A $124 DIY Dining Nook Adds Color — and Storage — to This Kitchen
ABOUT THIS BEFORE & AFTER
HOME TYPE: House, Townhouse
PROJECT TYPE: Dining Room, Living Room
STYLE: Colorful, Modern
SKILL LEVEL: DIY
RENTAL FRIENDLY: No
If you and the people you live with spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you might benefit from a dining nook — a banquette-style setup that wraps around the table and maximizes seating.
After her family’s major kitchen renovation where the kitchen gained some major square footage, Kas Nicholls (@houseinhove) realized how much time she and her family were spending in their new, sun-drenched space, and she decided to design a cozy seating situation.
Kas initially had a tiny kitchen, then after expanding it, she added a table and chairs (you can see that setup here). After living with that for a while, she leveled up with a cool wavy bench and a curated gallery wall above it.
A DIY bench adds a pop of color — and storage.
“This is my first ‘carpentry’ build — outside of paneling,” Kas says of the bench on Instagram, and she says it’s the DIY project she’s most proud of in her home. To create it, she built a lumber framework for the bench (including a beam to mount it to the wall), then she added paneling around it and created a benchtop with hinges so she could store things inside the bench. She cut a scalloped seat back — her first time using a jigsaw — and painted the bench Farrow & Ball’s Duck Green (leftover from her kitchen cabinets).
She’s still looking for the perfect fabric for the bench seat cushion, but for now, she says the bench adds the perfect pop of color to this part of her kitchen. The project cost about £100, or $124 USD.
A gallery wall completes the cozy dining nook.
The pink wall behind the new bench is Farrow & Ball’s Pink Ground. Her dining table is from John Lewis, and her green chairs were a secondhand find. Kas added a colorful gallery wall above them, and you can find her Matisse Les Velours print from the MoMA Design Store.
Kas’s gallery wall advice is to build up your artwork and poster collection over time from lots of different places, especially travels. To see the rest of her home, check out her full house tour.
Inspired? Submit your own project here.
Further Reading
I Tried the 90/90 Rule and My Closet Is Now Fully Decluttered
We Asked 8 Pro Travelers What They Never Pack in Their Carry-On, and Here’s What They Said
