Our experience buying two H&M sofas

We’ve been talking about replacing our old sagging sofas for more than a year. After doing lots of research, we settled on the H&M Lacross sofa in a Capri leather. We really liked the look of that sofa, but the price kept us back. When you see beautiful leather sofas in local stores for a third of the price, it’s hard to justify the H&M price.

Finally, in July, we decided to take a trip down to Washington. It was a lovely weekend trip. We spent Saturday morning at The Keeping Room, and we learned a few things:

• Duane is a real person and is as knowledgeable in real life as he is on the forum :)
• We saw the Lacross sofa in store (well, sectional -- close enough) and we still liked it a lot.
• We liked the Capri leathers, but not as much as we thought we would.
• We liked a leather that wasn’t even in the running, Weston Cane Burnished. Duane had two chairs in it and they were both gorgeous.
• The leather samples were very different from the leather on the chairs. Different color, different texture, different handfeel. The samples, especially the small ones, are almost useless as a proxy for the end result.
• H&M pieces are as pretty and well-made as advertised.

After the trip, we decided to order the sofas in Weston Cane Burnished. The price difference from 4-leather to 3-leather was significant ($3000+ for two sofas), and we liked the Weston.

We ordered on August 1st and we got them 2.5 months later, on October 16. The folks from A&O Delivery were very professional. They came when they said they would, they were efficient, and they had the nicest southern accent.

The sofas are glorious. They look solid and rich without overwhelming the room. The leather is a light brown, nicely burnished, with a fine texture. Even nicer than I remember it from the store. I took some pictures, but they didn’t come out right, so I won’t post them yet. I need better lighting.

There is one negative aspect, which I’m hoping time will solve: Sitting on the sofas is not as comfortable as expected. The ultra-down pillows are stiffer than I thought, and I feel like they push against me a bit too much. I’m hoping they will give with time and butt-effort.

Last but not least, our experience with Duane and the store has been flawless. All questions were answered promptly, the price was great, and everything with the order went smoothly. And even though Duane warned us that this particular leather is often out of stock, it was not the case when we ordered.

Don't worry about the cushions feeling like they push back as my experience is that they will feel much softer in no time. My chair gave me the same feeling at first, but I believe a combination of the leather, the cushion core and perhaps captured air pressure all played a role in feeling like the cushion was pushing back at me. We have an H&M Sofa with ultra-down cushions and a recliner with standard cushions and both gave us this feeling at first. Give it a few weeks.

Thanks for the great review, I appreciate each and every opportunity to be your source for better furnishings.

Yes, give those cushions and leather time to break-in. They will be stiff at first but should be just about perfect in about 6 weeks time.