Commercial · Banquette seating
Banquette and booth seating, made in our Poole workshop
Fixed banquettes and booths for restaurants, cafés and hotels: drawn for the room, made at the bench and fitted by our own joiners.
We make fixed banquettes and booth seating for restaurants, cafés and hotels. Each run is drawn for the room, built in our Poole workshop and fitted by our own joiners around the trading day. For The Kitchen at Chewton Glen we made runs of ribbed leather banquettes, capped in solid oak and set on painted plinths.
Fixed seating shapes a restaurant. A run of banquettes along a wall, or booths set back to back down the middle of a room, decides where people sit, how the room fills and how it feels when it is busy.
It also takes hard wear: it is sat on, leaned on, knocked by chairs and wiped down every day. So it is made as joinery first, drawn for the room and built to take the trade.
The booths at Chewton Glen
In 2017 Chewton Glen, the five-star hotel on the edge of the New Forest, opened The Kitchen, a cookery school and restaurant in its own building in the grounds. We made its fitted joinery, including the runs of ribbed leather banquettes, capped in solid oak and set on painted plinths.
They are the seating of a busy restaurant and cookery school, so every joint was built to be sat on, leaned on and wiped down day after day. Read the Chewton Glen project.
The Kitchen at Chewton Glen · banquette seating
Runs, booths and corners
A banquette can run the length of a wall, stand back to back across the room as a line of booths, or turn a corner to make the most of an awkward bay. Each one is set out for the room it goes in, so the seats, backs and cappings line up with the walls, the windows and the tables in front of them.
At The Kitchen the booths run in long lines through the dining room, with oak cappings along every back.
The Kitchen at Chewton Glen · booths
Seats, cappings and plinths
A fixed banquette is built in three parts: the seat and back, a capping along the top of the back, and a plinth at the floor. The capping and the plinth are joinery, so they can be made in the timber and finish of the rest of the room.
At The Kitchen at Chewton Glen the banquettes are ribbed leather, capped in solid oak and set on painted plinths, so the timber of the room runs along every booth.
Drawn with the rest of the room
Seating sits right in a room when it is drawn with the joinery around it. At The Kitchen we made the banquettes together with the bar and back bar, the oak-framed screens that divide the long room, and the serveries, so the whole room reads as one piece of work.
We work to the programme, alongside the architect, the contractor and the interior designer, and out of hours where a restaurant or hotel has to keep trading. See commercial & hospitality joinery; for cafés and shops, see shop and retail fit-out; for the front desk, see bespoke reception desks.
How a project runs
From drawings to the final fitCommon questions
Banquette & booth seatingWhat is banquette seating?
A banquette is a long upholstered bench built in along a wall, or set back to back across a room, with tables in front of it. Because it is fixed, it is made for the room like any other joinery, rather than bought as loose chairs.
What is the difference between a banquette and a booth?
A booth is banquette seating arranged in facing pairs, usually with high backs, so each table sits in its own enclosed bay. A banquette can also be a single run along a wall, with chairs on the other side of the tables.
Can you make banquettes to our designer’s drawings?
Yes. We regularly work to an architect’s or interior designer’s drawings, adding the workshop detailing that makes the seating buildable, or we draw it from a brief. Either way, you approve set-out drawings and samples before anything is made.
Can new seating be fitted without closing for long?
We plan the installation around your trading hours and work out of hours where the business has to keep running. The seating is made and finished in our workshop, so the time on site is spent fitting it.
Do you make the bar and serveries as well?
Yes. At The Kitchen at Chewton Glen we made the banquettes, the bar and back bar, the oak-framed screens and the serveries together, so the whole room was drawn and made by one workshop.
How do we start?
Send us your drawings, or a few photos of the room with rough sizes. We come back with a guide price, then visit to survey and talk it through before anything is drawn in detail.
Further reading
Where we work
Banquette & booth seating for businesses in Poole, Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs, Branksome Park and Bournemouth — and across Dorset, the New Forest & Hampshire.
By appointment
Arrange a consultation.
Send us your drawings, or a few photos of the room with rough sizes. We’ll come back with a guide price, then arrange a visit to survey. No obligation, and no fixed catalogue.