Utah Recliner vs Sundance & Weymuth - Help us with our decision & thinking

Background: We have a two story red brick colonial home located in Fort Collins, CO. Colonial styled homes are rare in Colorado, but we love them and sought this one out! As such, our decorating also goes towards traditional/colonial. Not primitive colonial - more updated, but still very classic. Neither my wife or I like things that "look" modern in terms of furniture and decorating. Even the layout of our home (as you might guess) is traditional with the rooms smaller and lots of separation between spaces. We have opened the house up a little - we removed the top portion of a wall between our kitchen and family room so those in the kitchen (particularly my wife and whomever is cooking with her) can socialize with everyone in the adjoining family room.

The room adjoining the kitchen is where our family spends a ton of time - it is a family room (14 x 17) and it adjoins another room that is 14 x 15. Think of it as one large room that is 14' x 32' with a separation in the middle. The two rooms are separated by a beamed ceiling as well as walls that come out 2' from the edge. The beamed ceiling and the little wall is framed out with fluted trim in a colonial or traditional style. Depending upon how furniture is placed in the two connected rooms they can act more like one larger space or as two separate spaces. We choose to use the rooms as one larger space to accomodate our 5 kids (only one at home) and our growing number of grandchildren (particularly during family get togethers). So, we need LOTS of seats!!

Keeping all of the above in mind, we are trying to answer these questions:

1) What recliners should we add to our family room - we have decided we want a total of four.
2) We have existing an Bradington Young "red" sofa (might be staying in this room) and a matching loveseat (which will probably be staying). However, the room is large and we want to add either a Sundance Power reclining sofa (if the BY sofa moves elsewhere) or we may just add an additional H&M loveseat or smaller sofa. We love the style of the Somerset loveseat with tufted back - does anyone own this? Is it comfortable? We haven't been able to see this sofa in person. We want "style" but

When we tried out a bunch of H&M recliners two weeks ago, this is what we came away with:

For me:


Sundance High Back
Comfort: Most Comfortable I sat in
Looks - Just OK - not bad, not great
Other Considerations: Wife also thought it was the most comfortable recliner she sat in. Since we both really loved the comfort, we could see ourselves getting two of these. However, it is just not all that "pretty".



Weymuth
2nd or 3rd Most Comfortable of all H&M recliners that I sat in
Looks - Beautiful and stylish - I loved the "look"
Considerations - might look too large and overdone in our setting. Wife thinks the bustle might be too large. Chair is too large for my wife to sit in and really enjoy it. We would not get two of these chairs, just one for me.

Utah Lounger
We have just discovered this recliner in pictures - the lines look very beautiful. Does anyone have it? Can anyone offer an opinion on how it "sits" compared tot he Sundance or the Weymuth recliners?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Going to need to see some room shots to do this right.....otherwise its difficult to make recommendations.

Sundance Motion Sofa is VERY nice to sit in, however be aware this thing is a beast to deliver and requires a 36" opening to its destination and four men to deliver due to the weight (or two really strong men). I'm pretty stout and I can't handle one end of it by myself for more than a few feet in a straight line, that's how heavy they are.

Agreed, the Sundance Recliner doesn't have the best form, that beautiful design on the sofas doesn't transfer as well to the recliner model. The Utah recliner I happen to think is quite handsome and it does sit well (for me). The Weymuth is very large, and really designed for men 6' 4" and taller.

Fearless Leader,

Here is a diagram of our proposed furniture layout. All items would be new except one Bradington Young loveseat and one of the four recliners. The existing loveseat is a beautiful red - much the same color as the couch on the myfurniture.com homepage. The one existing recliner is a cheap (paid $1,000 and wish we hadn't wasted out money) brown leather wingback recliner we bought a couple years ago for our home office.

The flat screen above the mantle on the top right is currently in place. We are planning to add the flatscreen on the lower left (above the loveseat) and it will only run in parallel to the existing flatscreen. The new flatscreen will be installed in a wooden picture frame. Overall room size is 32' a 14'.

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psbbafa11b.png

WOW! That is a challenging room layout. Can you supplement with some photos of the room? I'd like to study the photos before making a recommendation. I can tell you I'm not crazy about the layout the way you have it set up. Too many recliners, too many seats. You have the opportunity to do something cool in this room, and my mind is whirring around, but I need to see the photos to get a sense of the room.....

