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lavender_lass

Do you have window seats or built-in benches in your home?

lavender_lass
13 years ago

So many older homes have beautiful built-ins...that often include window seats or built-in benches (maybe by stairs), etc.

Do you have anything like this in your home? Any pictures? I'm looking for ideas that would work in my older home :)

Comments (10)

  • Billl
    13 years ago

    Below are pics of the window seats in my home. They are not original to the house. The room has a chimney centered between 2 windows. The chimney stuck out almost 2 feet, so it created little alcoves on each side. The window seats helped recapture a ton of lost space in the room and provided some much needed storage. They also helped balance out the weight of the room since there are multiple doors on the other side.

    Here is a link that might be useful: My window seats

  • sacto_diane
    13 years ago

    Here are mine from my dining room. This was just before the finish was going to be freshed

    Diane

  • jlc102482
    13 years ago

    We have a couple in our library. They're not original (this room was originally the kitchen) and were installed after the bookshelves were added. The cast iron radiator that heats the room is located inside one of them (yes, it does make the room cold, hence the heater we have in there). The window seats are very simple, nothing fancy at all, but we love them! They look out onto a particularly pretty part of the garden, and they're a great spot for reading a book. The cat loves to sun himself on them and watch birds, too.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Window seats

  • amber_89
    13 years ago

    I have a window seat in my house that in original to the house. Hopefully the pictures show up...


  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thank you all for sharing such wonderful photos! I'm hoping to make a window seat, with bookcases on both sides, look like it might be original to the house :)

  • rogeraf1
    12 years ago

    I posted awhile back that I would take some pictures of my window seat and post them. Here they are. The house is a bungalow that was built in 1919. The window seat is the only built-in feature in the house. It's not quite deep enough to lounge on, but it gets used when we have a big party. Regardless of use it's one of the features in the house that gets the most compliments. I love the beautiful dark wood.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Window seat

  • lavender_lass
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Roger- Thanks for the picture...that's a nice window seat! :)

  • rafor
    12 years ago

    Okay, read this post yesterday for the first time and thought: I have one. Oops no pics of it. So that's what I did this morning. Realize this is still sort of a work in progress. This area is at the front of my house, upstairs at the end of the wide center hall. The window seat was there when we bought the house 2 years ago. A few months ago we added the bookcases on either side. The seat lifts up also for storage. Please ignore the fact that the curtains are not hemmed and I have not recovered and replaced the cushion (and the really crooked candle)! I think I also need to paint the strip under the window the same color as the windows and the seat and finish painting the upper left window and then scrape the paint off the window panes!!. Never enough time though.

    Also something I did in a previous house: it is really easy to make a finished window seat using those small cabinets that go above refrigerators.Put several together to get the length you want, add a top and a cushion.

  • cindy_lou_who
    11 years ago

    We have a window seat similar to some of these in our dining room. When looking at this section of the house from the outside, the window seat area sticks out from the rest of the wall. We've noticed that the underside of this area is not sealed/insulated very well, and we get cold air coming in through the base of the window seat. We were thinking we could seal it with caulking, cut foam board to fit, then cover with plywood. Will this work, or is there a better suggestion?

  • SK97232
    11 years ago

    Here is a window seat in our "den" area. The seat lifts up for storage, which is really nice.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Laurelhurst Craftsman