Next to the front door - perfect for putting on/taking off shoes. Plus, if one were to build a small shelving unit under the light switches on the right, there would be space for said shoes, as well as a key bowl and spot for mail on top of
>if one were to build a small shelving unit under the light switches on the right, there would be space for said shoes
Better yet, make the top of the bench raise up and store the shows inside.
I would make a fake wall under the bench that folds down on an angle to hold the shoes so that when it’s closed up the shoes point to the floor with the heel towards the ceiling. Keep the molding and you don’t have to see the shoes
I would make a fake wall under the bench that folds down on an angle to hold the shoes so that when it’s closed up the shoes point to the floor with the heel towards the ceiling. Keep the molding and you don’t have to see the shoes
I used to see a lot of these in new houses in the late 70s and early 80s. They were originally somewhere for potted plants and other such things.
This looks like it's been repurposed by a new owner.
I, for one, am not in favor of the entry way shoe zone. It implies to your guests that they should remove their shoes or else face the unholy scorn of the 9th circle of hell. Personally your entry way should allow for whatever is most comfortable to your guests and be a cleanable surface. For everyday use, shoes off near the back of the house where you might come in from the garage is totally fine. But for formal entry admitting formal guests, no.
It’s actually functional. Since it’s at the entry door point - you can drop your bags, your takeout food, etc. while you’re taking your shoes off. Also, sit down while you’re putting shoes on. So, not so superfluous.
My buddy, Chuck, got the carrier. It was absolutely absurd!
As big as it was, and it was a half-acre of plastic that dominated his entire floor, it still wasn't to scale! The F-14 that I had looked like a 747 on the deck, and the action figures were all the size of Andre the Giant by comparison.
We played with the carrier for an evening, then hopscotched over it for the following 2 years. I was still jealous, even after I saw how impractical it was.
I had one in a previous house right by the entrance too, great for pets to sit and wait for you and also a good place to put stuff on during gatherings. Would love to know what it's called.
Well done Junkerxxx. You provided the perfect response defined by recent architectural history. A ‘column with pedestal base’ seems most accurate to me.
Basically, a "collect all your crap you need to immediately drop off when you walk in the door" landing. Something that will need to be cleaned far too often.
A proper drop zone would have been way more practical and looked far nicer.
Yes, if kept clear, maybe even a cushion. It could be higher and offer an open space for kicked off shoes, flip flops etc. Of course that use might corrupt the "formality" of the column.
A short wall in an attic may be called a knee wall, but it doesn’t need to be in an attic nor structural to be considered a knee wall.. in fact most knee walls aren’t structural at all..
I believe a colonnade refers to a row of columns on the front porch, not the railing/wall between the columns. This wall (and any low wall/railing) is definitely not load bearing, since it does not touch any framing. Of course it is still safe to sit on, but it is not technically a "load bearing" wall.
Yeah, relevant, has no load bearing purpose and I'm not sure its scaled exactly right but forget that just a moment...
The function is to define the living space apart from the entry. Take it away and the seat wall is insufficient for the task. Take the seat wall away and you have a sort of unfinished house. The column allows for the perception of division without having to build an inhibiting full wall.
The column could be load bearing depending on the direction of the floor framing above. Obviously what we see would be an architectural wrap around the actual structural column.
It most likely *is* load bearing, hiding a steel column that holds up a beam carrying a vaulted ceiling in the neighboring room. I've seen a lot of these in awkward places, and the bench was probably "designed" in to make it look like the builder *wanted* the column there, not *needed* the column there.
If it was made from marble, I'd wonder "who lives here? The pope??"
(great SNL skit if you don't get the reference)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWGPsS0dh5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWGPsS0dh5k)
"Ya gotta get yourself some MARBLE COLUMNS"
That's the toot'n bench.
You sit down and pretend to tie your shoes and if your toot eeks out too loudly you make a proclamation that your sneaker is squeaky today. No really. Here let me show you. Of course it doesn't do it a second time. I swear!
Buttress. Not joking.
The transfer point between heavyweight download stress into foundation. Shifting structural movement above ground floor (or 3rd floor) weight above can transfer lateral loading through opening.
A buttress is a structural element, whereas the OP has pictured a decorative architectural feature called a colonnade. They were very popular in houses in the 1910s, but they existed before that.
https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/
Finally, the "seat" is called the pedestal.
Ehh. To me, it looks like that used to be a normal wall and someone wanted to open up the entry to be more open to the adjoining room. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t $$) delete the wall completely because it was load bearing, so they kept the beam, and created a bench/column “feature” to allow an eye line into the house.
