Gettting started with my research - H&M and other questions

I have spent the last few months ingesting information from this site and cannot say thank you enough to drcollie and the rest for the great information. My wife and I are beginning to research replacing our living room sectional with a sofa / recliner combo. I made a a very expensive mistake in buying this $5k+ sectional based on percived quality of brand and marketing and 7.5 years later it is is ready for replacement. I guess I could say that I was lay-z in my research back then. I want to make a good decision this time and am willing to put in the legwork to do so.

I understand that from a quality standpoint reclining furnture can be challenging. However, we are both pretty set on having both sofa and chair recline. I have flexability in budget but would like to target ~$5k for a sofa and recliner. Below are a few initial questions that we have.

H&M seems to be synonymous with quality from all accounts. Is the quality of H&M reclining furniture as good as their non reclining?

Does H&M offer a reclining option in any of their Town & Country line? If so is my budget semi realistic for T&C line? I am targeting class 1 leather but open to considering cloth coverings.

Are there other quality (most preferably American made) brands that I should investigate for reclining furniture that may be similar or less expensive than H&M?

I saw some Braddington pieces in a local store recently and did not care for the items on display. That is not to say that it is a bad brand, just the items on display were a little too formal for our tastes. The particular items were also extermely hard and seemed to not have much padding. We are looking for a little softer sitting funiture but would like the cushioning to hold up for a while.

Any thoughts are much appreciated as we begin the search.

Jon

Hi Jon,

Targeting H&M you will have to up your budget by at least $ 3K, depending on models and covers for a dual-reclining sofa and a lounger. Possibly more. Yes, H&M builds the best motion in the industry, keep in mind they don't make their own mechs, they use the same as all other premium makers and they will either be Leggett & Platt or Ultra-Mek. The difference is in the tailoring, padding, and in many models they spend more time fussing over the sit comfort. Their frames are also more robust in my opinion, but keep in mind that any motion piece from any maker is simply a frame built around a mechanism.

All the H&M pieces in Town and Country are here:

http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...Time-Promotion

They have largely moved to the Your Way for motion sofas, while there are a few in the main price book, they are older designs and on the way out for the most part. This is where the current focus is:

http://www.hancockandmoore.com/Produ...otion-your-way

For next level down from H&M I would suggest Bradington Young as they do really well on their motion pieces for less money than H&M. However I see you don't really like their product much. Keep in mind that after the leather, foam and padding is the second most expensive item in a build from a material cost. That's why you see less padding and different sit in B-Y, they have to in order to get the price lower.

I think you will find compromises on most every maker if shopping in a budget framework, the only way to get the cost of the product down is to either buy less expensive raw materials, cut back on quantity used, or use a less skilled labor pool. Good luck in your search.

Thank you so very much for your input. My CFO (wife) now thinks that she may be willing to give up the reclining sofa but I will definitely want to stay with a recliner chair for myself. My budget is flexible, and adding another few grand is not out of the question. I've been browsing the very helpful T&C link offerings that you posted and cross referencing back to the 2019 MSRP spreadsheet for non reclining models that might be of interest. If you are at liberty to say, is there a ball park way to estimate real world pricing off the MSRP sheet?

I will take another look at Bradington as well. The store I visited has a very limited selection so I did not get a good feel for the brand. Your story of the kids growing up on the Bradington sofa is enough for me to give them some attention.

Another local store really pushes Smith Bros but I am not finding a lot of info on them as of yet. This forum has been an incredible resource so far!

The general rule I think is to take 30-35% off of the MSRP to get a ballpark idea of prices.

For B&Y vs H&M, I have pieces from both. Yes the H&M is nicer but if you are trying to hit a price point B&Y is a good brand to do that with. I have a B&Y recliner, and they copy a lot of the 'regular' H&M styles (not so much on the fancier / difficult to make stuff). Personally I think they H&M premium is worth it and if I had to do it over and had the money I would have paid up for the H&M recliner and a nicer leather. Value is subjective however! Good luck. :)

Part of buying Hancock and Moore is styling and decor. You will find that when you go into stationary a whole new level of design styles open up to you as these are not built around a mechanism. I like dual power sofas for media rooms myself, but would never put one in the main living area of a home, they're simply too TV-oriented and not enough style, and style is important.

Also, they are extremely heavy which makes them difficult to move around. You have to look at how much you are actually going to use the recliners in a motion sofa and decide from there. I prefer a stationary sofa and ottoman to prop feet up on myself. Works almost as good as a recliner and you still have a solid maple frame and 8-way tied suspension deck, which is always a superior system to springs built into recliners.

Typically off MSRP / cut it in half. That's pretty close to the actual selling price at least from my store. Add back in shipping costs, 10% is a good way to get an estimate. Other dealers vary.

Smith Bros may be fine, however I have never carried them as they don't offer 8-Way Hand-tied spring decks and they have very little design inspiration - they build basic products and I have that easily covered by my other suppliers.