Banquette ideas and inspiration

Sharing the banquette ideas and inspiration for a small budget friendly makeover we are planning in our own home! 

I shared on my Instagram the other day how I wanted to make our banquette seating area  little more cozy. We built it a little over a year ago now, and we spend a LOT of time there. Since we’ve built the built-ins and homeschool area, and made over our fireplace (they’re all in the same room), the built-ins could use a little freshening up. While nothing is wrong with them, the white paint looks really dirty really quickly, and could use a fresh coat of paint anyway. 

I still love the bench we built and the shiplap walls behind it, but hoping to do a little budget friendly facelift on this space soon! The goal?

• Minimal time involved
• Small budget required (hope to do it all under $200)
• end result: cozy homey vibes

Up first: painting the banquette

Paint is my favorite makeover tool ever! Guess what? It’s touted as a “cheap makeover tool” but if you’ve bought good quality paint lately, you’ve probably realized its not thatttt cheap. But for what we’re trying to achieve? I know it will be worth it. Plus I love re-using the paint I didn’t touch in the can, so you know I’ll find a place for the paint somewhere else in my house!

I have a few other high contrast spaces near this banquette, so I’m going to try to go for more of a soft contrast here. Originally, I was wondering if I should do a natural wood shelf, but I am leaning more towards a simple painted wood ledge instead. 

Imagine:

• neutral toned bottom of the bench and shiplap
• simple piece of wood with brackets – all painted the same color as the neutral bottom color
• fresh coat of paint on the white shiplap on top
• vintage-inspired simple pieces on the top of the shelf

With that picture in your head, come see these paint colors I’m going to sample:

Inspiration for the banquette paint colors:

As you can see, I’m going to try the “Sticks and Stones” lightened up 50%.

Read this post for more explanation on how to lighten paint colors – and see what a big difference this makes!

This color looks so beautiful in my friend Catherine’s home (find her on Instagram here! Her home is beautiful – and it’s even more beautiful in person.)

She found this paint color originally through this picture in Country Living Magazine.

BUT I think that at full strength, it’ll be too dark for the look I’m going for. Our banquette isn’t in a sunny area, so anything we put on it will look much darker than paint colors in a bright spot. Again – that’s why it’s so important to sample colors in your own home!

I’m interested in Willow Tree too – we have a lot of green tones around our house and in this room too – we’ll see how it plays off of the other colors we have!

 

Banquette ideas and inspiration:

As always, when I’m formulating an idea in my head, I go search on Pinterest to see what can inspire me there. (PS – you are following me on Pinterest, right?)

Here’s some banquette ideas and inspiration images that are getting my wheels turning right now:

This whole house is beautiful! I am so inspired by the muted tones in this banquette and the delicate prints above it:

 

Of course Joanna would have an inspiration image for me too! I love the paint color she used here – even though it’s a very different layout than our space, the colors and overall banquette design are inspiring me:

 

Again – it’s a different configuration but I’m very inspired by this color and overall feel of this space here:

 

This banquette is so beautiful and more similar to something we can recreate in our own home. This is the one that is making me want to sample that Willow Tree paint color:

 

Banquettes with a shelf on top:

As for a shelf on top, I think it’ll add some dimension and a natural way to break up the two paint colors on this wall. We will have to be careful though to make sure we aren’t putting too low so kiddos will be banging their heads! But if we have it high enough, I think it’ll be a beautiful addition. Here’s some more banquette ideas with shelves on top:

Another Joanna Gaines makeover to be inspired by!

 

 

So what do you think? Which color would you choose to paint the banquette? Make sure you’re following on Instagram so you can see how it all comes together!