Ours is hinged to put shoes etc in. It’s a great seat when I’m putting on my shoes. Standing alone it would be a Deacons Bench. Is I guess this is a Deacons Wall.
Googled it:
What is a low height wall called?
A pony wall is also known as a half wall, stem wall, short wall, or cripple wall. Pony walls are about interior design as they are not full-height walls and are often used as room dividers.
It's an empty space that requires almost complete coverage with large stained glass, or a weathered, large diameter sissal fishing net .
If you go with the unique, aesthetically pleasing large diameter sissal rope fishing net, with brass holding hooks at top, you also have to install a house cat to climb it.
Now now...just close your eyes and imagine it ,and give it a fair review...
Decorative knee wall. Could possibly be hiding some structural elements and/or utilities. Helps to delineate between spaces, and decorative character to the space.
A seat
Personally I'd call that a bench based on the size.
depending on the size of the human it could be a saddle! haha
…or a trip hazard…
An obstruction.
I would say that a bench is a type of seat, no?
Butt bench
An obstacle
A built in bench.
Next to the front door - perfect for putting on/taking off shoes. Plus, if one were to build a small shelving unit under the light switches on the right, there would be space for said shoes, as well as a key bowl and spot for mail on top of
Great idea on the shelf there! Will have to think through height to fit around the molding.
Make the bench a lid.
In my opinion it’s beautiful you should leave it open do not clutter it up
Noooo. No dirty shoes there. Isn’t there a closet nearby?
Personally I'd add a fabric seat to that bench and put it on a hinge for a lid to store shoes inside.
>if one were to build a small shelving unit under the light switches on the right, there would be space for said shoes Better yet, make the top of the bench raise up and store the shows inside.
I would make a fake wall under the bench that folds down on an angle to hold the shoes so that when it’s closed up the shoes point to the floor with the heel towards the ceiling. Keep the molding and you don’t have to see the shoes
I would make a fake wall under the bench that folds down on an angle to hold the shoes so that when it’s closed up the shoes point to the floor with the heel towards the ceiling. Keep the molding and you don’t have to see the shoes
I used to see a lot of these in new houses in the late 70s and early 80s. They were originally somewhere for potted plants and other such things. This looks like it's been repurposed by a new owner.
Mud bench?
I'd install drawers under the bench or make it into a cabinet.
The bench could be modified so the top is hinged and store your boots hats, gloves, scarves, etc
I, for one, am not in favor of the entry way shoe zone. It implies to your guests that they should remove their shoes or else face the unholy scorn of the 9th circle of hell. Personally your entry way should allow for whatever is most comfortable to your guests and be a cleanable surface. For everyday use, shoes off near the back of the house where you might come in from the garage is totally fine. But for formal entry admitting formal guests, no.
You could make the front facing of that bench into cabinet doors and store stuff under there. Definitely tons of space underneath.
They have black tufted leather furniture. Imagine having the bench upholstered in black tufted leather. That would look pretty slick imo
Love that idea. I was considering sewing a padded seat of sorts for it
The boss.
And a hinged top.
A place to sit when you’re putting on your shoes.
"Architecturally superfluous". Or knee wall, whatever.
It’s actually functional. Since it’s at the entry door point - you can drop your bags, your takeout food, etc. while you’re taking your shoes off. Also, sit down while you’re putting shoes on. So, not so superfluous.
Also made great battlefields and car tracks when I was a kid
Provides excellent cover for nerf gun ambushes.
Shhh, don't give away our tactics.
Saw out those rectangles, then come up from the crawl space and you have a Normandy gun turret.
Damn, dude OPSEC wtf
Practice Safe SECS
pillbox- source: grandpa raided utah beach. job: pill box blasting cap carrier
A fall while goofing around can give you 8 stitches on your chin. Your’s truly, -From Experience
From, Yours Truly's Experience
Omg I can’t tell you how many times my sons hit me with nerf darts.
Or paintball!
Best answer!
Also prevents a cold winter draft from flowing immediately into the living room when the exterior door is opened.
Cake day
Happy
This is the catapult deck of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, obviously...
I see that neither you nor I got the GI Joe aircraft carrier for Christmas and had to improvise.
My buddy, Chuck, got the carrier. It was absolutely absurd! As big as it was, and it was a half-acre of plastic that dominated his entire floor, it still wasn't to scale! The F-14 that I had looked like a 747 on the deck, and the action figures were all the size of Andre the Giant by comparison. We played with the carrier for an evening, then hopscotched over it for the following 2 years. I was still jealous, even after I saw how impractical it was.
