash tile project of 2017 (this is our first time) I thought it would be fun to see what the other side of the kitchen looked like when we bought the house and before we built the banquette. 

The house came with a lot of wallpaper and the kitchen had a lovely scallop trim to go with it. 

Luckily we found original hardwood floors throughout most of the house except for the kitchen and family room which was an addition at some point. You can see a peek of the family room to the right of the kitchen.

We had a small window of time to work on the house before we moved in, school was starting and the new owners of our previous house wanted to move in. The goal was to get a lot of the messy stuff done, so we gutted the kitchen, and had hardwood floors installed in the kitchen and family room.

The old plaster walls needed a bit of work after the wallpaper was removed. 

The banquette came about seven months after we moved in, but I knew this was the perfect spot for one the first time I saw the house. We are an eat in kitchen kind of family, and a banquette would be the most practical and attractive option for our tiny kitchen. 

My husband built the bench seating, and included some much needed storage inside. One very important tip when building or having a banquette built is to be sure to have a nice deep overhang on the seat. It allows your legs to have room to naturally swing back like sitting in a chair verses sitting on a box. 

We used plywood ripped down at Home Depot and nickles for spacing to get a planked shiplap look.

One coat of primer and two coats of my favorite advance paint by Benjamin Moore finish it off. 

I couldn't have imagined how functional this space would end up being for our family. It's comfortable, cozy and we spend a lot of time here working, eating and doing homework.