A Dining Bench Is 32cm Shorter Than the Table, and That Is Deliberate

There are four dining benches in the entire Cedora catalogue, and they all belong to one range. That is not an oversight. A bench is a piece of furniture that only works when it is built to the table it sits at, and once you look at the numbers you can see exactly how tightly the two are tied together.

The Richmond bench comes in 158cm and 208cm. The Richmond table comes in 190cm and 240cm. Line those up and the bench is 32cm shorter than its table, both times, which is the sort of coincidence that is never a coincidence.

Key Takeaways

• Two lengths only: 158cm for the 190cm table, 208cm for the 240cm table.
• Every bench is 40cm deep and 46cm high, in natural or black.
• Forty centimetres deep against 62cm for a chair, so the bench vanishes when pushed in.
• A 76cm table over a 46cm seat leaves 30cm of knee room, which is the comfortable range.
• Seating is three on the short bench and four on the long one, at about 52cm each.

Always 32cm Shorter Than the Table

The Richmond Pine Dining Bench 158cm - Natural is built for the 190cm table and the Richmond Pine Dining Bench 208cm - Natural for the 240cm. In both cases the bench is 32cm shorter, which puts 16cm of clearance at each end.

That clearance is the whole reason the pairing works. Both the table and the bench stand on open frame legs set in from the corners, so a bench sized to match slides between the table legs rather than colliding with them. Buy a bench from somewhere else at the same length as your table and it will stop 10cm short of pushed in, forever, and you will notice it every time you walk past.

It also means the sizing decision is already made for you. If the table is 190cm, the bench is 158cm. There is no judgement call, no measuring the underside of the apron, and no chance of getting it wrong. Both lengths also come in black, which matches the black tables in the same range.

Forty Centimetres Deep Is Why It Disappears

Here is the number that actually changes a room. The bench is 40cm deep. A Richmond dining chair is 62cm deep. The 240cm table is 100cm across, so the top overhangs 50cm from the centre line on each side, which means a pushed in bench sits completely underneath it and a pushed in chair never can.

In a dining room that has enough space, nobody cares. In the room most Australians actually eat in, which is the end of an open plan living area with a walkway on one side, it decides whether the space works. Put the bench on the traffic side and you get back 22cm of floor compared with chairs, every hour of the day that nobody is eating.

There is a scenario every family recognises. Someone is carrying a full plate from the kitchen, someone else is coming the other way with the salad, and the gap between the table and the couch is the width of one chair back. Replace that row of chairs with a bench, push it in, and the pinch point stops existing.

Thirty Centimetres of Knee Room

Every Cedora dining table is 76cm high and the bench seat is 46cm, which leaves exactly 30cm between the two. That is the top of the comfortable range: below about 25cm your thighs press against the underside of the table, and above about 32cm you are sitting low enough that eating feels like a stretch.

What the bench does not have is a back, and that is worth being honest about. For a weeknight dinner that lasts twenty minutes, nobody misses it. For a long lunch that runs into the afternoon, the people on the bench start leaning on the table and the people in the chairs do not, and you will hear about it.

Which is why the sets that include one pair the two. The 190cm table with four chairs and a bench and the 240cm version with the longer bench both keep chairs on one side and a bench on the other. Guests get the backrest, the household gets the bench, and everybody is quietly happy with the arrangement.

The Seat Count Is Optimistic, and That Is Fine

The 158cm bench is listed as seating up to three and the 208cm up to four. Divide it out and that is about 52cm per person, which is the width the industry uses and which is genuinely fine for most people most of the time. It is also the reason a bench is the best seat in the house for children.

Three kids on a bench take up less space than three kids on chairs, they cannot tip backwards on two legs, and there is no argument about whose chair is whose. The same 52cm that feels tight for four adults at a long dinner is generous for a nine year old and a seven year old with room to spare.

The real cost of a bench is not width, it is access. Whoever sits in the middle has to wait for the person on the end to stand up, and if the bench is against a wall everybody shuffles. Put the bench on the open side of the table, keep the Richmond Pine Dining Chair Set of 2 - Natural for the people who get up during dinner, and that problem disappears.

The Bench Adds a Seat the Chairs Cannot

The Richmond Pine Dining Table 190cm - Natural is rated for six people when it is surrounded by chairs. Swap one side for the 158cm bench and the same table is rated for seven, because a bench does not have to divide its length into whole chairs. Wherever there is 50cm of clear seat, one more person fits.

That is the trick a bench pulls at Christmas. Nobody carries a spare dining chair in from the study when the table is full, because there is nowhere to put it, but a bench absorbs the extra cousin without anyone rearranging the room. On the 240cm table the same logic applies at a larger scale, and the long bench takes four adults or five children depending on who turns up.

Price per seat runs the same direction. Bought on its own, a bench works out at a little over half the cost of the equivalent number of dining chairs, so a table with a bench on one side is consistently the cheaper way to seat the same number of people. The 208cm bench in black sits under the black tables on exactly the same maths.

Where the Bench Goes When It Is Not at the Table

A dining chair in a bedroom looks like a dining chair that got lost. A bench does not, and this is the quiet argument for buying one. At 40cm deep and 46cm high it is the same proportion as a purpose built end of bed bench, so it can sit at the foot of a queen and hold folded towels without looking like it wandered in from another room.

The black one earns its keep in an entry. A bench by the front door is where shoes come off, where the bag lands, and where a visitor sits to unlace boots, and at 208cm it does that along a whole wall without cutting into the passage the way a hall chair does. In a house with kids and a school run, it is the most used piece of furniture you will buy.

That flexibility is the honest reason to take the bench over the extra pair of chairs. Two more chairs are two more chairs. A bench is dining seating that can become bedroom furniture in ten years when the household changes, and it costs meaningfully less per seat than the chairs it replaces. The full Richmond range is built so it can move rooms without looking out of place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size dining bench do I need?

One about 30cm shorter than your table. Cedora makes a 158cm bench for the 190cm table and a 208cm bench for the 240cm table, a gap of exactly 32cm in both cases, which keeps the ends of the bench clear of the table legs so it can push all the way in.

How high should a dining bench be?

Around 45cm to 47cm for a standard 76cm table. These benches are 46cm, which leaves 30cm between the seat and the underside of the table top. Less than about 25cm and adults sit with their thighs against the table.

How many people fit on a dining bench?

Three on the 158cm and four on the 208cm, which works out to roughly 52cm of bench per person. That is comfortable for children and for a quick weeknight dinner, and tight for four adults settling in for three hours.

Does a dining bench save space?

Yes, and the number is 22cm. The bench is 40cm deep against 62cm for a dining chair, so pushed in it sits entirely under the table top while a chair still projects. In a narrow room that is the difference between squeezing past and walking past.

Can a dining bench be used somewhere other than the dining room?

Easily, and plenty are. At 40cm deep and 46cm high it works at the foot of a bed for folded linen, along an entry wall as a place to put shoes on, or under a window. It is one of the few dining pieces that still makes sense in another room.