Booth seating on a shoestring

Materials: Faktum, Meltorp

Description: Having moved to a new home I was faced with the problem of it being very small. We had only a 3x4m living room and a very small 3m x 1.9m kitchen. In our living room we had no space for a full sized dining table or large sofa suite. So this is what I did do overcome our problem.

We had been given a Meltorp table when we purchased some folding chairs off the local classified ads. When we brought it to our new house we could not accommodate the table or the chairs as there just wasn't enough space. We was going to chuck the table until one day I had a great idea.

I built a bench seat in an alcove in the living room using 4 Faktum 35cm fan units. I purchased just the frame without the doors because I was going to make my own sliding doors using the backs of the frame and some cheap plastic vivarium runners.

For the bench seat we used Ikea Iris seat pads until we can afford to get a custom made cushion to go on top of the seats. Ihe Iris pads fit perfectly on top of the units.

I have added strength to the units by added some vertical 1x2 in the middle of the units and have tested them with 18 stone mates. I would have used the deeper 60cm overfridge units but my alcove was 37cm so that's why I went with the 35cm fan units. The size is perfect and is a joy to have lunch, breakfast on.

For the table I had to take the legs off the Meltorp table and make a custom center post to make it easier to get in and out of the booth. I have made a secret shelf on the post for condiments such as ketchup and hot sauce. I then clad the post with contiboard. I think the table looks pretty good and looks very expensive designer table cost me about �15 because I got the Meltorp free.

Here is a rough cost of materials of the bench and table

4 x faktum fan units �44
2x base frame studwork 89MM x 38mm �8
sliding vivarium runners �5
381mm top panel contiboard
7x iris seat pads �3 each

Table
Meltorp table (free) or �28 from ikea
offcuts of timber from house renovation

~ Abdul Manik, East London