Beach Cottage Living Room Makeover – Banquette Seating
Okay the beach cottage living room is looking so good so far! My sister and I finished up the fireplace makeover last week. See more about that here in this blog post! Next up, the banquette seating!
They used to have a little dining table here by the window. They do a LOT of hosting here so we decided to build banquette seating all along the window (with storage) paired with a rectangular table so they can fit a lot more people!
Building From Scratch
We used some 2×4’s to make a frame. We built 3 boxes and screwed them together and then we secured them to the wall and to the floor so they wouldn’t tip.
Then we secured some plywood boards to the frame with my framing nailer. We figured out something pretty brilliant. The baseboard was a bit of a unique design so we got this contour gage to find the shape of it and then cutting around it. That way it would flow seamlessly into the wall.
You push it against the wall and lock it in place. Then I traced it on my wood and cut it with my jigsaw. Boom.
Then, we added hinge lids to the entire length of the seating so they’d have extra storage. It looked a little questionable at first but with all of the trim it would be 🔥
Trim
Next up, trim so we can get it ready to be painted! We started with a baseboard and then a thinner trim in pairs along the length of the install. Looks kind of nautical! We used a speed square to make sure they were straight and evenly spaced and then secured them with a brad nailer.
After that, we filled all the seams and nail holes to prep for paint!
Cushions
I decided to make some cushions for the banquette out of this gorgeous fabric! I needed to make 3 cushions so it definitely took a while – but they turned out so cute!
To secure the cushions, we used these grip strips. We stuck them on the cushion and then secured them in place. This would keep them from sliding around!
Paint
We painted the banquette one shade darker than the trim and it looked GOOD!
And look how GOOOOD it looks! We’re so glad we did this because this is the communal area. It’s a big living, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. So this helped turn the living room into a dining area too. So cute and so functional!!
I cannot wait to decorate in here and show you the whole space!
Here’s everything we used working on this banquette!
