Introduction, advice on first quality furniture purchase

[detroit_fan]

Hi everyone, just wanted to introduce myself and thank you for the wealth of information on this site. My name is Jason, my wife and I are in our early 30's and would like to buy our first set of quality living room furniture. Our starter set that we purchased years ago was a lazy boy recliner and a sofa from a "furniture row" sofa store, both are pretty rough now and the lazy boy was a disaster from day 1.

We purchased an Amish made bedroom set last spring in solid oak and loved it, so i went to Shipshewana Indiana and priced Amish made living room furniture. I can get a reclining sofa a rocker recliner in quarter sawn white oak for about $3000.


My wife prefers the fully upholstered living room furniture, so I am now trying to research quality brands that have good reputations. The brand I have focused on most is Smith Brothers of Berne, mostly becasue I have a local dealer for it and the quality seems very good for the price point. We plan to buy a sofa and a chair, the chair will be replacing my lazy boy. The biggest issue I'm having, is nothing is as comfortable as that old beat up lazy boy. The most comfortable thing i have found in Smith Brothers is one of their tilt back chairs with an ottoman, but even those don't really feel great to me. I'm a bigger guy, about 6ft and 230lbs, so a lot of this furniture just feels small and uncomfortable to me. A couple stores have tried to see me "Best" brand recliners, they are made in American but just don't look very well made to me.

My wife is much easier to please, she immediately took a liking to the 5000 series sofa from Smith Brothers. If anyone has any input on this sofa I would love to hear it. We were quoted anywhere from $1700-$2400 depending on fabric.

How is the quality of the new flexsteel, not the made in china line, but the made in USA stuff?

I live in a smaller city, and the market for higher end furniture is just not here according to local stores, so I am making a drive to a more upscale area tomorrow and just trying to gather as much info as i can before going. Which of these brands are quality and worth considering, and more specifically, does anyone have an recommendation on a nice comfortable chair, something that reclines?

The first store carries-

American Drew
Bassett Mirror Company
BDI Furniture
Broyhill Furniture
Chromcraft
Cochrane
Ekornes
England Furniture
Fine Furniture Design
Flexsteel
Hammary
Hekman
Hillsdale Furniture
Hooker Furniture
Howard Miller
Kincaid Furniture
Lane Home Furnishings
Lea Industries
Liberty Furniture Industries
Natuzzi Editions
Pennsylvania House
Peters-Revington
Rowe Furniture
Sealy
Smith Brothers Furniture
Stanley Furniture
Tempur-Pedic
Thomasville
Universal Furniture
Urban Collection
Uttermost
Vaughan-Bassett
Young America

The second store carries-
Artistica
Ashley
Bassett
Bradington Young
Canadel
Comfort Design
Hekman
Hickory White CTH
Hooker Furniture
Kincaid Furniture
*********
Millennium
Palettes by Winesburg
Paula Deen by Universal
Perfect Day® iSeries™ by Serta
Perfect Sleeper® by Serta
SertaPedic® by Serta
Sherrill
Signature Design
Sligh
Smith Brothers
Stein World
Surya Rugs
Thomasville
Tommy Bahama Home
Universal Furniture
Wesley Allen
Winners Only


Thank you in advance for any advice, this is a very overwhelming purchase to research and a lot of money to spend, just want to make sure i make a good, educated decision.

[MRSSQRDAWAY]

LIST OF POSSIBLE MANUFACTURERS /BRANDS
MY advice is to research the list of companies that are now is some stage of bankruptcy. I would not place an order,made a deposit, on a piece of furniture that possibly would never be made. A few names on your list have made quality furniture in the past, but at this time I would only purchase an item that a dealer would have on the floor. You could not do better than the dealer that owns this forum and offers Hancock & Moore.

[earlh]

LOL wait till Duane sees this. What did you do - cut and paste the furniture offerings off of their websites? Well some Bradington Young is good.

