Showing off my new bench seat dining nook

I’ve been dying to share our new nook with you all and I have to say, I am obsessed! This dining nook with banquette seating is something I have thought about creating here for years and it finally came to fruition as part of our wider home renos recently.

Once our main dining space (this is part of our L-shape kitchen/dining room), it really wasn’t big enough for family gatherings and entertaining, especially as most of our friends have kids. We had a six-seater rectangular dining table here before and it just felt cramped and, due to the playroom door on the left, we didn’t have much flexibility to have a longer table either.

Now this is a bit of a luxury as a secondary, smaller dining area in our home. Breakfast, homework, wine, coffee or GnT nook, it’s definitely multi-purpose! It has a lovely outlook onto the deck via the French doors, which really wasn’t maximised before. I think it’s going to really come into its own in the summer with the doors open and the kids playing outside. Right now in winter, it’s mostly being used for a cuppa with a friend or for the kids to do colouring and build Lego.

I love the cosiness of this space, and how it pulls together my green kitchen refresh starring Dulux Pale Sage on the barn door wall and bar back (more to come on this), as well as the wainscoting (and now also the banquette seating) in this side of the space.

My builder Lachlan Pappas of Finest Constructions (highly recommend!) and his team made this look so easy I really wondered why we didn’t do it years ago (as I do with so many things, but sometimes you really need to live in a space a while to work it out), and whipped up this L-shaped bench in half a day! Under there is a timber frame, the top is MDF, and then they added skirting too (total cost of materials around $1300). We didn’t add storage as we’re lucky to have plenty in our home (and added more elsewhere recently which I’ll also share later) which kept costs down.

It all really came together when the painter had finished, and then I had to show a little patience waiting for the custom seat cushions from Cushion Factory, which were a breeze to measure up myself, get a quote and order online (I’ll admit I was nervous when they arrived but they fit perfectly and I’m thrilled with them!). Cushion Factory send you fabric samples which is really helpful and I’m so glad I was a little brave and went for pink (with fuchsia piping to boot!). They really were icing on the cake and arrived in about two weeks.

I think since realising we are probably going to live in this home for the foreseeable future (although it’s probably not our forever home) I’ve been motivated to make it exactly how we want it. It’s just paint guys, not everything has to be about resale! There have been a few comments naturally about me “getting away with” so much pink in here, but by the time we got to the cushion stages, my husband had lost interest in contributing to any decisions, so that worked well!

Of course, a pendant light was essential and I ordered a much more expensive designer light and returned it, before settling on this one from Beacon which I absolutely love. We put it on a dimmer switch too and it’s just perfect in the evenings when the main kitchen downlights are off. So cosy!

In terms of furniture, nothing is new. The round, marble-topped table is from West Elm a few years ago. They currently sell something similar with a brass base which is divine! The Bentwood chair is also years old and from the old dining setting (I sold the others on Marketplace) and the cushions, believe it or not, were all taken from around the home or my ‘spares’ cupboard! The vase is Target and the art I’ve had for at least seven years and is a Kimmy Hogan print. It definitely inspired the direction I went in with the seat cushions.

The dining area as seen from the kitchen side, with my upcycled sideboard using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Antoinette. The doorway on the right is to the kids’ playroom.

We now have a much bigger, extendable 10-seater dining table in the living room, which has become a living and dining space since we made some changes. I’ll be sharing that makeover with you soon!

Photography: Joe Cheng | Builder: Finest Constructions