Grab some bench storage

For as simple as they are, window seats draw admiration in many ways.

Architect Gerald Lee Morosco calls them both a "perch" and a "punctuation."

Homeowner Chris Pietrandrea says the window seat in her Wexford home has made the kitchen "warm" when it could be "big and empty."

Designer and home builder Don Horn has used them to change the proportions of rooms.

Interior design Cecelia Staniec says they provide space, and "any time you can add storage and don't, it's a big mistake."

Offering seating, storage and even a strong element of design, window seats provide a variety of reasons to be there. Design can be as plain as a straight line or can add curved lines around a round window.

They can be as basic as adding a bench between two free-standing bookcases on either side of a window.

"They do a lot for as simple as they are," says Horn from Sewickley, best known for his designs of historically accurate colonial homes. He works with Jerry Horn Construction out of the same borough. "We try to do them as often as we can.'

Ron Virtes from East Hills Cabinet in North Versailles can understand why a designer or homeowner would want one.

"They are simple to make both new and in renovation," he says. "You have a seat and you can create a storage space easily with a lid top or some doors below and just a little hardware."

He also says they can make good covers for radiators, giving old houses new looks.

"They can create an alcove," says Morosco.

While the seating and storage elements of window seats are the obvious advantages, Morosco looks to the role they have in defining an area.

The South Side architect is a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. He says the design of window seats can help to blend the outside and inside elements of a building. If a seat is surrounded by cabinets, it "enhances the space" by "creating a pocket" that draws the eye.

That action then focuses attention and pulls in the outside, he says.

Elizabeth Albright says that definition of the area is exactly what happened when Morosco added one to a revision of three small rooms into a kitchen.

"I was suspicious of the idea and reluctant," she says of the work in her home in the Schenley Farms area of Oakland. "But I have grown to love it."

She says her eyes always go to that window, but the seat defines the area in a practical way, too.

"That is where the table is and that is just where the table needs to be," she says. "And I can squeeze a few more people in on the bench."

The seat in the Pietrandrea home offers the same sort of practicality in addition to changing the proportions of the room.