[detroit_fan]

LOL wait till Duane sees this. What did you do - cut and paste the furniture offerings off of several websites? Well some Bradington Young is good.

sure did, lol. i cut and pasted the brands that the stores carry that i am going to tomorrow. i was also able to find another store within driving distance that carries Stickley, Hickory Chair, Henredon, H & M, C. R. Laine,, Sherrill, Cox, Harden, Precedent, Comfort Design. I am completely lost amongst all the brands, that's why i was hoping to get it down to just a few for much more in depth research. I can read reviews all day online, but i really don't know who's writing them, and i'm not sure what information to believe, that's why i thought this forum may be my best option for unbiased advice.

[detroit_fan]

LIST OF POSSIBLE MANUFACTURERS /BRANDS
MY advice is to research the list of companies that are now is some stage of bankruptcy. I would not place an order,made a deposit, on a piece of furniture that possibly would never be made. A few names on your list have made quality furniture in the past, but at this time I would only purchase an item that a dealer would have on the floor. You could not do better than the dealer that owns this forum and offers Hancock & Moore.

Thank you for the reply. Living in Michigan I am too far away to visit his store, but I certainly am open to ordering from him once I can decide on what I like. I just need to try something out before I buy it, especially if i plan to sit in it every day for the nest 20 years.

[earlh]

Here's a heads up. Duane might offer some input but his advice for the most part is going to be "search the forum." You have listed way too many brands, most of which he does not carry. Duane deals predominately in Hancock & Moore (HM) and Bradington-Young (BY), which are both high-end makers with HM on the very top. Although Duane discounts these brands, they are by no means cheap, just more affordable. And although furniture stores have a huge markup (which is why lots of folks order from Duane), the old adage "you get what you pay for" has never been more true. If you want better advice (not just "search the forum"), I would suggest paring down your list to just the few brands that interest you, including some budget numbers, and being more specific in your criteria.

[detroit_fan]

Here's a heads up. Duane might offer some input but his advice for the most part is going to be "search the forum." You have listed way too many brands, most of which he does not carry. Duane deals predominately in Hancock & Moore (HM) and Bradington-Young (BY), which are both high-end makers with HM on the very top. Although Duane discounts these brands, they are by no means cheap, just more affordable. And although furniture stores have a huge markup (which is why lots of folks order from Duane), the old adage "you get what you pay for" has never been more true. If you want better advice (not just "search the forum"), I would suggest paring down your list to just the few brands that interest you, including some budget numbers, and being more specific in your criteria.

I wasn't looking for in depth input on each brand, I was just looking more for a couple suggestions on which brands are worth investigating. Looking at that list you may only see 1 or 2 brands you would recommend, that was all I was seeking. I realize Duane is a busy man, my question was not necessarily directed at him (although i would love his input), i am open to advice from anyone who is more knowledgeable on the subject than i am.

i was unfamiliar with BY until reading about them on the forum, so i am definitely excited to try those out tomorrow. i try not buy "cheap" things, if I did i would go to art van or gardner white like 99% of people in my area do and buy some no name chinese garbage. I try to buy quality when it is available.

As for being more specific, i'll do my best without knowing truly what will work best for us in the end. i am not small, as i mentioned, so something with high backs, nice and wide and deep are all things that i would desire. i rarely sit on the sofa, and my wife is very easy to please, so as long as it has high backs and is a comfortable sofa, there most likely won't an issue for us.

The chair is where my main issue has been. Although the lazy boy that is being replaced is in bad shape, it is extremely comfortable. i like the way the mechanism operates i like having independent control of reclining and raising the footrest. I realize i will not find a duplicate of the lazy boy mechanism, so i am trying to find what options is best to replace it. I definitely want to be able to recline back without a foot rest coming out, which is why i am leaning towards a tilt back chair with ottoman. i have seen the BY 910 and 912 recommended a lot, hopefully i can try one of those out.

In reading through some older posts i found a discussion about the 220 series, although i am not sure how a "3 way lounger" operates. The 220 sofa looks very nice.

