Nook Planner: Will the Table Fit Your Corner?
Measure your two walls and type them in. The planner does the rest, for a corner nook or a bench along one wall.
Free tool
Nook planner
Find the table your corner can take, how long to make the benches, and how many people it seats. All you need is a tape measure.
Bench and table heights
That is for your table. Most guides give 17 to 19 in for a 28 to 30 in table.
How the planner works
Everyone on the bench gets 24 inches if you don’t mind touching elbows, 30 if you do. The bench back sits 18 inches from the table edge on the snug setting and 20 on the comfortable one.
A built-in bench only reaches about halfway round a round table, so the planner gives the bench half the people that table seats in a dining room, and chairs take the open side. It checks the six sizes on a standard seating chart, 30 to 60 inches. Nobody eats well in the inside corner, so we add one extra place’s worth of bench there. That one is our own rule of thumb, not a published figure.
Past a chair, the planner leaves 32 inches from the table edge to the wall when nobody walks behind it, 36 if people squeeze by, and 44 if they walk by. A walkway with no chair gets 36. Where a wall faces the table and nobody sits there, we still leave 32 inches so you can slide in and out. That last one is our call.
A table along a wall bench is 30 inches deep. For heights, the seat sits 10 to 12 inches below the tabletop, with at least 8 inches between the seat and whatever hangs under the table.
The drawing is to scale but simplified. Measure at the height the bench will sit, past any baseboard or radiator.
Sources: Dimensions.com, breakfast nook, Dimensions.com, banquette seating, WebstaurantStore seating chart, Fine Homebuilding, NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines, Castlery, Superior Seating, Ashdeco, furniturelink, JJones Design Co. Read August and September 2026.
Want the numbers behind it?
The planner uses the same clearances and seat sizes as my two measuring guides. If you want the reason behind each number, or you are building a bench rather than buying one, start there.