Leather Choices and My Growing Family.

[Savannah]

Lol, Jake, now you're going to make me second guess tiburon and wish I would have gotten some prairie samples! In the pics you took, I liked the prairie chestnut. I would be interested in how the hand of prairie compares to tiburon. It is hard to tell with the small samples, but when I handled the larger ones, I could immediately tell a big difference between it and Tuscany. Tiburon has a nice drape and softness to it, to be a pull-up. {In my own very limited experience, lol}. Can people REALLY order after just a few samples??? Maybe so if they want luxury and start with Capri... there's no reason to keep looking, lol... Seriously it was love in sight, smell, and touch, immediately!

I am incredibly indecisive. My indecision was on steroids with this purchase seeing as how I am going to be living with it until it is in tatters...! You better believe I am going to clean and condition this baby. My friends jaws dropped when they heard how much we would be spending. One of them has two new leather sofas from a big box furniture store that her young boys already managed to tear... Because the leather isnt full grain and is so thin! I doubt their sofas will ever make a move unharmed. My husband still thinks I am insane to be spending so much $$$$$ on this since we move every two years, and I do worry about it. If something happens, the moving companies will be paying to fix it, so I guess I need to just let it go.

[Savannah]

ViviV, since you like the september, have you considered the la cross? You can get it without tufting if you want. It has a big presence. Here are some pics of it, custom without tufting, except the back. You could go sans tufting on the entire thing if you wanted. It looks so different in a good leather like in these pics than the stock photos. It is roomy, 24.5" inside depth, and you can configure it to be long... The longest is 129x131. That is a lot longer than the september. Btw, I like quilting too... That parisian sofa is pretty! I wouldn't mind a chair with some quilting, but my husband said, "ugh!", when he saw quilted leather...

[sstarrx2]

ViviV, since you like the september, have you considered the la cross? You can get it without tufting if you want. It has a big presence. Here are some pics of it, custom without tufting, except the back. You could go sans tufting on the entire thing if you wanted. It looks so different in a good leather like in these pics than the stock photos. It is roomy, 24.5" inside depth, and you can configure it to be long... The longest is 129x131. That is a lot longer than the september. Btw, I like quilting too... That parisian sofa is pretty! I wouldn't mind a chair with some quilting, but my husband said, "ugh!", when he saw quilted leather...

I love this sofa!!! I like the plain front and tufted back! If you are going to float a piece of furniture and interesting back is a must. Very good choice! What leather/color is this? It looks like Butternut.

[Savannah]

Yep it is capri butternut. http://www.myfurnitureforum.com/show...s-sofa-arrived

[ViviV]

Savannah you read my mind! I've requested a quote on the Lacross too!! AND absolutely without the buttons at least on the front bottom piece.

I LLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVEEEEEEE the quilted Parisian in white leather in the H&M catalog!! If I had to ask nobody else to consider (hubby and our boys) id be ordering 2 of those babies!! Totally feminine and elegant but still with "presence and weight".

The Lacross is a huge contender right now. I hate the front legs though.......I would like plain legs.

[Savannah]

I am so with you on not liking those legs. That's a big reason I changed my mind... It was going to bring it too out of budget to change them to tapered, and I just could not bring myself to like them as-is. It is a nice and deep size, though, which is great! So much can be changed if $ allows.

[ViviV]

Hmmmm i really do wish I could see all the sectionals side by side in order to decide!! If I go with the Lacross I'm definitely going to modify it and the price will go up which is not what I want. I like the York for the depth but would probably end up with the modifications you've spoken of in the other threads. And Id want an extra seat added to the sofa side (I need one loveseat side and a sofa side. I'm trying to get a sectional 105"x 140"). I like the chaise and that would get us close or over 140" but my husband said no chaise.

[drcollie]

For some reason, furniture makers - all of them - struggle with explaining sectional components to their consumers, especially on their web sites. I complain to them CONSTANTLY and get the 'we will look into it' and nothing seems to happen much. I am always crusading for better website information from them as today's shopper needs those tools to figure out their purchase. If I had the time to do nothing but detail all that, I could do it here myself, but there are so many hours I can put into the forum as the nuts and bolts of running a store take precedence.

Here's some tricks on sectionals to remember:

L-shapes are very easy to compute the size on the wall. You take the length of the non-corner piece, say an LAF Sofa (has a single, arm 3 seats and connects to the corner) that may be 82", then add in the overall depth of the perpendicular piece which is probably around 42" and your wall space on that segment is 82" + 42" = 124". Want to add a seat? Most seat widths are 22" to 24", just add that to the 124" and you have 148" or so.

Quarter turns are harder to compute on wall space. I spend most of 8th and 9th grade asleep in Geometry and never got it - but I think the answer is there. Any math teachers here?

Trying to get a custom size sectional is tricky, because say you want 140", but the choices are 124" (2-seat) and 148" (3-seat) and you want 140". The only way to do that is take 8" out of the (3) seat cushions which for this exercise are 24" wide each, so you are going to shrink them in width by 3" each. This will alter the visual proportion of the piece because maybe we did not shrink the opposite side the same, and the seat cushions are wider on that side. Also, we have not altered the depth so the whole piece goes out of balance somewhat.

Folks say "I only want to shorten it by 8", why does it cost so much?" Well, everything on it has to now be custom. The frame has to be made shorter, the entire spring grid layout has to be reconfigured in the suspension, the cushion maker has to make new cores up, and the pattern maker has to do a custom pattern for the every aspect of that side of the frame. There is quite a bit of work in a custom mod, its not a profit center for the maker. Most companies won't do custom, because to do so you have to do all parts of the build in-house, and have people smart enough to read a work order <G>

[Savannah]

ViviV, you mean you would do the mods to the york, add nails and single panel sides? Yeah, it is definitely much more budget friendly than a modified la cross since the la cross is already a lot more to begin with before mods. I like chaises too, but we move a lot, so it would be hard to always fit in... Right now in our current house we would have no living room left if there was a chaise, lol. Sometimes when we PCS, the rentals are slim pickings! Ahh, it's the life! A nice large ottoman is what I plan on after we move next, and it is multi functional .

[Jake8]

Savanah and ViviV,
We got a chance to look at the complete H&M leather sample selection and we really liked the Tiburon Mink and Tiburon Java. We are changing our minds (again) and going that route instead of the Prairie. We like both the Java and the Mink. The Mink is a gorgeous color. Brown, but has something else going on. Do you know of any pictures of pieces done up in either Mink or Java? Thanks!