When designing the interior of a pub, restaurant or hotel, it’s important to ensure you get the seating right. Beautiful and comfortable fixed seating impacts everything from the atmosphere of the room, to the experience of the customer.

With so many options on the market it can be confusing when it comes to making the right choice for your company. Banquettes, booths or benches? What do they all mean?

Today we’re outlining some of the key differences between each fixed seating option, so you can get a better idea of what might work for you.

Banquettes

Banquette seating is perfect for creating an intimate dining experience in restaurants. Usually it takes the form of a long, upholstered bench that is placed against a wall, or built into it.

Ideal for spaces big or small, the built-in banquette style is popular in restaurants for its space-saving properties, as it allows for minimal space to be used whilst providing a larger number of seats.

Like all fixed seating, banquettes come in a vast range of fabrics, leathers and stitching finishes that all help to create a unique, tailored look to suit your environment.

Booths

Another popular option for bars, pubs and restaurants is booth seating. Usually created by configuring one or more banquette seats into a horseshoe arrangement, booths form a sort of ‘room within a room’ for your guests.

This option creates an intimate ambience for customers with an added element of privacy – allowing them to enjoy the social setting of the venue whilst spending quality time with their friends in an enclosed seating environment.

Booth seating is a great option for VIP areas in nightclubs, as well as creating a quiet space in bars and restaurants for customers to enjoy a peaceful drink.

Benches

This option is similar to the banquette style of seating, but usually features two benches facing each other with a table in between. For some, this evokes the style of a 1950s diner, and is often seen in cafes and restaurants with a more relaxed vibe.

Bench seating can usually accommodate approximately six people around one table, so it’s a very sociable option. Encompassing both straight and curved seating, benches also work nicely for hotel lobbies and bars.

Many establishments choose to incorporate a selection of each seating option, creating a more versatile and flexible venue. A combination of banquette, booth and bench seating offers guests the choice to enjoy a quiet night with their partner, a small gathering of friends, or a bustling birthday party – all in the same place.

At Craftwood, we make all our seating bespoke to order, so whatever your requirements are we can work with you to create the optimal solution. Click here for more information about the range of fixed seating we offer.