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Thread: Help Needed

  1. #1
    bossfan Guest

    Default Help Needed

    I have been rushing my furniture buying decision. The reason for rushing is that this weekend my state is having a state tax free weekend. Stores are having a double tax free promotion so I can save some money if I buy this weekend. But I just found this forum a few days ago and now I think that there is more that I need to learn and I may be better off foregoing the savings in order to make sure that I get this right. Finding this forum has already convinced me that I need to open up my piggy bank and buy something of good quality. So if I miss out on the state tax savings then if Duane's pricing is as good as I have read then I may do almost as well buying long distance. Duane I actually have a price quote request that you have not replied to yet. I requested the quote based on what I saw in the only nearby store that sells Hancock & Moore. So if you see that quote request maybe you can include your suggestions in your reply to the quote if you do not reply in this thread.

    So here is my info and I look forward to the help and suggestions.

    Here are a few pictures of the room

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    Room Orientation
    Picture 1 - The home is a split entry ranch. From the main entry you walk up some stairs and the room is on your left. This picture was taken from the top of the stairs facing the main entry way coming in to the home.
    Picture 2 - Taken from the top of the stairs looking into the room. The couch that I need to replace is in front of the speakers by the railing.
    Picture 3 - Another view looking into the room. The opening on the right is the entry into the dining room.
    Picture 4 - A fuller view of the room. Couch to be replaced is on the left. I would like to replace the love seat that is against the window wall. But now that I have decided to go up in quality and price I may have to wait and replace it at a later time.

    Two more pieces of info.
    - Wall color is a pale yellow
    - In picture 4 from where the end of the couch is (by the tall torchier lamp) and all along the window wall is a baseboard heater. So I don't know if the furniture being near the heat means that there are any types of leather that I need to avoid.

    Hopefully that is enough information on room layout so on to the furniture.

    The couch to be replaced is 84" long. In picture 2 you can see that I have a table against a wall which makes a small passage way between the end of the couch and the table. I have 30" of space there so I can probably go up to 90" on the couch but I think that is pushing it for spacing. I like to watch TV with my feet up so I have always had a recliner couch. After reading here about the advantage of having an 8 way tied coil I am now trying to decide if my best set up is a stationary couch with 2 Ottomans or to go with what I really would like to have which is a power recliner couch.

    The love seat is about 58" long. In picture 4 the right end of the love seat is currently very close to my home theater equipment cabinet so there is no real space there to go longer. I can probably push back the equipment cabinet for a little longer love seat but at most I can probably get another 5 or 6 inches.

    I am not a big fan of sectionals and I'm not even sure if it will fit well in the space but if someone thinks that is a good option then I will consider it. But I prefer my current couch/love seat combo.

    So with all of the above info what I need help with is what will work in this room. Also until I found this forum I did not realize all the different leather options and colors to consider. It seems that Anilene is what is recommended. Again if the furniture is near the baseboard heater along the wall then I don't know if that means a different type of leather is better to consider.

    There is only one furniture dealer near me that carries Hancock couches. I went there to look, touch, and feel. They had about 5 Hancock pieces on display so from what was on display I liked the Austin sofa best of all. They had it only in low back and it seemed comfortable for me as I am a short 5' 6" tall. As I said I don't know whether to go stationary with a couple of ottoman's or add the power recline option for this couch.

    The display model was in a finished Cavalier Oxblood which looked good to me but now that I have read some more it seems that a finished leather is not the way to go. Also not sure if the color is right and I am a little color blind so here is a photo of what I looked at:

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    There is also a store in another state that is only an hour ride from my location. They do not carry Hancock but they do sell Bradington Young as well as American Leather and Classic Leather. For a motion recliner I have seen Duane recommend the 912-90 Reid but this store does not have it on the floor so I can't try it out. They do have the 916 Newman couch on display so I could use an opinion on the Reid that I can't test out vs. the Newman that I can test out.

    OK so sorry for the long post. But I am a clueless guy with limited decorating sense and color blindness to boot and if I am going to spend big money on furniture I want to make sure that I get it right.
    Last edited by bossfan; 08-15-2015 at 01:41 AM.

  2. #2
    bossfan Guest

    Default Re: Help Needed

    I can't edit the original post but I wanted to add a couple of more pictures in case it helps:

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    Picture 1 - Taken from the top of the stairs looking into the room. The couch that I need to replace is in front of the speakers by the railing. I posted a similar picture but this new picture better shows a half wall that is between the entry to the kitchen and entry to the dining room. The wall is about 82" long.

    Picture 2 - Taken from the window wall where the love seat is. I wanted to post this because it better shows the half wall between the kitchen and dining room.
    Last edited by bossfan; 08-15-2015 at 11:16 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Alexandria VA
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    Default Re: Help Needed

    I think you are fine in your layout the way you have it, though I think you would benefit hugely from a Entertainment center wall unit that will hold all your pieces and speakers. Its un-finished looking on that wall, like early College. Nothing wrong with the H&M Town and Country leathers in Cavalier, they're solid.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  4. #4
    bossfan Guest

    Default Re: Help Needed

    Quote Originally Posted by drcollie View Post
    I think you are fine in your layout the way you have it, though I think you would benefit hugely from a Entertainment center wall unit that will hold all your pieces and speakers. Its un-finished looking on that wall, like early College. Nothing wrong with the H&M Town and Country leathers in Cavalier, they're solid.
    I've looked for entertainment centers from time to time but haven't found one that I like. Any suggestions of an internet site that I could look at that sells decent quality, good looking entertainment centers?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Alexandria VA
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    15,887

    Default Re: Help Needed

    I know Hooker furniture builds a lot of them, but I'm not really familiar with their product lineup to know what would work. Myself I would get a custom, but you may not want to sink in that kind of money into one. Here's a small custom we did for a customer, built to his drawings. It came out great.

    http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...+entertainment
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  6. #6
    bossfan Guest

    Default Re: Help Needed

    Quote Originally Posted by drcollie View Post
    I know Hooker furniture builds a lot of them, but I'm not really familiar with their product lineup to know what would work. Myself I would get a custom, but you may not want to sink in that kind of money into one. Here's a small custom we did for a customer, built to his drawings. It came out great.

    http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...+entertainment
    That is a nice piece of furniture. Wish I could find something like that. Maybe when I have available funds I'll see if I can find someone that can build me something like that.

