Recliner vs club chair ottoman / fabric vs leather

First time poster here! I stumbled upon this forum last night, what great info! "Dr Collie" seems like a complete gem and wealth of knowledge. Best of luck in his (no doubt, well earned) retirement!

Looking for advice... I have 2 older leather club chairs & ottomans that need to be replaced. I've been looking (and procrastinating) for a while because I wasn't sure what I wanted. Oldest kid is graduating high school in mid-June, so if I need to order something, I need to do it NOW if I want it before family comes to visit for graduation. We're a family of 4 (middle aged, 2 teens, 2 large dogs inside). After stopping in a local furniture store yesterday, I came home and rearranged our furniture. The club chairs were along a wall, and we have a slipcovered sofa that was "floating" off a wall. I switched the chairs with the sofa to see if we liked the set up, which would allow us to replace the club chairs with recliners. So far, yes, we enjoy it.

The local furniture store is having an anniversary sale (10-15% off all furniture), which has ran all month, and ends on Sat. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. We want high back chairs (both of us are average height) that we can kick back in, watch a movie and/or nap, put our feet up. I looked at a few Bradington Young recliners (Broderick & Huss were 2 I happened to try), a BY club chair (Kirby) & ottoman, Sherrill club chair/ottoman (model 3317), and Century (Tyler) club chair.

I've read several post - any preference over recliners vs club chairs. I understand club chairs are sturdier (which may make a difference with a large teen boy), and while the ottomans do take up floor space, it is a handy surface, and you don't have to worry about putting the foot rest down when you want to get up for a minute. Recliner would save some floor space, and would be nice to recline a little. I guess I could ask if my local store carries any tilt back club chairs? That seems like a good compromise? (I tried looking at the BY website to see if they offered one, but couldn't find one, but could have missed it.)

Also, I originally thought I wanted fabric for some texture difference. But now I'm re-thinking the fabric...I think leather would be easier to maintain/clean, especially with teenagers & dogs (dog hair).

Any thoughts/suggestions? I'm in NC - in between Hickory & High Point (yeah, you'd think I'd have a better handle on local furniture...ha!). I've thought about checking out Hickory Furniture Market, which sadly, I've never visited. But I think the odds of finding a matching pair of chairs is slim, so feel like I probably need to take advantage of my local store's sale (and the owners are supportive members of our community).

Thanks!!!

Club chairs are stronger, and good ones have 8-way hand tied suspension which is the gold standard for comfort as well. Recliners have the mechanism as the weak point in their build and have to have the suspension incorporated into the mechanism as its moving. Tilt back chairs are very nice, I like them - but B-Y units are never as comfortable as the Hancock and Moore ones, they always see to "miss" in pitch angles or core density balance. When I have them next to one another in the store, 90% of customers will pay the extra for H&M as it just feels better.

Leather is the best way to go - by far - for durability in high use environments.

You can do one of each, chairs don't have to match. Keep the visual weight the same and you can have one recliner, one chair and ottoman. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by drcollie

You can do one of each, chairs don't have to match. Keep the visual weight the same and you can have one recliner, one chair and ottoman. Good luck!

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Thank you for the advice, and about non-matching chairs. I was wondering about doing just that. Having a little variety. I'm a little disappointed I JUST found this forum, so such great information. I'm going to swing by my local shop to sit in some BY chairs again before their sale ends....but especially after reading about H&M, I think I need to take a little excursion to Hickory Furniture Market to check out what they have on the floor. Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by drcollie

When I have them next to one another in the store, 90% of customers will pay the extra for H&M as it just feels better.

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Since I still had this tab open on my laptop, thought I'd give an update.

Took my husband by the local furniture store to sit in some chair yesterday. We were looking through the B-Y options. He sat in one, said the arm height was a little odd for him. Sat in another that was better, then I looked at the tag on a chair and explained "OH! THIS is a Hancock & Moore." He took a seat and immediately said, "oh yeah, this is better." So we have a pair of Ghent high back recliners on order, which were 10% since it was a store wide anniversary sale, so thinking of how much money we saved! ;-)

Thanks for all the helpful advice - I've read through several post and for instance when I saw a some sample leathers in the store marked "Married Covers" and I thought "AH! I read about that..." ;-)

And there you go, you discovered the Hancock and Moore difference. Their product just sits better.

I'm curious, what leather did you get and what the cost per chair was at the "Sale" price. Just to see if it really was a sale....you know?

I was out of town for a few days and couldn't log on remotely for some reason...

We replicated the chair that was sitting on their showroom....Ghent High Back with walnut legs and in Kismet Camel (protected class 3 leather). I noticed the leather samples had "married covers" written on them, and thanks to your forum, I knew what that was, and am okay with that (sounds like H&M do a great job with married covers). The price on the floor was $3,279 per chair, and after the sale, I'm paying $2,951 each, delivered to our home before tax. It's just a "manual" push recliner. No power. There was also a Sami model on the floor, for about $300 less, but we liked the cleaner lines of the Ghent better.

You got a good price on that for a local store buy, on par with my price for my local customers ($ 2,939) that I do day in and day out For my distance customers that would have been $ 2,684 plus freight charges.

The Ghent High Back is a very nice recliner, you will enjoy it.

Good to know! I think this local store does a decent job with pricing. As mentioned, we're in NC near Winston Salem - so an hour east of Hickory, about 45 mins west of High Point (and a few miles from the former Boyles that resurrected briefly, then died again), so they have to be some what competitive. It's also nice to support the local business that is always quick to sponsor local events, school system, kids sports teams, etc.

But thanks again, we're looking forward to receiving them!