This banquette is joinery first and upholstery second. The upholstered back sits inside a 10 cm frame of three stepped timber mouldings mitred at 45°, flanked by fluted pilasters with five flutes each, and crowned by a carved radiating-leaf medallion. The result belongs in a panelled dining room, a hotel ballroom or a members' club as naturally as the cornice above it.
Running three stepped mouldings around a frame and closing every mitre cleanly is the kind of work that separates a joinery-capable factory from a booth maker, and it is why this design suits refurbishments of heritage rooms where the new seating must sit next to original panelling.
The back is deep-buttoned in fabric; the seat is a plain piped cushion so that crumbs stay out of button wells. Timber is hardwood or hardwood-faced ply, painted or lacquered to a sample matched to your panelling colour.
