apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

pretty COOL and probably not expensive. It looks polished in the picture - hope they look as good in person.

Cute and crafty idea! This would be when no shoes in the house would be a good rule, especially with little ones scuffing the white cabinet with their shoes.

Are the cabinets sturdy enough for several people to sit on at once? I've been in the search of an affordable bench, and I am finding that many coffee tables I had eyed as benches won't hold the weight of more than one person at once.

lovely end result. the colors are very nice. I wonder if the stools are a bit short, (that always makes me feel like a little kid), but they look cute.

It's nice - but since he's using the lift-door cabinets, those are going to be a major pain to get into. I'd have flipped them upside down so that the doors would open down instead of up and installed a magnetic catch to keep them from opening unintentionally...
...and I guess he's not worried about accessing the cabinet in the corner that has it's door blocked by the adjacent cabinet?

If he'd used the 24" deep/15" high over-refrigerator cabinets with swinging doors, he wouldn't have had to build out, he'd have access to more storage space and they'd be easier to get into.

I think it would be more accessible of the cabinets opened the otherway...flipped down rather than up. Because you have to be on your knees and look and reach under the door to get to anything.

Does anyone know where that rug is from?

i think the rug is/was ikea... i know ive seen it before...hmmm

The rug is by notNeutral...

http://tottini.com/store/product/4312/4x5-Sable-Ozone-Persimmon/

Problem with an L-shaped seating arrangement around a circular table is that only two seats are a comfortable distance from the table, sitting anywhere else means you have to stretch to reach the table, and anyone sitting at the ends of the L should just put their plate on their knee...

bepsf, I think he put the cabinets on top of risers so they could swing correctly. I'm still not sure about the corner cabinet.

I think this is really cute! I grew up with a large L-bench/chest around our kitchen table that my mom had built. It was very functional at both seating many people and storing loads of gear.

This is GREAT! Very inspirational..............a smaller idea would be to make just one padded "bench" for an entry area.

Does anyone know where those stools are from? They are perfect for my side table dilemma!!

Hello...I did not know that apartmenttherapy.com had a post on this...happened to come across this when checking stats on my website. To answer some questions from above...

- Yes, it is a pain to open the cabinets on your hands and knees. You could flip the cabinets the other way with magnetic attachments...but I can foresee one of those doors slamming my yorkie on its head.

- Yes, the corner cabinet is blocked from opening. A sideways door could have worked better.

- The cabinets provide plenty of support for at least 3 adults per bench. The cushion bottom was built on 3/4" thickness plywood.

- Yes, the rug is from NotNeutral.

- Found the stools somewhere cheap online. They're available at several online retailers...can't remember where. Search around and you should find them pretty easily.

- Total price for the banquette, table, stools and table was under $700. Better than the $2500 quoted to me by a custom banquette contractor. Ikea cabinets are awesome.

Oh, and my original inspiration came from a Pinkberry frozen yogurt store:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/airport-lounge/276888128/in/set-72157594340691345/

This is exactly what I had in mind and was unable to express/ tell to the rest of the family... thank you so much for posting it up since now I really have what I wanted :-)