As for budget, we don't really have a hard number, so far most of what we were looking at was in the 3-4K range for a chair & sofa, that was fabric, not leather. We're open to leather and fabric.

Hopefully this is a little more helpful as to what i am looking for.

[drcollie]

I am not much of a 'brand' recommendation guy. And there are four reasons for that:

1) Unless you can get into the factory and see how they are made (and know what to look for), no one can tell you that something is good, or bad. And that takes a lot of time to do factory tours. Plus if the factory is off-shore, then its not even a possibility.

2) Manufacturers are constantly changing their build specs. Some add quality, some take it away. They are under constant price pressure from dealers (and the retail customer) to make it for less money. Sometimes it can work, other times not so well when they do that. End result, what that maker produced a few years ago may not apply to the product they are putting out today. Also, every time there is upper management change or the company changes ownership, the build seems to immediately change.

3) I cannot possibly be familiar with all those brands. I am in my own store 6 days a week, every week. When I have a day off, I don't go poke around other furniture stores looking at the competition! The only time I really see other product is at the High Point Market and there are thousands of brands there. Because I have to move fast though the Market, I don't spend more than 2 minutes in a showroom if I don't see something that catches my eye, however.

4) A maker does not necessarily do everything in their line well - they can be triple aces in building a recliner, but fall down in stationary, for example.

This forum will serve you better if you understand what makes a quality piece (its all been posted here) and then go out and using your new found knowledge and look at the piece, push on it, see how its made. Do your homework and you'll develop and eye for what's good and what's not very quickly. Don't focus on SALE TAGS or PRICE SLASHING. Look at the build.

As far as tilt backs go, the King of these is Hancock & Moore. I'm somewhat disappointment in Bradington-Young's offerings, the tolerance slop in the motion part is excessive and the piece is not as tight as H&M. I have both in my store side-by-side and if you do a little poking around on them its pretty evident which is the superior piece. They use different mechanism's to do the tilt function and I just don't care for the way BY does theirs. But they make an excellent recliner (see # 4 above)

A 3-way Lounger is :

1) Upright like a chair
2) TV watching position
3) Full Recline (nearly flat)

That's all that means.

Hope that helps.

[detroit_fan]

Thank you so much for the reply. I drove a lot of miles today, sat in a lot of chairs and tried to narrow down this search. My first stop was a dealer that carried H&M. I was able to try out the Austin High Back chair with ottoman. I liked the chair, it was very nice and comfortable, but it may be a little out of my price range, they wanted $3,939 for the chair an ottoman in the Town and Country Leather and that was with 41% off according to them. They also said they could order the Town and Country fabric version for about $3,257. If this was the most comfortable chair I sat in I may be willing to save up a little and go this route, but there were a couple chairs I did like better.

One of the stores carried Bradington Young, but they only had floor models available and he wasn't really interested in showing me them or talking to me about them since he is replacing them with the Smith Brothers line. That was really disappointing, because the 3 chairs I liked best were all BY. Unfortunately, since he was not interested in showing me the models I have no idea what 2 of them are called, so I tried to take some pics but i only had a poor quality camera phone with me. The first one I liked was the Bacroft model. This was a really nice chair, but out of the 3, it was my least favorite, still a very viable option for me though.

Here are pics of the other 2, I'm hoping maybe they are clear enough that they can be identified.

the first was a swivel glider-



The second was a stationary push back recliner (maybe the merill 3002?)




Sorry the pictures are sideways and not the best quality, i'm not very good with uploading and editing. Those 2 chairs were by far the most comfortable (to me) that i sat in today, but i have no idea what the name/number of them is. I did take a picture of the tags (under the cushion) of each one if that would help, but the pics aren't very clear.

[drcollie]

41% off what? There is no published MSRP on Town and Country items, so that particular dealer just pulled that number out of their ____. Shop around, every dealer sets their own prices and that is not particularly aggressive.

You can match those photos up at the B-Y website, I'm sure (That's what I would have to do). If you can't match them up, then ping me again on them.