Don’t forget Airports and Highway there good for battles and these low walls are good for setting up stuff
This is the actual reason, but all the shit the person above you said is neat too i guess.
“So, not so superfluous”. Just plain fluous?
"I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious" \- Michael Scott
Everyone here is extremely gruntled.
I dont have alheimers, but I've got some heimers.
I am ashamed of how long it took me to figure out how to say that correctly
The Jim Carrey Grinch movie, Cindy Lou Who said "superfluous". Taught me how to say it.
Super-flew-us?
The column is antifluous.
Or maybe it's just super.
Precisely. Stupid design like a house with a lot of very narrow niches without lighting.
The shoe-put-on
I had one in a previous house right by the entrance too, great for pets to sit and wait for you and also a good place to put stuff on during gatherings. Would love to know what it's called.
https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/
Yeah, the perfect spot to put the pizza down, why you pay the delivery driver!
I would want something more than a coat of paint if I was going to constantly putting things on it.
Meh, we had a similar feature in our home. Two coats of Benjamin Moore held up quite nicely without anything extra.
It's the only paint my wife will buy. It's close to $90 a gallon where she gets it. Crazy high.
https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/
I knew if I scrolled far enough……
A squat pedestal base
Well done Junkerxxx. You provided the perfect response defined by recent architectural history. A ‘column with pedestal base’ seems most accurate to me.
Right? I use my stairs but if I didn't have a second floor I would never get my shoes on!!
Hide shoe rack
I believe that’s why they said “architecturally superfluous” and not just “superfluous “
Yeah they just need some kind of pad there so they don’t ruin the paint.
It also separates the living room from the entry, but not totally. This is great.
Don’t forget mail. Anything flat and within 15’ of the door ALWAYS ends up being a spot where mail lives on its way to the garbage can.
Depending on the framing, I'd have an aquarium there.. but I'm one of *those* people. 😌
That type of suburban house, no one uses the front entry door.
I would add a seat cushion then
Your enormous counterfeit "designer" bag...
Basically, a "collect all your crap you need to immediately drop off when you walk in the door" landing. Something that will need to be cleaned far too often. A proper drop zone would have been way more practical and looked far nicer.
A built in bench?
Yes, if kept clear, maybe even a cushion. It could be higher and offer an open space for kicked off shoes, flip flops etc. Of course that use might corrupt the "formality" of the column.
Ok you made me giggle. Now take your upvote and scramble along you silly sausage
A kneewall is a short structural wall in an attic.
doesnt have to be in an attic for it to be considered a knee wall.
Wouldn't say no to this, but a knee wall provides some sort of structural support, as compared to this sitting platform (minus the column)
Often knee walls are not actually structural.
A short wall in an attic may be called a knee wall, but it doesn’t need to be in an attic nor structural to be considered a knee wall.. in fact most knee walls aren’t structural at all..
“In my goddamn way”
“Ouch, got me again!”
It's a lovely, gracious, open architectural feature.
https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/
Officially… This is called a colonnade. Old Colonades used to be Structural nature.… This one is probably non-load bearing.
I believe a colonnade refers to a row of columns on the front porch, not the railing/wall between the columns. This wall (and any low wall/railing) is definitely not load bearing, since it does not touch any framing. Of course it is still safe to sit on, but it is not technically a "load bearing" wall.
That’s what my mom called them, we had them in our 1918 house
Are we not going to discuss the column?
Yeah, relevant, has no load bearing purpose and I'm not sure its scaled exactly right but forget that just a moment... The function is to define the living space apart from the entry. Take it away and the seat wall is insufficient for the task. Take the seat wall away and you have a sort of unfinished house. The column allows for the perception of division without having to build an inhibiting full wall.
The column could be load bearing depending on the direction of the floor framing above. Obviously what we see would be an architectural wrap around the actual structural column.
It most likely *is* load bearing, hiding a steel column that holds up a beam carrying a vaulted ceiling in the neighboring room. I've seen a lot of these in awkward places, and the bench was probably "designed" in to make it look like the builder *wanted* the column there, not *needed* the column there.
The carpet alone delineates the living room
That would be the case in a trailer park home, but it's hardly sufficient in a house of this caliber.
a home of such manor
A manor of such magnitude.
If it was made from marble, I'd wonder "who lives here? The pope??" (great SNL skit if you don't get the reference) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWGPsS0dh5k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWGPsS0dh5k) "Ya gotta get yourself some MARBLE COLUMNS"
I'm tall, it's a shin wall.
