Issue with Fabric on New Recliners

We have a couple recliners that have been in our home for near 2 months. We noticed some issues and would like your thoughts on whether this is natural and to be expected or it is the opposite. These recliners are from Lazy Boy. We have had the repair tech out and he dismissed the issue as comfort wrinkles.

We noticed that the fabric is quite wrinkled, something I think goes beyond the natural wrinkles that go with breaking in and using new furniture. These pieces are in our formal living room where they see very little use.

Next we noticed that in the seat, along the bottom of the back cushion and along the arms of the chair, the fabric gathers or collects into large wrinkles that have to be smoothed out after sitting.

And lastly, we noticed what appears to be a run in the fabric of the back cushion. Like a run in a pair of pantyhose.

This is an upgraded fabric and a special order. The manager of the store offered to take the chairs back in exchange for two new ones. The catch is they have to be ones that are in stock and we have a narrow choice of fabrics. Of the ones we viewed in the showroom, nothing matches, to our satisfaction, the rest of the decor in the room.

I am not sure the photos will convey our concerns, but hopefully they will provide an idea of what we view as the problem.

Poor quality... especially that third photo, that looks like a defect.

From what I can tell, it appears you selected a linen fabric with a print on it, and the warp of the fabric has the tension in it, whereas the weft of the weave has less tensile strength and therefore experiences twist. This manifests itself to you as 'wrinkles' and is not a defect, perhaps you just selected the wrong cover and its not performing as you expected? As far as the deeper creases, this is fabric responding to the cushion fill, which may have a down content to the cores or have a looser fill, I don't know what that maker is using for foam and fill.

If you are unhappy with the recliners, then take the store manager up on his generous offer is my suggestion. I don't see a defect or abnormalities based on what is shown in the photos, sorry.

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Originally Posted by drcollie

From what I can tell, it appears you selected a linen fabric with a print on it, and the warp of the fabric has the tension in it, whereas the weft of the weave has less tensile strength and therefore experiences twist. This manifests itself to you as 'wrinkles' and is not a defect, perhaps you just selected the wrong cover and its not performing as you expected? As far as the deeper creases, this is fabric responding to the cushion fill, which may have a down content to the cores or have a looser fill, I don't know what that maker is using for foam and fill.

If you are unhappy with the recliners, then take the store manager up on his generous offer is my suggestion. I don't see a defect or abnormalities based on what is shown in the photos, sorry.

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Thanks for the responses.

Well the fabric is certainly not performing as we expected. Safe to say. As for selecting the wrong cover, this particular fabric was suggested by the in store designer. We deferred to her recommendation.

Your explanation seems reasonable to me as to why the 'wrinkles' are appearing. I must say though, it seems unreasonable to me that we should have to smooth out the fabric in the seat, arms, and back cushion after a short sitting to remove the creases that have gathered. We had no expectation of this when selecting the fabric.

I noted in my opening post that there was, what seemed to my eyes, a run in the fabric. It is right in the center of the back seat cushion. Surely this is not normal. I suspect that other such instances of this might appear. It seems that the fabric is separating and I fear that if I applied even modest pressure to the spot, say with my finger tip, for instance, it might pierce the fabric completely.

I originally considered the offer by the manager to be quite accommodating and generous indeed. Until I was told that I could consider only in stock fabrics and models. This narrowed our selection to a few choices on the showroom floor. None of them were perfectly compatible with our decor. I am left considering fabrics that don't compliment the room or models that don't fit properly. It seems a poor solution, all things considered.

Thanks to you and to all others that take time to comment. Your time and generosity is appreciated.

What is your fabric content/makeup? Is it linen or have a percentage of linen content? If so, then that 'run' you see is to be expected, that's what linen does as well as 'wrinkle'.

Look at leather if none of their fabrics appeal to you on a swap-out. Leather will outlast fabric especially on a motion piece 4 x longer, and is not particularly color or pattern sensitive. Just a thought.

After examining the care and maintenance information on the tags located on the bottom of the chair, I am informed that the fabric is 100 percent polyester with foam padding. It was not a detail I made myself familiar with when we were buying. I do recollect a detail wherein the salesperson explained that the fabric was of two pieces given that it is embroidered.

We are considering leather, and it may our best and only option.

Our desired outcome would be to select new chairs and a new fabric, with no restrictions, covering ourselves any difference in price. This option was originally offered to us in our initial communication with the manager. When we arrived a week later at the showroom, this offer was forgotten and replaced with the one I described above.

Ah..OK, so what you have is a foam-backed Polyester. That explains the wrinkles, the backing is causing that to occur. Personally, I would RUN - not walk - from any 100% polyester motion pieces as they will show pilling of the fabric rapidly,especially at the friction points. I would get out of those two recliners if you can....

Piling is yet another issue. At two months, it is noticeable and significant and is occurring across the surface of the entire chair--front, back, and sides. I was hesitant to bring that up, since I was told by the tech that it was normal.

I guess I omitted some pertinent information in my opening post.

Given the fabric is not linen with prints but rather embroidered 100% polyester with a foam backing, would you still say that the issues I am having are normal and are to be expected? The "wrinkles, the creases, and the run? Can the issues we are having be dismissed as "comfort wrinkles' that come with breaking in new furniture. I take it, from your comments, that we have a undesirable combination of fabric and padding. But is the performance of the fabric less than what we should expect given the issues we are having? Do I have any grounds for my complaint against the chair as a bad product?

All man-made fabrics pill with friction, that's why you want a blend if possible. You've owned a pair of 100 % polyester pants I'm sure, notice the pilling where your thighs rub together? And also notice that your cotton Khakis don't do that? Same with furniture fabrics. But polyester fabric is inexpensive to make, and looks pretty when new. You said a decorator in the store helped you with that - and unless I miss my guess she was concerned only about a color and a look. If so, that's pretty typical. In my store I would not only discourage you from buying that combo, but I would probably type up a supplemental release form that would say you know the risks of this kind of fabric in a motion piece and acknowledge that condition. It's a bad choice.

I would say you made a buying mistake, its not that the chair and material are defective - they are just as I would expect a 100% polyester with foam backing to perform (which is rather poorly).

I discourage people from buying fabric recliners, because of two reasons 1) The motion aspect of the recliner makes for constant friction points where the material rubs together with each use 2) its usually one of the most oft-used pieces in a room. If you were to come into my store today, you would see (14) recliners in leather and (1) in Fabric. The leather covering just wears so much better that its worth the extra cost in my opinion. I have a leather recliner in my own home now that is in fine shape and just had its 30th birthday. No fabric recliner will come close to that. I know I tell people things they don't want to hear sometimes and it probably costs me some sales, but my three decades of experience has shown me what works and what doesn't in customers homes.

If you can still do your swap out, I would.

Ok thanks. You have been a big help.