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Thread: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

  1. #1
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    First off, hello and nice site!

    Alright, i want a reclining sectional and have been looking locally. The "good" / known brands i found locally are Lane, Southern Motion, La-z-boy, and Flexsteel. Out of those i liked the Flexsteel the most. However it was a Flexsteel (Downtown 1710). I have the brochure on it and you can configure it however you like. Problem is, i searched online and see people talking about the Flexsteel Latitudes and how they are made in China and a lower quality furniture. How do i know if this particular sofa is classified in the Latitude line? The brochure mentions nothing about Latitude and Flexsteels own website has nothing about Latitude that i can find...am i missing something? The price on the Flexsteel i was quoted was $3,287 + tax and delivery fee (includes a 20% discount). This is for a RAF reclining loveseat, armless recliner, armless chair, wedge, LAF recliner.

    As you can see my options locally are very limited. I want a durable sofa with comfort. I already went the cheap route about 5 years ago and see where that got me. My budget is around $5k. I want to buy a quality piece rather than buying junk that might last 5-8 years at most. I need the following in my sectional, going from the left to right...Chair or recliner, wedge, recliner, chair, loveseat (with recliner) or double loveseat, whatever works there on the end / long wall.

    Can anyone help or provide any insight?

    Thanks in advance for any help.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Alexandria VA
    Posts
    15,890

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Welcome to the forum.

    Flexsteel has two operations, their "Flexsteel" line is always made in USA, with plants in MS, IA, PA and some other states as well. The 'Latitudes' collection is 100% made-in-China. There is a difference in the build in my opinion. While mainstream Flexsteel is OK, the Chinese-made product I had issues with back when I was a dealer for them. That was several years ago however, so things may have changed. I'd not be in a rush to buy a La-z-Boy brand or Lane, personally. Motion (recliner) sectionals are only as good as the mechanisms and you should try to find units with either Leggett and Platt or Universal Mech brand mechanisms. You can usually find them labeled on the hardware. Avoid no-brand recliner mechanisms which are cheap Chinese knock-offs and prone to accelerated failure.

    I have this sectional on clearance in my store in a high end leather, with power recliners on each end. Bradington Young 912 series in a GR 6 hide. Fireball priced and this one will last many, many years. Pickup in Alexandria VA or it can be shipped at additional charge based on your locations.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  3. #3
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Wow, that BY looks fantastic and seems like a really good deal. Only problem is i can't have it setup like that in my room. It would be too long on the left side. My room is an odd shape. The largest i can have is about 7 feet coming out from the wall where the wedge would extend into the room. I can have 13 feet (and make room for more if need be up to about 16 feet) going across the wall. From what i have gathered on other pieces i have looked at is this... I would need and have to have (from left to right) a Chair or recliner, wedge, recliner, chair, loveseat (with recliner) or double loveseat, whatever works there on the end / long wall. Does that make sense? Can something like that be configured with BY or other brand you carry and in my price range?

    Thanks for the reply.

    Justin
    Last edited by sofa87; 07-04-2015 at 06:06 PM.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    I'm not personally a fan of that layout...its an awkward look to have a chair, wedge then a sofa segment. Why not just get a dual recliner sofa and the if you need one more seat, a stand-alone recliner or swivel chair?
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  5. #5
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Duane,

    Well you got me thinking and i talked to the fiance. We can entirely rearrange our living room and get rid of things we don't need and just take up space. When all is said and done we can go up to 11 feet across and 13 feet down our wall. So from left to right we are looking at possibly doing this: Reclining loveseat, recliner, wedge, armless chair, recliner, reclining loveseat. Obviously this would be the biggest we'd want to go and may be getting out of budget with as many pieces as that is. I'm only going off measurements based on the flexsteel brochure that i have. Other brands may differ in size, but that's ok. I also know many variables can widely adjust the cost. Swapping out recliners for chairs, different grades of leather vs fabric, power vs non-power, removing a piece or two from the above configuration and so on.

    We would want leather for the durability but are not opposed to fabric as long as it's durable and not cheap stuff that will tear up in a few years time. We like microfiber if we went with anything other than leather. I know there are numerous types of microfiber too.

