Choosing a Breakfast Nook

Although the phrase seems like something that your grandmother might say, breakfast nooks are still alive and well.  In case you don’t know what they are, a breakfast nook is a separate area for eating.  Usually, a nook will be partially enclosed, and they are often placed in a corner, in which case the walls are on two sides.

So why should you have a breakfast nook in your home?  The answer is that many modern homes don’t feature them anymore, so it is a good way to give your home that special design touch.  Another reason to have breakfast nook furniture in your home is to provide a more intimate dining area.  Although most breakfast nooks have walls that you can see over, you will have the feeling like you are in a booth at a diner.  If you regularly have lots of guests over for dinner, you will most likely need a normal dining table as well, since breakfast nooks are usually only large enough to sit about six people.  The reality of the situation is that for everyday use, they are a wonderfully cozy place to eat, read, or even work.

Breakfast Nook Designs

In terms of materials used, pretty much all breakfast nook sets for sale are made out of wood.  Wooden breakfast nooks look great, but if you want one that fits seamlessly into your home, it is definitely possible to make a built in breakfast nook when you are either designing or remodeling your kitchen and dining room.  In terms of the extra work involved, installing a custom breakfast nook in your kitchen shouldn’t add a whole lot of extra costs to your remodeling.  Speak to your carpenter or contractor about it, or do it yourself if you are handy.  For the remainder of this article we’ll be talking about wooden breakfast nooks that you can buy and place into your kitchen without having to erect walls or anything like that.

The layout usually consists of a breakfast nook bench attached to the wall on two sides, and a free-standing bench on the remaining side.  The size of the nook that you will buy will depend on the area that you are going to put it in.  If you have plenty of room, you can get one that has two long attached benches and is square in shape.  If your area is smaller, get a rectangular nook.  The open side of the nook will have a free standing bench that is the same length as its opposing side.

One of the most popular choices is a corner breakfast nook because corners are usually a tough place to fit furniture into.  Corner breakfast nooks are a great way to neatly fit your dining area into a room and leave the rest open.  This layout works great for small studio apartments that don’t have separate dining areas since they define the dining area without taking up much room.  If you want a little extra privacy, you can choose one that has higher walls on it.

Since extra storage space is so great, it is a good idea to choose a breakfast nook bench that will open up to provide storage.  Finding a breakfast nook with storage is actually a bit harder than you might think though.  Most of the wooden nooks available don’t have any storage space built into them.

A final point to consider is that most of these wooden nooks have pretty hard seats that might get uncomfortable after sitting down for a while.  Breakfast nook cushions aren’t readily available, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get them.  Do a search on Amazon for bench cushions, and you will find plenty of them.  Just get the dimensions of your benches and choose one that fits.

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