If you happen to’re questioning whether or not a breakfast nook is price including to your kitchen, the reply typically comes right down to how effectively it suits your house and day by day routine. A poorly deliberate nook can take up invaluable ground house, interrupt the best way individuals transfer by way of the kitchen, or go away you with seating that doesn’t get a lot use. However when the situation, desk, seating, and surrounding kitchen are thought-about collectively, a breakfast nook may give you a cushty place for informal meals, dialog, homework, or a morning cup of espresso.
Learn on to see how renovators who labored with Sweeten added or up to date their breakfast nooks, from built-in banquettes and window seating to compact eating corners with added storage.
Key takeaways
- Constructed-in banquettes can present loads of seating with out requiring chairs on each aspect of the desk.
- Home windows can deliver extra pure gentle right into a breakfast nook and assist give the eating space an outlined location throughout the kitchen.
- Bench seating can embody drawers or close by cabinetry when extra storage is a part of the renovation plan.
- Corners and irregular areas could provide alternatives for a breakfast nook when the format is deliberate across the obtainable house.
- If a nook includes customized seating, cabinetry, lighting, home windows, or adjustments to the kitchen format, it may possibly assist to plan these parts with a contractor early within the renovation.
1. A bay window brings extra gentle into an present breakfast nook
Jenna and Hagan already had a breakfast nook of their Atlanta midcentury residence, so that they selected to replace the prevailing house moderately than create a brand new one elsewhere. As a part of their Atlanta residence renovation, they added a bay window to the nook whereas making different adjustments to the kitchen.
The completed breakfast nook combines the brand new bay window with built-in bench seating. The bigger window brings extra pure gentle into this a part of the kitchen and provides the seating space a stronger visible connection to the outside.
Including or enlarging a window requires a number of selections to return collectively, together with its placement and the size of any built-in seating beneath or beside it. When adjustments like these are a part of a kitchen renovation, discussing the nook with a normal contractor early may also help make sure the items match the ultimate format.
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2. A U-shaped banquette creates room for the household to assemble
Jenn and Jon needed the kitchen of their Higher East Aspect duplex to really feel lighter and simpler for his or her household to make use of collectively. Throughout their Higher East Aspect duplex renovation, they eliminated partitions that had been limiting pure gentle and circulation between the kitchen, consuming space, and front room.
A U-shaped eat-in banquette grew to become a part of the brand new kitchen format. Its wraparound seating provides the household a spot to eat collectively whereas staying near the cooking space, one thing Jenn and Jon thought-about essential as they deliberate the renovation.
Their mission additionally reveals why it may be helpful to consider breakfast nook seating whereas the remainder of the kitchen format continues to be being labored out. Jenn and Jon labored with their contractor’s design staff on the kitchen plan, which additionally included storage adjustments and a pantry with pull-out drawers.
3. An L-shaped bench provides an open kitchen an outlined eating nook
Brooke and Paul needed their Pelham kitchen to accommodate a number of members of the family with out feeling crowded. Their Pelham kitchen renovation eliminated the wall between the kitchen and eating room and opened the prevailing butler’s pantry as a part of the brand new format.
Throughout the expanded house, a customized L-shaped eating bench creates a definite place to take a seat with out closing the kitchen off once more. Blue and yellow pillows add coloration, whereas the nook format retains the seating grouped round one aspect of the eating space.
Their Sweeten contractor designed and put in the kitchen after working by way of the couple’s priorities, together with storage, a extra open kitchen and eating space, and an island. The eating bench was thought-about as a part of that total format moderately than added after the kitchen had already been deliberate.
4. Constructed-in seating provides storage to a Park Slope eating nook
Storage was a significant consideration all through Laura and Walter’s Park Slope house, together with the eating space beside their expanded kitchen. Throughout their Park Slope renovation, the unique kitchen and middle bed room modified locations, giving the brand new kitchen sufficient room for each a peninsula and a eating nook.
The built-in bench has drawers beneath, whereas extra cabinetry surrounds the nook. In a 700-square-foot house, that gave Laura and Walter one other place to retailer home goods with out giving up the seating they needed beside the kitchen.
The situation additionally retains the eating space linked to the kitchen and front room. Laura and Walter needed mates to have the ability to spend time with them whereas they cooked, and the nook provides friends someplace to take a seat close by with out standing within the kitchen doorway.
Their contractor additionally helped resolve an uncommon a part of the kitchen format. Fairly than treating an angled part of wall as one thing that wanted to be squared off, the contractor recommended utilizing the angle to open the kitchen greater than a standard 90-degree nook would have allowed.
5. A clumsy kitchen nook turns into a built-in breakfast nook
Combining two flats gave Megan and Zack the prospect to rethink almost each a part of their Carnegie Hill residence. They enlarged one kitchen and eliminated the opposite, creating a brand new front room as a part of their Carnegie Hill house mixture.
