I'm short but....

Firstly, this forum is such a good place for leather information. The best site I've found to educate newbies like me.

So.... I'm 5' 1" tall but my husband is 6' 4". I'm looking for a new couch that would mainly be for me; used for watching tv and napping. I had been considering Leathercraft, but their lack of customer service is swaying me to Hancock and Moore. I like the looks of the HM Robinson tufted couch but the inside depth is 23 inches. I want a deeper couch for lounging, however, I've seen several posts that short people should limit themselves to a seat depth of 20 inches or less. If I plan on using an ottoman, does inside depth matter so much?

Also, would that couch fit through a 35 inch door? That is the widest door into the house. Would also have to make a right hand turn immediately into the great room through a 48 inch entryway. The entire foyer is only 65 inches deep. So the pertinent dimensions are 35", 65" and 48 inches, with 8 foot ceilings. Whomever built this house didn't take furniture into account :(. I tried doing the math myself, but couldn't figure out which equation was being used(Pythagorean theorem?), especially if the couch was tilted 45 degrees. Help???

I'm no mover, but it seems to me that if your entrance is really 35" wide, clear, and the Robinson Tufted sofa is really 34.5" high, like the website says it is, they should be able to just turn the sofa 90 degrees and bring it straight in.

My wife is 5'2". the chair she picked for herself to sit in has 16" seat height and 19" inside seat depth.
But seating comfort seems to depend on more than just those dimensions. Other factors might be: the pitch and firmness of the back, and how you choose to sit on the particular piece. As well as your particular body dimensions: eg. foot to knees and knees to back of butt.

So for instance, she found our couch comfortable too, that item has 17" seat height and 22" depth. When she sat on it recently, to compare to others for maybe buying a new one, she said her back didn't reach the back of it. So I'm not sure how she finds it comfortable. We both found an H&M Gordon swivel chair comfortable. That chair has 20" seat height and 23" inside seat depth. We don't know yet why we liked it. Other items with those same dimensions are much to deep for both of us.

Best suggestion is to go to a couple furniture stores with a tape measure and sit on a lot of couches and chairs.

And it seems to me it would make a difference if you put your feet up. But do you want to only be comfortable in the couch if you put your feet up, and not otherwise?

Thanks @needstuff for your reply. I don't think I've ever sat in a couch where my feet touch the floor. I've always tucked my legs under me or put them up. I also want enough depth for napping, therefore deeper is better?

I've been to so many furniture stores on my couch quest that I'm starting to feel like Captain Ahab searching for his whale. I sat in the one model of HM that I found locally(I think it was the city couch?) but I felt like I kept sliding off it. I did sit in a Leathercraft 2120 tufted back couch that had a seat height of 20 inches and a seat depth of 22 inches that was comfortable, no sliding, and I've attributed that to that model's firm back. I'd order that model, but I'm not having any luck viewing/getting leather samples from either Leathercraft or the dealer that had the couch. That store only has a handful of LC samples, none which would suit.

So now I'm looking at tight-back/tufted HM models on the internet and eventually I'd like to order from Duane. I narrowed down the models to either the Sloane or the Robinson. With the Sloane you get more inside width for the same(ish) total width which would be good, however the total height is 36"-will that fit? Oh, and I'm not sure I can bring either couch straight in since there is a wall 65 inches after entering the front door. Round and round I go...

I do know I want leather. I want burnished or pulled up, unprotected leather and something built like a tank, because I don't want to do this again for at least 20 yrs.

The industry average is 20" high, 20 to 22" depth. Anything outside those specs is generally a specialty product. Leathercraft builds a decent product, but their distribution is poor as is their sales aides. Seat back height has very little to do with going through a doorway, its the overall DEPTH of the sofa and the arm height that are the key factors. 35" doorway is pretty wide - A wall at 65" into the door may require transitioning the sofa vertically and then rotating it on its axis. Post photos of your egress doorway if you like and I'll take a look.

I am 5', my husband 5'11" one of my sons is 6'2" and my son in law is 6'6". I ordered a Hancock and Moore lounger for my husband after he fell in love with the one in the furniture store. When ours arrived it did not fit him like the one in the store at all. We ended up taking about half the stuffing out of the headrest so it wouldn't kill his neck. I ordered a Bradington Young recliner and it is a full 2" taller in the seat height than their website indicates. I think the online measurements on these websites are perfect world dimensions and the finished products are sometimes not even close. I suppose since these things aren't rubber stamped but each one cut, stuffed and covered individually there can be a lot of wiggle room. In fact, all our furniture is Hancock and Moore, Bradington Young and Stickley. We bought the Stickley Santa Fe Sofa, it is 100" long and the matching ottoman is coffin size. All of us love it and my feet touch the floor without a pillow. The leather has held up beautifully. Of the three brands I mentioned I found theirs the best made. But you are going to pay for it, though they did have it 1/2 off for a while. I agree the quest for the perfect sofa or any piece of furniture can seem endless. Best wishes...

Just a suggestion - never take the fill out of the cushion on a new chair or sofa, they 'break in' with time and are stiff and full when new. I'd estimate that the average chair or recliner cushion 'relaxes' about 20 % from when its new in the first 60 days. The upholstery business is still a hand-made product industry, there are no computer-operated machines on the production line. As such there is a +/- 2" variation from the published spec in the trade.

"I don't think I've ever sat in a couch where my feet touch the floor. I've always tucked my legs under me or put them up."

Wow! I think it's horrible that you've had to deal with that.

As I've been poking around, it seems like some of the "modern furniture" lines are made with lower seat heights.
Of the several makers in the more traditional styles whose websites I checked, Sherrill seems to offer a number of lower ones. I'm sure there are others too. And a number of "Chesterfield" clones and variants seem to have lower seat heights. Most makers seem to offer a few that way, but not many, for sure. And then finding one of those few to try it out....

Another factor is, who is the sofa going to really be used by? Maybe you are 5'1", but if it's for company, are your guests that size too? Are your 6'+ family members also supposed to be using it? In your case you already indicated it's for you, basically, but in our case we needed to think about that. But as it happens, our family and most of our friends are our size too!