Are there children in the home? maybe two level? For children 4 feet adults Aprox 5 feet off the floor is a average leaving roughly 3 feet above the bench for jackets to hang down. Longer coats would need to be higher. Generally coat hooks are for casual jackets & coats that are not knee length. Long coats just don't work well on hooks above benches. With out looking oddly highly hung. A pic would be a great help for more ideas.

agreed, 5 feet would be a comfortable height for coat hooks, or if you are looking to have 2 rows of hanging space then they would be hung higher, 3.5 and 7 feet from the floor.

what is a good distance between each hook? also, do the number of hooks need to odd numbers?

I bought a ready made coat rack ( a board with 5 hooks) at a large box store and there is 5" inches between each hook. Hope this helps.