One irregular nook within the new format grew to become the situation for a built-in breakfast nook. As an alternative of leaving the oddly formed space unused, the couple added seating that grew to become a daily place for meals and work.
The nook additionally grew to become a spot the place individuals naturally gathered. For owners contemplating breakfast nook concepts for a room with no neat sq. or rectangular eating space, this mission reveals how the form of an present nook can affect the seating format.
6. A spherical desk and window bench create a easy kitchen nook
A breakfast nook doesn’t should be a big built-in banquette. In Monique’s Queens rowhouse renovation, the completed kitchen consists of an consuming space with a spherical white desk, chairs, bench seating, a big window, and a pendant gentle overhead.
The association provides Monique room to eat within the kitchen whereas becoming beside the encircling cabinetry. The spherical desk additionally pairs naturally with the combo of bench seating and freestanding chairs, with no desk corners extending into the encircling house.
Elsewhere within the kitchen, Monique’s contractor transformed a small broom closet right into a pull-out pantry. The mission reveals that eating house and extra kitchen storage don’t at all times should be mixed into the identical built-in characteristic.
What’s a breakfast nook?
A breakfast nook is a small, casual eating space situated in or subsequent to a kitchen. It could be constructed right into a nook, positioned beside a window, or organized alongside a wall with a desk and a mix of benches and chairs.
Regardless of the title, a breakfast nook isn’t restricted to breakfast. It may be used for informal meals, espresso, homework, working from residence, or sitting with household and mates whereas somebody is cooking.
Some breakfast nooks use customized banquettes which might be deliberate as a part of the room, whereas others depend on a freestanding desk, chairs, or a bench in an space that already fits eating. Because the examples above present, there isn’t one normal breakfast nook format. The suitable association is determined by the kitchen, obtainable house, and the way the family expects to make use of it.
What to think about when planning a breakfast nook
Earlier than including a breakfast nook, take into consideration greater than how the completed seating will look. The desk, seating, walkways, home windows, storage, and surrounding kitchen all want sufficient room to perform comfortably collectively.
- Begin with the situation: Take a look at corners, home windows, partitions, and areas beside the kitchen which may accommodate seating with out getting in the best way of main walkways or equipment doorways.
- Resolve how a lot seating you want: A U-shaped banquette can accommodate a number of individuals, whereas an L-shaped or straight bench could go well with a smaller family or a tighter space. Freestanding chairs additionally make it simpler to regulate the variety of seats when wanted.
- Select the desk with the seating in thoughts: Spherical tables can go well with compact areas and nook benches, whereas rectangular tables could pair higher with longer banquettes. Go away sufficient house for individuals to take a seat down, get up, and transfer across the desk comfortably.
- Take into consideration storage earlier than constructing the bench: If you happen to’re planning customized seating, drawers, or cupboards beneath the bench could also be price contemplating. Close by cabinetry may present storage with out including it immediately beneath the seats.
- Contemplate the home windows: A breakfast nook beside a window can profit from pure gentle, however the peak and placement of the window could have an effect on the dimensions of a built-in bench. If a renovation consists of including or enlarging a window, it helps to settle that a part of the plan earlier than the seating is constructed.
- Plan lighting across the desk: A pendant may also help distinguish the eating space from the remainder of an open kitchen. Its location ought to relate to the place the desk will really sit moderately than merely being centered throughout the obtainable ceiling house.
- Examine how individuals will transfer by way of the kitchen: Somebody sitting on the desk shouldn’t block the primary path between home equipment, doorways, or adjoining rooms. This turns into particularly essential in smaller kitchens the place a number of inches can have an effect on how snug the format feels.
- Coordinate customized parts with the remainder of the renovation: Constructed-in benches, cabinetry, electrical work, window adjustments, and wall alterations can contain a number of trades. A normal contractor may also help coordinate these particulars with the remainder of a kitchen renovation, so they’re deliberate earlier than set up begins.
If a breakfast nook is a component of a bigger kitchen or residence renovation, Sweeten’s community of vetted normal contractors may also help owners plan the seating together with cabinetry, storage, lighting, home windows, and different adjustments included within the mission.
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Incessantly requested questions
What are the traits of a breakfast nook?
The traits of a breakfast nook are compact eating seating and a location inside or subsequent to the kitchen. It could embody built-in benches, freestanding chairs, a small desk, window seating, or storage, relying on the obtainable house.
Is a breakfast nook price it?
Sure, a breakfast nook is price it as a result of it may possibly present a cushty place for informal meals, espresso, homework, or dialog with out requiring a separate eating room. Its worth is determined by how effectively the seating, desk, and placement match the kitchen and the family’s day by day routine.
The place ought to I put a breakfast nook?
A breakfast nook can work effectively in a kitchen nook, beside a window, or in an adjoining space that doesn’t intervene with main walkways. Megan and Zack used an irregular kitchen nook for his or her built-in nook, whereas Jenna and Hagan up to date an present nook beside a bay window.
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