Maximizing Space With Custom Banquette Seating Solutions for Restaurants

Conventional tables and chairs are not the end-all and be-all of restaurant design. For many restaurant owners, regular tables take up too much space, seat too few guests, or fail to capture their vision of the ideal dining experience. Custom banquette seating offers an alternative way to utilize the space. It’s rapidly becoming a popular alternative seating option. It promotes personalization while economizing the space for more guests, even in small dining areas.

Modern dining excellence starts with a focus on creative designs that are exclusive and easy to use. Using custom banquette seating options, business owners can create a specific vision for their restaurant’s identity and maximize its utility.

Continue reading to learn how custom banquette seating options can make your business more approachable and functional, provided you work with knowledgeable millwork artisans who can create the right seating arrangement for your particular space.

What is Banquette Seating?

Banquette seats are wooden bench-style pieces that can be joined together, built into the walls, or placed across from each other. Banquette seatings are the natural evolution of restaurant booths, incorporating many of the same benefits while adding a modern architectural flair to a seating style that was once overly associated with diners.

The appeal of banquette seating from a design sense is that the possibilities are wide open. Different shapes, sizes, and styles can be used to create the exact experience that the restaurant owner desires. Banquettes, especially in small spaces, provide fantastic opportunities to economize the floor plan while catering to the guests’ needs.

Important Design Factors for Custom Banquette Seating

Custom banquette seating offers designers and owners a range of options. The banquettes’ shape, size, and location determine how well they will fit your dining area.

Seating Shape

Banquette seating can be made in several shapes to accommodate the space’s needs. Common shapes include bench-style seating on either side of the table and u-shaped banquettes that save space and provide more seats in the same amount of floor area by utilizing the ends of the tables.

More options include L-shaped banquettes, which can turn unused corners into attractive seating options. Curved banquettes also provide interesting options. These seats can enhance the organic rhythm and flow of the room, depending on the layout of the dining area.

Seating Location

The location of the banquette seating should be a factor in its final design. For example, banquette seating can create a window seating arrangement that takes advantage of natural light and saves floor space. Banquettes can be standalone structures in outdoor dining areas that bring a cozy style to an area normally associated with uncomfortable traditional chairs.

Most designers understand that banquette seating can save space in a smaller floor plan. However, your restaurant may have the opposite problem. If you have a lot of floor space in the dining area and struggle to make it flow using traditional tables and chairs, custom banquettes can help, too.

For example, box-style banquettes can be customized for the central dining area to have an accommodating vibe that meets the needs of larger parties. They can be crafted casually to fit families or luxuriously to match the needs of a business lunch.

Seating Storage

Another way to maximize space with custom banquette seating is to design it with built-in storage. This can include storage space under lift-up seats for linens and other items, built-in shelves or bookcases on the ends of the banquettes, or cabinets that can open on the side.

Built-in banquettes provide space-saving opportunities that many restaurant owners and designers neglect to consider since only custom banquette seats can accommodate them. An experienced furniture artisan can help you match the design of the banquette seat to the needs of your space, and that includes maximizing storage space wherever possible.

Contact Sixth Avenue Custom for Bespoke Restaurant Seating Solutions

Bespoke restaurant seating solutions begin with knowledgeable furniture artisans working alongside designers and restaurant owners to customize the furniture to the particular dining area. Without an experienced eye, many restaurants settle for unoptimized solutions that rely on conventional tables and chairs, wasting space and downplaying the potential style of their restaurants.

In other cases, the wrong style of banquette seating can become cumbersome. Seating too large or small for the space can quickly turn an opportunity for functionality into a burden on the guests. At Sixth Avenue Custom, we focus on each restaurant’s exclusive needs to make sure owners and designers can achieve their intended visions for their dining spaces.

Contact our team today to maximize space in your dining area with our customizable banquette seating arrangements. We’ll work with you to determine the best shape, style, and location in your situation.