11 Best Dining Room Benches

Everyone wants to feel like family around the dining table. Whether you’re hitting up your favorite local restaurant or celebrating holidays with your loved ones, a full dining room table is a spot where everyone feels welcome (and leaves full).

While the most important thing in this scenario is great food and great company, a masterful dining room setup can go a long way to fostering a family-style atmosphere. Sure, you could just surround your dining table with individual chairs, but there’s something about sitting down to a meal on a bench with people you love that’s so communal and joyful. A dining bench says “I like you so much that, when you get up to go the bathroom, I am willing to get up as well.”

It’s also a lovely design statement and a nice way to shake things up a little in the dining room. Even better, fewer individual seats mean less visual clutter, making a bench a great option for small or transitional spaces (you can even tuck a backless version beneath the table when not in use). Below, shop 11 of our favorite dining room benches for your space—and get ready to plan an epic dinner party.