Can I use a wooden bench outside?

Most antique indoor furniture will degrade if left exposed to the weather. Sun fades the polish and damp causes the joints to swell and eventually fail. If you want seating for the garden, look for cast iron or teak pieces built specifically for exterior use. Indoor timbers like mahogany or elm just won't survive long out there.

My dining room has a really uneven flagstone floor and I am worried that a long antique bench might rock about when people sit on it?

Flagstone floors do present a challenge for long rigid seating. Four-legged pieces will usually find a wobble on an uneven surface. A common workaround is fixing small felt or cork pads under the shorter legs to bridge the gap. Some country benches with trestle ends sit better on irregular floors than those with four corner legs.

How to clean a leather bench?

Dust it gently with a dry cloth. A modest application of clear wax once a year stops the hide from drying out. Keep household cleaning sprays away from the surface. They strip the oils and ruin the finish.

We are looking for something to go in our narrow hallway for taking off shoes, but I notice most of these seem quite deep from front to back?

Depth varies significantly depending on what the form was originally built to do. Settle benches designed to enclose a fire are deep and bulky, taking up considerable floor space. Look for pieces described as hall benches. These were specifically designed to line corridors in large houses. They usually have a shallow seat profile to let servants and guests pass by easily.

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Gothic Benches

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Long seating forms built for multiple people, antique benches range from simple plank-and-peg country pieces meant for farm hearths to carved hall seats designed to impress visitors at the front door.