Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Quality living room furniture?

Stickley

Until all the kids are out of the house, I keep getting free schit from craigslist or marketplace.

Yup...Quartersawn Oak, picked out the finish and leather myself. None better in my opinion. Pricey, but I consider it heirloom quality.

Spend many nights watching tv with my eyes shut.

Ordered a LB recliner. With changing out the fabric to leather I was quoted 4-6 months for delivery. I don’t mind waiting for quality. My last LB recliner lasted over 10 years.

“Good” leather is the challenge. Most of the furniture I’ve seen lately, even the expensive brands, use bonded leather. That garbage is good for maybe 3 years. My La-Z-Boy recliner is top grain, so they can be found, but expect a 30% premium and a wait.

We have rebuilt furniture, my wife recovers some pieces, we have made from scratch.
What ever works.

Lazy boy is not the way to go. Hasbeen

It really depends on what you want to spend and where your aesthetics lie. The Ekornes stuff mentioned above is reasonably priced and middling quality. Knoll would be a step up in both, Herman Miller a step up from that, and PP Mobler a step up again.

But all of that is going to have a fairly modern look, that wouldn’t really go well alongside a Lazy boy. For stuff like that, maybe look for a custom maker near you?

It is generally good to avoid leather unless you are open to spending much more than what you would at a big box furniture store. The top grain leather noted is barely better than bonded genuine leather. If what you are looking at doesn’t offer full grain or you aren’t willing to cover the cost of it it is better to go with cloth.

On the bright side if you know an architect or interior designer or a custom builder who is willing to give you a reference, you can get high end furniture for 40%+ off MSRP from the manufacturer.

When I was contracting a couple years ago, the wife replaced our furniture in the living room with England brand furniture out of TN. So far so good.

My family was/is in the furniture biz. Since you want a reclining sofa, La-Z-Boy is a good mechanism, probably the best and I sold them for years. I am out of the biz now but my brother is still in it. When looking at coverings from La-Z-Boy get at least a "D" grade and up. "A" grade is the cheapest and are used on promotional pieces. Google leathers for furniture to learn what you want. Flexsteel has arched steel bands as the spring units while La-z-Boy uses a zig-zag wire arched as their spring unit. Both hold up well with Flexsteel having the edge on this point in my opinion. Velvets typically wear very well, so does chenille. Nylon is tough but can accept stains because it is a porous yarn vs olefin which is a non-porous fiber. I don't know if they still offer after market stain protection but it really works.

Leather match is where the sitting surfaces are real leather and the sides and backs are vinyl. This is done to lower costs and price to consumers. The vinyl will eventually discolor and the matching aspect will suffer.

There are lots of players in the motion furniture category, with most being imports with poor quality foams and mechanisms. So if you want it to last, beware.

A non reclining sofa of good quality would have a hardwood frame, 8 way hand tied coil springs, high quality foam or coil wrapped in foam cushion core that is wrapped again to keep the fabric stable on the cushion. The front of the sofas edge should be a spring edge so it gives when you are sitting and not a rigid board. Legs should be integral and not screw on. Look for pattern matched cushion fabric application that matches the back ( stripes line up). Sit in it to see what is comfortable to you because some sofas are deeper sitting vs shallow sitting for shorter folks.

Most sofas look good to start but it will soon become obvious as the springs sag, the cushions dish out, the fabric get ragged the legs snap off.

Armed with this knowledge, you can ask questions and figure out if the salesperson know their stuff or not and be able to compare apples to apples.

I cannot give you a price range because I have been away from the industry, and I am shocked at wait times now a days.

Good luck.

Diesel thank you for your insight.

Check High Point North Carolina Furniture manufacturers.

Mike

Vanguard is good. My mom worked for one of their subsidiaries, Craftwork Guild. I have 2 recliners and a loveseat that have been in the family for between 20 and 30 years. Hancock and Moore is also good, but expensive. Leathercraft is another option. I would look at the various options on https://www.hickoryfurniture.com/manufacturers/

foamorder.com

Rebuilt the cushions on a 25 year old couch and it's probably better than new.

Current stuff is ready for the dump after a brief trial on Craigslist. Not looking to rebuild anything.

I just picked up a nice closet at the dumps.

Its pretty heavy. Must be quality chip board.

Vanguard custom built my livingroom furniture years ago, it's obvious lifetime quality, still looks like the day it was delivered and it gets used pretty hard.

I've read you have to watch it when buying furniture at a place like Omaha Furniture Mart.

It looks smaller in that huge showroom. When you get it home, it wont fit.

Furniture shopping? One word: microfiber.

My wife thought she needed leather, to keep up with the Jones. It was great high quality leather. I eventually skinned that sucker out and used the hide for many projects.

The ottoman. The kids got home from school a half hour before Momma and I got home from town. They were playing with our female golden retriever in the house and somehow enticed the dog to jump over the ottoman. Doing so, she "spun out " on the ottoman and left a six inch cut through the leather from her toenail. The chair and ottoman were about a month old.

I just simply detest leather upholstery in the living room or in an auto. Bare skin sticks to it. You sweat through a T shirt sitting on it. Outside, it is cold in the winter and gives 2'nd degree burns in the summer.

Microfiber for the win. 20 years of daily use without showing a wear mark. Easily shampooed if the need arises.

Our local family owned furniture store gives lifetime warranty on their products with microfibre coverings.

Diesel is correct about Flexsteel. I have an all leather Flexsteel sofa and it's excellent and has rather thick leather. I would caution you against chenille, however - my examples wore out in under 2 years. Restoration Hardware also has some excellent furniture. I would also recommend you find an Amish Furniture source. I had several Amish pieces before my ex absconded with them in the divorce - the solid cherry dining table & chairs, quarter-sawn oak rocker, etc. are built with fine craftsmanship and attention to detail. As mentioned, Stickley is another excellent choice. If you want modern furniture, check out Thayer Coggin. There's also Danish furniture which includes Teak furniture, which is generally very well-built. I have some Danish teak as well, which quite decent.