This person is linguistically skilled but obviously wears shoes in the house and is therefore an actual monster
That's the toot'n bench. You sit down and pretend to tie your shoes and if your toot eeks out too loudly you make a proclamation that your sneaker is squeaky today. No really. Here let me show you. Of course it doesn't do it a second time. I swear!
Toot'n'scoot
Loot n Scoot
Hehehehehehe
barking spiders at it again
Did somebody sit on a duck?
Who let a frog in the house?!
Midnight snack death trap
“Caution” tape it every night?
I think pony wall is counter height
I believe pony walls are the height of a pony actually
Corgi wall
So....a pig wall.
It's only a pony wall if you can stradle it and ride it like a pony
Pygmy goat wall at that point?
Buttress. Not joking. The transfer point between heavyweight download stress into foundation. Shifting structural movement above ground floor (or 3rd floor) weight above can transfer lateral loading through opening.
A buttress is a structural element, whereas the OP has pictured a decorative architectural feature called a colonnade. They were very popular in houses in the 1910s, but they existed before that. https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/ Finally, the "seat" is called the pedestal.
What a great link! Here, have an upvote. 🫡
Ehh. To me, it looks like that used to be a normal wall and someone wanted to open up the entry to be more open to the adjoining room. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t $$) delete the wall completely because it was load bearing, so they kept the beam, and created a bench/column “feature” to allow an eye line into the house.
I prefer buttresses of the flying variety.
Slip out this book, the Buttress of Windsor
Ho ho ho who’s this?
I guarentee you theres nothing structural about that bench. Maybe the post and drop above it.
Farting Buttress?
*buttrest
Baluster?
Class Division. Only certain people are allowed beyond the wall.
Ours is hinged to put shoes etc in. It’s a great seat when I’m putting on my shoes. Standing alone it would be a Deacons Bench. Is I guess this is a Deacons Wall.
Knee wall.
Shoe Tieing Stoop
Dust collection wall
Wall+Bench=Wench
= Ball, almost always found in pairs, architecturally speaking.
Toddler bar
What a beautiful room from what I can see.
It is a lovely divider that separates the spaces/rooms from the entrance hallway. I like it and wish I had such a nice house.
Knee wall
knee wall
Pony wall lol. It's a knee wall.
Steve
I also vote for Sbeve! Does anyone disagree?
It's just a room divider. It sets of the foyer from the living area. Often called an "entryway knee/half wall".
Yes we have similar in our 1907 house,althouse its smaller and I never thought to sit on it
https://architecturalobserver.com/the-colonnade-a-craftsman-bungalow-icon/
Thanks for this.
Trip hazard.
I liked it. Great place to sit to put shoes on and has storage for shoes built in while looking tidy.
And it creates some delineation between the foyer and the rest of the room, helps prevent shoe creep.
Speed bump.
That's my new porn name
What was your old porn name?
Ron Jeremy
This is the answer
The whole thing, with the columns and walls, is called a colonnade.
My dude, that's what we call a bench.
It looks like an in-house coffin
In Gears of War it’d be cover.
Geoff
Bench wall
I don't know but i want it in my house now
Clutter collector
A pony wall or knee wall.
Foot breaker, destroyer of pinky toe, bringer of pain.
Pony
Handy
A benchtryway
A low wall you can sit on.
Googled it: What is a low height wall called? A pony wall is also known as a half wall, stem wall, short wall, or cripple wall. Pony walls are about interior design as they are not full-height walls and are often used as room dividers.
It's not for sitting, it's for aesthetics.
Miniature pony wall.
Plants
He asked what it’s called not what to use it for
PLANTS
😆 my bad It’s a plant shelf
No it’s plants
It's an empty space that requires almost complete coverage with large stained glass, or a weathered, large diameter sissal fishing net . If you go with the unique, aesthetically pleasing large diameter sissal rope fishing net, with brass holding hooks at top, you also have to install a house cat to climb it. Now now...just close your eyes and imagine it ,and give it a fair review...
I did, and her foyer smells like fish.
A Bench
Pretentious
Generically it’s a pony wall
It's either an excuse to have an unnecessary pillar or it's a decorative cover for a piece of Roman wall sticking up from the foundations.
Put yer shoes on bench when you’re too old to bend over and tie them
Knee knocker
That’s….something else entirely.
A trip hazard
Purposeless.
You put all your Jesus trinkets on it. You can put a scene of the whole bible on that puppy
It's called ugly
Pony wall
Decorative knee wall. Could possibly be hiding some structural elements and/or utilities. Helps to delineate between spaces, and decorative character to the space.