Can I paint a garden bench cream and put it in my kitchen?

[Cariadity]

I have a large kictchen dinning room and a small living room so would like to make the kitchen as social a space as possible to make up for the living room. I have an empty alcove that would be perfect for some kind of seat. We have looked at loads of sofas online and can't find the right look as I don't want it to look like we have dumped an old sofa in there. If I was willing to pay a fortune there are some perfect love seats around but that's out of our budget. I'm considering buying a cheap garden bench, painting it creamy white and getting some foam pads or big cushions to pretty it up? Would this look crazy?

Would it suit the rest of the decor? Have a look on Pinterest - lots of ideas for up cycling furniture.

Sounds perfect, go for it.
Google Grillo designs, she has a Facebook page with lots of fun up cycling ideas.

We have an oak settle in our kitchen. Second-hand. Was about £200 from an antiques place. This kind of thing.

You can get ones with storage underneath if you are short of storage. And you can always paint it if you are not keen on the dark wood look.

I think it would suit the decor as we have a dinning table that's old and oak and is being painted after xmas and the rest is cream cabinets and wood work tops. I think I'm going for a cheaply version of the settle so that would work well. My husband is adverse to anything being used for the wrong purpose so has said outright no as it's weird. Maybe if I call it a settle and say it's meant to be indoors he will be ok? I've added a picture of the kitchen but the alcove is where I'm standing. Thanks for responses!

I think it would look great. We have a sofa in our dining room and I painted the wall in a lighter shade of the same tone of the sofa, to make it look purposeful. It's nice to hang out there and not have to sit at the table.

Add a big sheepskin ( or faux equivalent ) and say it's hygge or something Nordic if anyone asks ! Will be fab !

I have a massive church pew in our dining room. It is absolutely filled with cushions and is my most favourite thing in my whole house. A bench with masses of cushions would look cool. Go for it!

I know someone who has done this and it looks great

I know someone with a metal daybed in their open-plan kitchen-diner. Looks great.

We did this and love it 😊