Henredon Fireside sofa alternative

[drcollie]

Just going by that description - its the correct build method for high quality. I'd have to see the 'guts' of one to really make a good assessment.

bubba : why not get some new cushion cores from Hendredon? Hancock and Moore provides them free of charge to the original owner, perhaps Henredon has a similar program? Worth a call to the factory to find out. New cores might be all it needs.

[bubbaonline]

Just going by that description - its the correct build method for high quality. I'd have to see the 'guts' of one to really make a good assessment.

bubba : why not get some new cushion cores from Hendredon? Hancock and Moore provides them free of charge to the original owner, perhaps Henredon has a similar program? Worth a call to the factory to find out. New cores might be all it needs.

Thanks... but, being upholstery, we are ready to move on.. It's been a great sofa, but we are done with it..

We were out last weekend.. My local H&M retailer has a fair amount of the Town&Country program units on the floor.. My wife really likes the Weston Cane Burnished that is on the McNary sofa... They also have a Sundance sofa which she really liked, but not in the Portfolio that is in the T&C program..

It makes you wonder why they put a Grade III hide on the McNary in the program? There was also a recliner in that same Weston Cane... can't remember the name... Western looking.. I think that was a T&C program unit, as well..

[drcollie]

The Town and Country program is very diverse. One on hand, it has 'value' leathers like Document and Cavalier (Chinese tanneries) that keep the prices down, and on the other it has some beautiful high end hides like Weston Cane or Quintessence in the program. Rather than everything being a 'discount' leather, I think its brilliant that H&M offers this diversity in its promotional lineup. The McNary sofa, for example, looks really good in a burnished leather and a tad on the plain side in conventional hides. So obviously some of the promo is done for style, rather than just price.

It can be a confusing promotion, too. Many of the dealers don't understand it well and can't explain it. I have to admit it took me nearly a year to fully grasp it way back when...but I've got it down cold now .

* You will see Married Cover as a column with typically the lowest price. Married Cover by definition means the cover is pre-sewn out-of-the-USA to fit a specific frame in a predetermined leather color. Labor in Hickory NC at H&M's plant is typically $ 16 - $ 18 an hour, so if you can use labor in China for $ 1 an hour there is a considerable cost savings in making these up ahead of time as 'kits' to apply to a frame built in the USA. The knacker is quality control in China (or where ever they are being cut and sewn) so that no junk leather makes it into the finished product. H&M's married cover is excellent, I've never seen a flaw - but some of the other companies I carry do such a miserable job at it that I had to stop ordering it.

* Just because its listed as Married Cover in the T&C Promo doesn't mean it really is. Probably only a third of the listed items are truly Married Cover. The other 2/3's are cut and sewn in Hickory NC at H&M's factory. All the burnished leathers and hand-antiqued ones are for example. They just put these items in the "Married Cover" column to keep the speadsheet/paper manageable in size. How do you tell? Well you ask... or...

* THere are two tiers in married cover. The Primary lead leather and the secondary leathers. For example, on the # 9840 City Sofa, the Married Covers are Cavalier Mocha or Cavalier Henna. These are leathers originating from China and cut and sewn in China as the kit for that frame. They are at price "X". There is a second column called non-married cover and on the 9840 its any other Cavalier other than the Mocha or Henna. its prices at "X + $ 435". These are the same Chinese leathers that H&M has loose at the factory and will be cut and sewn in Hickory NC. That $ 435 is the difference in Chinese labor to cut and sew the cover vs US labor.

Now, if you move over to the # 4685 Sanctuary Sofa on the program, the lead "married cover" column hide is Yardley Mulberry at "X". The secondary non-married cover is any other color Yardley at "X + $ 112". See the price disparity over the prior example? That tells me that even the 'married cover' Yardley Mulberry is cut and sewn at the factory in Hickory NC. There's not enough dollar difference between the two as there is in the City unit.

Hopefully that helps explain it some. This program runs year round and is usually overhauled in Early June each year. Once in a while we get price increases in the winter on it, but that's pretty rare.

[bubbaonline]

Thanks... She really liked the McNary, but I think what she really liked was the burnished Weston Cane that was on it..

I have some pricing questions, but I'll shoot you a PM... thanks!

[Dr_jitsu]

Wow, I have always been a fan of Henredon...especially their cabinets and desks. My house is about 40% Henredon, but it is all stuff built in America before they stared outsourcing.

I am rather shocked to see that they have switched their manufacturing to China.