My journey for the perfect sectional!

[AZJoe]

Approaching closing on our new home, I set out a couple weeks ago to buy a sectional. My wife dragged me to the typical furniture stores around town, and honestly we did not find much that we liked.

We ended up at "La Z Boy" and she found a big sectional she liked, for around $6500 + Tax.

Now me knowing next to nothing about furniture, BUT being a research-a-holic said we should hold off, until I can research a bit. Upon some digging I found out that La Z boy is more or less of the lower tier, and clearly overpriced for what it is.

Well that lead me to this great place. I immediately fell in love with the Sundance sectional, as we plan to float it in our living room, which is the focal point of the main foyer, and kitchen. It seemed like it would fit the bill perfectly. I went to 2 local places just to attempt to sit on them, and was equally happy with the way they felt.

Currently I am at the hide picking stage, better known as the "drive yourself crazy stage". A week ago I would have been fine with just about anything, but I have quickly grown picky.lol I went to a local dealer yesterday, and borrowed 11 of their samples in the gr1-gr3 range. Upon getting them home I started to look at them. I wanted to ignore the label on the back, and try and pick out which ones I liked best, regardless of class.

I organized them in a row from the one/ones i liked most, to least. The Gr3 were all at the front of the pack, followed by gr 2, and lastly the 2 Columbia gr 1's.

I really liked the Columbia hides actually, but I noticed they were super reflective, and noticeably more unnatural then the other hides I had selected.

I currently have it narrowed down to the following:
Garfield Fawn(gr3)
Atticus Chestnut(gr2)
Kipling Whiskey(gr2)
And the curve ball "Terra French Luggage burnished"(gr3) I really love the look of THIS sofa

Being as I still have so many questions I figured it would be prudent to start this thread, as to not continue bombarding Duane with a million pm's, and help others in a similar situation.

My biggest concern is how they will wear. I would hate to have to replace this sofa in under 10 years, given the cost associated with it. I take very good care of my things, but my sofa also gets used frequently. Working from home, means I spend a large portion of the day sitting on the sofa with my laptop.

So keeping that in mind, as well as the sofa it will be going on, on to the questions

1. Out of the gr3 choices, do you have any experience with how they wear?

2. Color aside, do you have a favorite hide, in each class on that list?

3. Other then those I like the look of Imperial Whiskey Burnished, Buckingham walnut burnished, and weston cane/weston sunrised burnished, although I could not get samples of them. Do you have any particular feelings on those hides, keeping in mind what I am looking for? I think the Buckingham, and Weston Cane are my favorites of the 4.

Overall I am looking for a medium brown, something not too dark. I really like some of the Orangy, caramel-ish burnished ones. I feel they look very deep, and rich. So I figured I would ask about these as well.

I want something that is going to be rather neutral, and timeless. I do not want to buy something I will look at in 5 years and ask "what was I thinking"

Thanks for all the help Duane! You are making this painstaking process, much less painful for me. I am hoping we can sort out the remaining details, and get this thing ordered in the coming week.