Georgian Style | Minneapolis · More Info

I've always loved this photo, but the windows make the room.

jkliveng yes indeed the windows make the room! In our home the new dining space is going where the old early 80's kitchen was in the center of the house - no windows, just the light that flows from adjoining spaces.

Stan Z we will have chairs on the other two sides of the table.

My other option is to do one long booth for one side of the table, the space is not really deep enough for chairs all the way around.

Very inconvenient for the middle folks when you are having a buffet style meal, not to mention those on the outside that need to scoot and get up for them.

Many GW people have done it over the years. Use "banquette" as your search term. Like, google "banquette gardenweb".

A friend of mine, a very accomplished woodworker, made a beautiful booth in the kitchen of his home. When he sold the house some years later the booth was a deal breaker for many of the potential buyers.

That's good to know, thank you oldryder!

My BiL has a corner banquette booth. I hate it with a passion. It's built in and you're trapped if you're forced to sit anywhere except the ends.

If you sit at the ends, you have to constantly get up to let multiple people slide in and out if they're thoughtless.

I now stand to eat in his dining room in order to avoid sitting at the booth. Everyone fights for the few seats that's outside the booth.

His house is dark too and it just feels claustrophobic.

It depends on how you will use it. We have a similar set up (but not nearly so beautiful). I love ours! We have a relatively small house and it allows us to seat a larger group of people for occasional use. It would be inconvenient to be in the middle seat on a routine basis. But on Xmas eve with just the family, it is equally inconvenient to squeeze in additional card tables and chairs to accommodate the family. For occasional use, the middle of the bench is just fine. And we use ours nightly for our family of 4, no one really ends up in the middle seat. After dinner, I spend hours with the kids helping on homework, I love the benchseat for homework and the larger table to spread out all the papers. We spoil our puppy, so she ends up sitting next to us while we work on homework. For tutoring, it is so convenient to sit side by side on the bench side. Our house is small, so it would be really challenging to fit in the same size table without the banquette. I wouldn't want to devout the extra space to a traditional table when we personally, only seat more than 4 on an infrequent basis.

@jenns brought up a good point. Her perspective is from the owner while mine is from a guest perspective.

If you entertain infrequently, then it should be a good fit. My BiL entertains a lot and we just stand in his kitchen. No frequent guests will sit in his banquet except at the two ends. It's set up for 6 on two sides with the L shape and only 2 people will ever sit on the ends and two in chairs on the other two sides. Technically, it's set up for 10 but only 4 people will sit there.

LOVE a banquette or booth; however, I'd rather go with a straight-line built-in against the window ... allowing for chairs on three sides. With three sides for chairs, certainly the elderly or infirm can reach the table without too much trouble.

Yesterday I did a layout, assessed the space and decided I am going with one long banquette/booth with built in cabinets on either side. I'll probably end up putting captains chairs at either end and a long bench that I already have on the outside for now. I can figure out what fits chair wise a a later date.

I had a banquette in my last kitchen and I LOVED it. Mine was actually more of a breakfast nook with a built in bench that we had upholstered. It was right under a sunny window across the street from a park and I spent many hours sitting there with a book and drinking my coffee/wine/etc. It was probably my favorite part of our kitchen. My kids were also very young at the time so the entire family could squeeze in there for quick meals. I wish I could have incorporated one into our current kitchen, but we didn't have the space.

Looks like a lovely spot Pipdog!