  7. #7
    bossfan Guest

    Default Re: Help Needed

    I am reviving this post from a year ago because pictures were loaded when I first posted this.

    I thought that I was going to have my new sofa last year when I first posted. That was when I thought that I would just wander around the couple of large furniture stores near me and pick something that looked good and felt comfortable to sit on. Then I found this site and realized that there was more to consider than just looks and comfort, things such as leather quality and build quality was not part of my decision process until reading the information on this site.

    My preferred sofa is a power reclining one. Then the information about the benefits of 8 way tied springs got me thinking that I needed to focus on a stationary sofa and ottoman combination. When the Just In Time program was announced I was about to pull the trigger on an Austin and ottomans, even requested a quote from Duane on that set up. But in the end a power recliner sofa is what I prefer to get despite that means giving up the benefits of 8 way tie stationary seating.

    Hancock & Moore is too far out of my price range and finding a Hancock power sofa to sit on in my area proved a difficult task. I was able to sit on a couple of Bradington Youngs and I believe that I have settled on a Newman reclining sofa. Which brings me to the purpose of this post which is to decide on a leather choice for this sofa. Of course anyone can chime in but since Duane is probably most familiar with the BY leathers I hope to get a reply from him.

    I do not want a full protected finish leather. The room gets quite a bit of sun during the day which I can minimize by not opening the blinds too high, but at the same time I do not want to live in the dark with no sunlight like a vampire. So I am looking at the BY aniline plus leathers. Looking at the BY leather manifest it looks like the only colors that I think will fit in the room are 3 of the Grade 1 leathers - 9110-82, 9110-83, 9110-88.

    Here are some room pictures. I am replacing the couch that is against the railing. Unfortunately the love seat under the window will have to stay until I can afford to replace it.

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    I got leather samples from the dealer that I went to. I like all 3 of these but out of the 3 I like the 9110-88 the best, followed by the 9110-82, and then the 9110-83. I'm not sure if the 9110-88 will be too dark and too much brown for the room. Frankly I can live with any 3 of these colors so I would like to get an opinion on what would be the best choice, or if there is another color that I missed that I should look at.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Alexandria VA
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    Default Re: Help Needed

    I have a Bradington Young 'Shop at Home' Kit available to send out, which has all the leathers, nails and wood samples in it. If would like to have it mailed out, all you pay is the 2-way shipping on it.

    AP or Aniline Plus is just another coated leather. It's not much in the way of aniline and is treated for classification purposes as a sanded and pigmented hide. It's very difficult to see any difference from a finished leather and semi-aniline, the hand on the Semi (AP) is usually a little nicer, but the difference is small.

    In the B-Y numbering system, the 5th digit is the color series, "8"s are browns. Then the last or sixth digit is the intensity or darkness of the color, with 1 being the lightest, 9 the darkest.

    Colors always darken at night, so keep that in mind as well.
    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
    bossfan Guest

    Default Re: Help Needed

    Quote Originally Posted by drcollie View Post

    AP or Aniline Plus is just another coated leather. It's not much in the way of aniline and is treated for classification purposes as a sanded and pigmented hide. It's very difficult to see any difference from a finished leather and semi-aniline, the hand on the Semi (AP) is usually a little nicer, but the difference is small.
    Does this mean that if there is not much difference between a finished leather and Aniline Plus then I should not eliminate the finished leathers from my leather options. And if I want to get away from a finished type leather then I need to go up a level to Aniline? Aniline leathers look to be Grades 3-6 and for cost reasons I was hoping to stay in a Grade 1 or Grade 2 leather.

    Duane I know that working up a quote takes up your time but for a price comparison I'd like to see how your price compares with a Grade 1 leather price that I have received so I am going to submit a price quote. And if it is possible to quote the other leather grades then that will help me decide what will work for me financially. Thank you.
    Last edited by bossfan; 09-02-2016 at 07:21 PM.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Help Needed

    Correct, I was talking with Pamela at Leather Solutions last week and she and I both agree that Aniline Plus is just another form of a coated leather. There is lots of confusion on that, and most people do get it wrong, even people in the business. For the natural stuff, it has to be a pure aniline (if you want to go that way). Only 6% of all hides world-wide are "clean" enough to be a pure aniline, so that means they are going to be more costly, no way around that. There are a few GR 2 pure anilines in H&M (notably Yardley and Atticus) but the better stuff is GR 3 and up.

    As to costs, here' a general guideline on H&M leather:

    Grade 2: 15% more than GR 1
    Grade 3: 15% more than GR 2
    Grade 4: 22% mode than GR 3
    Grade 5: 20 % more than GR 4

    Those are approximations and vary by piece. The way I look at it - if you take care of the piece and don't place it in direct sunlight, and do your maintenance on the hide, you should easily get 30 years out of it. In that same 30 years, you would probably swap cars out 4 times. So while the front end cost may seem high to get what you want when you amortize it over useful life its not much at all. Let's stay the hide you really like is $ 1,200 more on a sofa, divided by 30 years that comes out to $ 40 a year, and that's small potatoes to get something you love vs. something that will make do.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

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