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Help with details on banquette

11 years ago

We're finally getting around to the banquette. It's an "L" 7.5' x 5' under east and south windows. We have a historic house (built between 1825 - 1840). I feel we're just caretakers here but need to do some changes for modern living. During demo we found 10" wide by 7/8" old painted floor planks from around 1840's that was covered up with a raised floor in 1914. I would like to use this wood to face the banquette.

Now the questions:

1. The planks appear to have 2 coats of paint (probably lead). I would like to use as is and just clean up and then seal (polyurethane?) them. Hopefully this will seal anything else on the planks (arsenic? or other bad chemicals from that time) The floor was in a probable servant's room. Does this sound like a good solution? Any other concerns? The table and banquette will normally be the "kids" table. We will have seat cushions and pillows for the back.

2. What direction should we lay the planks? On the seat we're going the long way (20" deep so just 2 planks). We're also thinking the same for the back which is just over 20" but we will have a cushion on the seat. Maybe mix it up and go up and down like bead board (but really wide) for the part under the bench (kick area). What do you think?

3. For the table top we are going to use this wood, its subfloor or other wood from the original servants' quarters. We would not use the painted side but stain the underside. For a kitchen table should we use waterlox or a poly for the finish? Again, this will be used mainly by young kids and take a lot of abuse.

We will have 4' morgue drawers under the seats. DH is framing with 2x4's and then plywood.

Here's some pictures. The banquette will go under the windows - 7.5' under the 2 windows. You can see the multipainted brick that we embraced as part of the history of the house.

this one shows the 2 different colors on the wood

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Comments (7)

kelhuck
11 years ago
I can't offer advice, as I'm here for help with my kitchen as well. However, I just wanted to say that I LOVE the old brick! I'm so glad you kept it as-is. So much character there....imagine the stories that brick could tell. *sigh*
bostonpam
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks kellhuck. The brick wall was an exterior wall until they added an addition sometime 1840 - 1860. If you look at the old brick wall and see where the paint stops near the top - that is where the old ceiling was located and just above it was a subfloor and floor. This is where we took the the painted planks. The present floor is just above the present ceiling. You can also see the round opening in the bricks for an old stove tied into the chimney.

Anyone else have any comments on our plans for the banquette?
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a2gemini
11 years ago
Boston - your kitchen is looking great! Interesting how you are mixing old and new to keep the history of the house intact.
I don't know how to advise you on this but a cool project.
meganmca
11 years ago
You know, maybe it's just that my cousins had lead poisoning as kids, but it's making me twitch that you're making a kid-bench & table with all that flaking lead paint. Coating with poly isn't going to cause it to flake less, and I certainly wouldn't tell you to sand the stuff off (lead dust = lead everywhere forever). I just see the kids doing what my cousins did, pulling bits off the underside of the table & eating them...whacking the table, etc, and making dents, etc.

I don't think it's that expensive to get it tested--see what you're actually dealing with!
lawjedi
11 years ago
I had to speak about the lead as well. Pls get it tested... and if possible cleaned up ... if not DON'T USE IT!

My dh is a lawyer in Baltimore City... I can safely say problems from lead paint poisoning is close to 90% of his job...

Lead paint WILL flake. Lead paint has a slightly sweet taste to it which attracts the kiddos... Lead paint will get into the dust and aerate. Lead paint will cause permanent brain damage in the developing minds of children.

After all that has been said, Dh and I are in the finishing stages of building a banquette ourselves - I'm hoping he gets the major stuff done tomorrow :-). Our banquette has some similarities to what you described - it's not quite an "L" shape - will have one "morgue" drawer.

I don't know how old your kids are, but every decision I made when designing our banquette was "how easy will this be to clean? will peanut butter/jelly/mac cheese get stuck in the groves?" ;-) (my 4 kids are ages 5-12)

(LOVE the exposed brick too)

This post was edited by lawjedi on Fri, Jan 4, 13 at 22:10
bostonpam
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for the comments.

meganmca and lawjedi - I will test the paint. I thought if I applied a few coats of polyurethane that it will encapsulate anything that may be on the wood. Maybe I'm wrong. My kids are 12 and 15 but my nephews 2 and 5 are here a few times a week.
gwlolo
11 years ago
We have an older house and some gorgeous old growth redwood planks as well. He to get rid of everything painted as it was lead based.

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