Duane, I very much appreciate your willingness to provide feedback an input!

Here are some photos. I realize there are lots of chairs, but we have lots of potential people in this room.

Of the current chairs the only one that will stay for sure is the red BY red loveseat. We might keep the matching BY red sofa or it might move to our basement. Also, we might keep the brown leather wing chair recliner, but I don't care for it much.

The goals for this room:

1) Accommodate our family during family gatherings - 5 kids and spouses and 2 grandkids (at this point).
2) Be able to watch TV from either end. Note the TV above mantle on the west wall of north end. And, my thought is another TV placed diagonally in the south room above the red loveseat currently there
3) Keep with a traditional/colonial look
4) Although we love the look of "pretty" chairs, we can't afford more than perhaps one chair that is 95% looks and 50% comfort.

Looking in from the entry way.

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7b26b455.jpg

Barely inside the door.

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psd4651517.jpg

From the south end looking north

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...ps648328e0.jpg

Still looking north, from middle of room

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0ed246c3.jpg

Another step north . . .

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psa8e270bb.jpg

From the north end looking into the kitchen

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2c1168ee.jpg

From the kitchen looking into the north end

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psca30020d.jpg

From the kitchen sink peering into the north end

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psa92720a7.jpg

Here is an inspiration for making the TV look nice over the mantle

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...psd16c5aaf.png

Lastly, from the north end, looking back south

http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8143c4c7.jpg

Okay ...I want to live there! Gorgeous rooms and furnishings ...and love the rugs!

wisejd, thank you so much for the kind words!

We love our "Colorado Colonial"! It is the first home (since my childhood home) that I have been in love with.

The rugs have been one of our favorite purchases! I wish the H&M furniture we plan to buy would hold its value half as well as nice rugs!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wisejd

Okay ...I want to live there! Gorgeous rooms and furnishings ...and love the rugs!

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This is challenging....you're really testing my powers of design. What I thought would work (in my head) will not, now that I see the photos of the room. I've got to ponder this a bit.....one thing though, that TV over the fireplace mantle isn't doing you any favors up there. It's hard to see and looks out of place, are you willing to consider relocating it or does it have to stay there? I ask that as it will factor into my suggestions.....

Duane, the TV over the mantle has been an item of discussion before and after it went up there.

Pros:
1) Awesome position for DW as she can easily see from the kitchen (the helm).
2) Good for (up to) 4 TV watchers

Cons:
1) Surprisingly nobody dislikes the height as it is not at the recommended eye level position, but seriously, the height with regards to "watching" is a non issue for us
2) There is only comfortable seating for 4 people to watch TV
3) Agreed - it looks a bit heavy over the mantle and it doesn't make the mantle look attractive - we have thought about possible remedies:
i) redesign the mantle (perhaps with marble etc.) all the while moving the mantle lower and placing a new LED TV into a pretty frame that fits the theme of the new mantle
ii) Remove the TV from the mantle and add a TV to the north wall, but I think said TV would need to be larger (it is currently 50") since it would be less central on the far north wall.

In the diagram at the top of the thread please notice my idea to place an additional TV in the south room on the east wall (inside a pretty frame). This TV would run in parallel and would not be gigantic - perhaps 55". This would enable comfortable seating for up to 7 for TV watching get togethers.

I really appreciate your thoughts in advance! Hooray to The Keeping Room - an interactive forum to help us think through this (exciting) challenge for my wife and I!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drcollie

This is challenging....you're really testing my powers of design. What I thought would work (in my head) will not, now that I see the photos of the room. I've got to ponder this a bit.....one thing though, that TV over the fireplace mantle isn't doing you any favors up there. It's hard to see and looks out of place, are you willing to consider relocating it or does it have to stay there? I ask that as it will factor into my suggestions.....

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Duane,

My wife and I had a long discussion. We are definitely going to leave the TV over the mantle, but we want to re-design the mantle and integrate the TV into the scheme so it is as attractive as possible. And, we also highly favor adding an additional TV as shown in the top down floor plan at the beginning of this thread.

Sorry, I know this is limiting!