Benches are the quiet fix for a room that needs seating but not another chair. Seldens carries them from Mercana, Stickley, Rowe, Four Hands and Hooker Furniture in solid wood, metal and upholstery, including the Hudson Valley slatted bench, the Walnut Grove spindle bench and the 125th Anniversary Fireside Bench.

A Bench Earns Its Keep in Three Rooms

At an entry, it is where shoes come off, and one that slides fully under a console keeps the hallway clear when nobody is sitting. At the foot of a bed it holds the throw and gives you somewhere to put socks on, and it should run a little narrower than the mattress rather than matching it. In a dining room, a single bench on the window side seats three where two chairs would fit, and it tucks all the way under when the meal is done.

Wood Top, Metal Base or Upholstered Seat

Choose by how long anyone will actually sit. A slatted or solid wood top is right for an entry, where people perch for thirty seconds and track in Northwest rain. Upholstered and leather seats belong at a bed or in a living room where sitting lasts longer, and hair on hide or leather cleans up better than a pale woven fabric. Metal bases take being dragged and keep a heavy top from looking heavy. Check the seat height against whatever the bench serves before you order.

See Benches and Ottomans in Tacoma, Bellevue and Olympia

Bench height is unforgiving. An inch too tall at a dining table or a bed and it stops getting used, which is why sitting on one beats reading a spec. Our designers in Tacoma, Bellevue and Olympia will check it against your table or bed frame, and delivery runs across the Puget Sound. Look at all benches or at accent chairs if you want a back.