So the last post had the basic frame and sides of the banquette built – now I just had to cover the sides and put the tops on. It turns out I did this in the wrong order – I should’ve attached the tops first, because then I could’ve screwed it in from below, hiding all those screwheads. Luckily, I’m painting the whole thing, so I’ll just spackle over them all. Anyway, I cut the right-hand section to size, sanded down the front edge so it’s a nice smooth curve instead of a sharp edge, and screwed it in. That was the simple side. Continue reading →

Having eliminated the pesky electrical outlets, it was time to start building. I started by screwing a 2×4 into the studs at 15″ high – this’ll support the top, and gave me a level line to match, since my floor is definitely not level. I’d already created a drawer box, so I screwed that to the 2×4, with a scrap piece left over from the kitchen to make the spacing come out right. Then I just created a front frame with two long 2x4s and 3 shorter ones, which I screwed to the perpendicular wall and the drawer box’s other side. This is hard to explain in words – let me sum up with a photo: Continue reading →

So I thought about the banquette occasionally for more than a month, always stalling out on the need to call an electrician and get the outlets moved. And then I realized that I didn’t actually have to move the outlets – I could just remove them. And that’s something I felt pretty confident I could do. Continue reading →

Way back when I was designing the kitchen, I thought it would be cool to have a banquette seat in the corner where the table is. I really like booth seats in restaurants, and my parents have a long banquette seat in their kitchen that works really well. Also, banquettes take up less space than chairs, since you don’t have to leave space to slide them back – and space is something I haven’t got a ton of in the kitchen. Continue reading →