Are you building the bench? Or looking for one to buy?
Below is a link to a nice one. It's a little taller than 17" but it might help with your design. I really like the fact that it's curved. That way, if you have it on a sloped part of the floor you won't notice it as much. The lower shelf is a nice feature as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: teak bench

If you are making your own and want to replicate the design linked above you could use this hardware for the shelf...

Here is a link that might be useful: wire shoe rail

I'll be making the bench, so I've got a lot of choices I can make. That is a very attractive looking bench. I like the wide slats and small gaps. The curve from from side to side looks great, but I'd think that a human contoured seat should be curved from front to back. I'll have to clamp a bunch of 3/4' lumber together to experiment with the sort of shape that is most comfortable to sit on.

I just found an example of front to back curvature.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bench

This post was edited by whk1 on Sat, Dec 28, 13 at 7:02

Make sure you check the weight limit. DH is pushing on 300 lbs. When I was looking around, except for Serena, most benches had limit of 250 or less (like the one from Frontgate above - it's beautiful but not sturdy enough IMO).