Think of walking into an old country plantation home. As you enter the foyer, you are greeted by a pair of entryway benches. They are seemingly welcoming you to take a load off your feet and take in the beauty of the surrounding house. Such a simple furniture addition, yet these entryway benches have already set part of the mood for your visit to this home.



It's amazing how simple pieces of furniture, like entryway benches can have such an impact on the complete mood of a home. The friendly, welcoming feel of entryway benches makes sense if you consider the history of these pieces.

Entryway benches were the seating options that welcomed anyone, in the days of old. Once upon a time, chairs were restricted to use by important people. Only those with status were able to use a chair all their own. Everyone else had to share benches, which were essentially a long wooden seating surface with no back. They were very simply planks of wood with legs attached underneath, but they served their purpose well, to allow the masses somewhere to sit and rest, or listen to the person in the chair, the early chairman, talk to them.

Over time as people and societies progressed, so did the bench. One of its first growths was to have joined legs, then a back was formed, so when you encountered entryway benches you really could lean back and take a load off, without falling over.

Then someone got the bright idea of expanding on a currently used item, the entryway chest, and combining it with the entryway bench. These entryway benches not only allowed a place to sit and rest, or take off ones shoes after coming in from the elements, but also a place to store those all weather items, blankets or other things that needed an out of sight spot in the home.

Over time there were even more advances for entryway benches. Some of those advances related to their appearance. Wood working became very popular and instead of just being planks of wood put together, entryway benches started to have a lot more character and personality as the woodworker would put extra time into the shapes and designs in the wood pieces used to construct the piece. Some turned into magnificent wood-worked pieces of art.

Another timely advancement in the construction of entryway benches was to make them more inviting, by making them more comfortable. While you will settle for nearly any surface to sit down on when you need to take a seat, no one complains when that surface is actually comfortable. Someone figured that out along the way and decided to upholster entryway benches. This little padded bonus made for an even friendlier, and often more attractive seat in the entryway. Some of these benches are so attractive and comfortable, that they even moved from the entryway into other rooms in the home and are now accent furniture pieces.