Knowledge, Experience & Patience

We purchased a sofa and a couple of recliners from the keeping room. It was after some research that we gathered enough information about the products from this forum and its users, who shared their knowledge and helped us with our decision. Not only did we get to know a lot about the products but we also ended up learning a lot about our own decision making (lol). The more the choices, the more the confusion... especially when there is so little other sales associates, vendors and stores know about these great products. It is actually hard to believe that there is so little information and in fact, other than this site, we have not seen or heard much else. And what little we have heard from most sales associates was to direct us to what they had on the floor. I have heard many of them point us to the "document leathers" in the H&M collection for its durability and soft touch - both are probably true. But, if we had stuck to that, we would have missed the beautiful burnished leather we eventually got. A lot is indeed made about the "protected" leathers and I found that the burnished leathers hardly show any wear, even with kids around and with the information we got here, and with the conversations we had with Duane, we got a better product, IMO.

We also had a hard time finding a store that had more than 2 or 3 H&M products, let alone guide us with all the options, the choices and share their experience selling them. With the knowledge that Duane has, it is surprising that he has the amount of patience and energy that he devotes to this site and to his customers who usually end up asking the same questions. This site is a treasure trove of information and it does make you wonder how so many bad products are sold at so many leading stores and what drives people back to those stores. Most people are probably unable to make a decision without touch/feel/look which in fact can be very deceptive unless you know everything there is to know about what you are touching/feeling/looking in the stores.

We made that same first mistake when we got two fabric "wing chairs" at one of those leading mid-grade stores and exactly a year later, the fabric has started to wear and they do not sit well - cushions have lost their support. And those chairs were not exactly cheap. Anyway, that led me here, first to the primer on leather and then to everything else on this site. I can safely say that this site and the owner try to direct you to products that fit your budget, are comfortable (subjective but generally acceptable) and appear to be durable (so far, they look to be). If and when you decide to buy, you will find that the prices from the keeping room are hard to beat. Before we even asked Duane for any prices, I actually had priced a product (which I found at a local store on a special seasonal/anniversary sale). I told Duane about it and he said that it was a good price and was about the same as his but we would have to pay more for delivery. Anyway, I did not end up buying that product as it was not in the leather grade I wanted and after our research here, we wanted something better anyway. So there... it is hard to find a product that the keeping room can get for you at a price that you can probably not get elsewhere. I would highly recommend that you read through the many posts on this site, be informed and make a wise decision.

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Note about Delivery - we had west express and sun - both did a great job. Although I requested both to keep the products in the original manufacturer's container, only SUN did that while west express ended up blanket wrapping it - No harm done but FYI.
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