    Couple questions, do both seats in a reclining loveseat in other brands both recline or just the arm / end chair?
    With my budget in mind do you have any thoughts with the new space?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    I have a question on spatial layout - is the whole room 13' x 11' or is that just the space dedicated to this piece of furniture? It would help if you could post a photo of the room or floor schematic, along with the relevant pieces from the Flexsteel brochure. If I am understanding this correctly you have (6) recliner stations in this sectional? I don't understand that concept of all those recliners. If you envision lots of friends over to watch a ball game, etc. you will have to have that TV perfectly positioned to make the recliners at all usable to both sides of the 90 degrees. And if you do (6) recliner stations I can just about guarantee you will have alignment and mechanism difficulties in a relatively short period of time. Think about what you want this room to accomplish and its primary purpose - if its to watch TV with a group of people you will be far better served with a home theatre layout rather than a sectional with all those moving parts. Not everyone needs or wants a recliner spot, don't over-focus on that for your guests is my advice. I'd rather do something like this for a long wall and supplement with a pair of non-reclining swivel chairs on the flanks and forward of the main unit.

    http://www.taylorking.com/product.asp?PID=5645&CID=28

    Microfiber is not really a super-durable fabric, its just 100 % Polyester with a very small thread size that makes it hard for dirt to attach to the fibers. Buy it because its easy to clean, but not necessarily for longevity.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  7. #7
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    The room is 12 feet x 22 feet. Couch / sectional will be in a corner of one end of the room while the tv is on the other end of the 22 foot room. Our idea for the sectional is this... We like to have the most useable seating and maximize that potential with the sectional. If we want to lay down while the other sits and reclines we have that option. The dog also likes to hop up and lay with us. He takes up two cushions We have a recliner and sofa now and just don't like it. We want more space that a sectional offers. We don't need all the recliners. I used those because the only ends (with an arm) that flexsteel has are recliners or loveseat (recliners). Ideally we want two recliners on the window wall in the picture and one other on the longer side and we'd be content with that. Loveseat (reclining), recliner, wedge, armless loveseat, recliner would be ideal. I just don't know what pieces another manufacturer offers. Seems like BY offers the same (?) but they do have a sofa option. I see the following on the BY website but don't know what a sofa return is.
    -35 Chair Full Recline
    -38 Armless Chair
    -55 LAF Loveseat Full Recline
    -56 RAF Loveseat Full Recline
    -61 LAF Sofa
    -62 RAF Sofa
    -68 Corner Wedge
    -70 Loveseat L/R Full Recline
    -73 LAF Sofa Return
    -74 RAF Sofa Return
    -90 Sofa L/R Full Recline

    Thanks for taking time to discuss all this with me. Hopefully we can come up with something that will work in our space. Click image for larger version. 

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    Got to thinking again....If we do nix the sectional idea we would at least want a double recliner sofa like you mentioned earlier to put against the back (window wall) then we could add other pieces or another sofa along the right wall. As you can see from the picture we have a lot of stuff. We are basically removing everything you see in the picture.
    Last edited by sofa87; 07-05-2015 at 04:02 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Based on the room layout and size in the photo, I think that any sectional from any maker is going to be far too large and over-power the room. At 12' width, you want to think shallow depth, to try to preserve some space across that area. If you are really set on a sectional, then go as small and compact as you can, perhaps give up the recliner and use a long boot stool in front of it instead. I'm all about clean and unencumbered space in room layouts, which may not jive with what you are looking for in a room. So for a sectional, I'd be looking at something small like this with an ottoman similar to this one as well. The ottoman will give you near-recliner comfort and is more flexible to use.

    http://www.bradington-young.com/amer...ONAL&style=654
    http://www.bradington-young.com/amer...N&style=395-OT

    Still, i like the sofa/chair combo better for your room, and watch the overall depth of the sofa, try to find a wallhugger recliner unit that doesn't have more than 40" in depth. Not much larger than this one:

    http://www.bradington-young.com/amer...E&style=912-90
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  9. #9
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Duane,

    Thanks, let me talk more with the fiance and make a decision on what we want. You've given us a lot to think about. Assuming we want to go with something from you is my budget doable or should i stick with a local brand? I also looked online and saw a local store carries King Hickory as well. KH seems like a solid brand. Looking at the KH website it does not look like they carry any reclining sofa or sectional. So....

    I do like the looks of the BY you posted above. I just don't know where their prices are except for that sectional above.

  10. #10
    sofa87 Guest

    Default Re: Need help deciding on a reclining sectional

    Duane,

    Could you also explain this? Maybe you can, maybe you can't... I see this on the Flexsteel site: http://www.flexsteel.com/product/westport-1285-62

    These websites list it as part of the Latitudes collection: http://www.zaksfurniture.com/item.as...1285-62-121-70
    http://www.wayside-furniture.com/col...um=1285-121-82

    Are the websites just stating the wrong information or what? Nothing on Flexsteel's site mentions anything about the Westport being in the Latitudes Collection. Same model # on all three sites too.

    This is confusing....

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