How to: Easy DIY Banquette Seating
If you are looking for an easy DIY to add some coziness to your space, you’re in the right spot! This DIY banquette seating adds so much to the space. Grab a cup of coffee and a notepad pad, and get ready to design your DIY banquette!
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How to: Easy DIY Banquette Seating
Banquettes are such a functional option to add to your home. You can maximize space, seat more people, cozy your home with upholstery, and even add storage space underneath!
We have a breakfast nook beside our kitchen, where we recently added a built-in dry bar, and we wanted to situate our table in the opposite corner. We built this banquette to maximize that space and create an even cozier feel.
What You’ll Need
Supplies:
- 2″ x 4″ x 8″ wood boards
- 2.5″ interior wood screws
- 3/4″ plywood
- primed 1″ x 3″ wood boards
- .5″ decorative trim
- wood filler
- caulk
- paint
Tools:
DIY Banquette Seating: The Before
DIY Banquette Seating: Prepping Inside
In order to create a built-in piece, we first needed to cut and remove the baseboards.
DIY Banquette Seating: The Build
This banquette is a project a DIY beginner can do! The hardest part will be determining your measurements.
We knew we wanted the height of our banquette to be 18″ from the floor, so we accounted for the 3/4″ plywood top, which told us that our frame height needed to be 17.25″. The same thing applies to your depth and length. However, don’t forget that you will add extra trim pieces to the sides that must be accounted for in your measurements.
Take your time to figure out your measurements. This will save you time and money down the road!
DIY Banquette Seating: Building the Frame
We used 2″ x 4″ boards to frame out the rough dimension of the banquette. We added multiple horizontal and vertical supports to strengthen and prevent sagging and warping.
DIY Banquette Seating: Plywood Wrap
We used 3/4″ plywood to wrap the entire frame. We secured it with wood glue brad nails and a few counter-sunk screws for the top piece.
TIP: make sure your top piece is flush with the side walls; this way, you don’t have any unsightly plywood edges exposed. This will be covered with the trim pieces.
DIY Banquette Seating: Finishing Trim
This is where your build will come to life! Adding trim is my favorite part because a project goes from just some wood to a beautiful home addition.
We used primed 1 x 3 boards, starting with the horizontal pieces and then adding the vertical ones.
We used this small detail molding inside each “box” we created with the 1 x 3 boards. This elevated the build SO much!
We finished the build by adding some base cap molding to tie it into the baseboards in our house.
DIY Banquette Seating: Filler, Caulk, and Paint
Next, we filled in any nail and screw holes with wood filler. Once that was dry, we sanded it smooth and used paintable caulk to make everything seamless.
We painted the banquette with Sherwin Williams Emerald Trim paint in Accessible Beige at 90%. We used This color on our dry bar build in the same room, so I wanted them to match.
DIY Banquette Seating: Final Result
This DIY banquette added so much to our space.
If you build your own, tag me and share it! I hope this post gave you the inspiration to tackle this project and that you feel ready to build your DIY banquette.
Thank you, as always, for reading along.
