Hi Kiki,

For seating space, you'll want to make sure there’s enough room for comfort without compromising the structure of the table. The general rule is to allow at least 12-15 inches of clearance from the underside of the table to the seat for comfortable leg space.

Since you're adding a crossbar 8 inches below the riser, you’ll need to account for that when placing seating. Ideally, you should leave enough room for people's legs to move freely but not too much so that it affects the stability of the table.

A good way to go about this would be to mock up the layout using some scrap wood to visualize the height and leg space before finalizing the design. You might also want to consider a smaller shelf depth, depending on your seating setup, to keep things more comfortable.

Hope that helps, and good luck with the build!

Thank you for your design input. I very much appreciate the feedback.