H&M Reclining Sofa

Hi Duane. I was wondering about the inside seat depth on the H&M Motion Your Way sofa. We want to get a recliner sofa, but based on the layout of our home, we'll need to get one that comes in separate pieces. This eliminates the new Motion Your Way 2 model. The original Motion Your Way recliner sofa does come in pieces, but I'm concerned about its inside seat depth, which is only 19.25" deep compared to 22" for the new Motion Your Way 2. The 19.5" seems awfully shallow based on sitting on other sofas in my local showroom, although they mentioned that the comfort of the seat depth is also impacted by the pitch of the back of the sofa. Do you have experience with the original Motion Your Way recliner sofa, and is the 19.25" depth as shallow as I think it is? Could that be why they came out with a new line with a 22" depth seat? I'm reluctant to purchase this sofa without having the opportunity to sit on it given how shallow the seat depth is, but wanted to get your opinion. Thanks!

No, its not too shallow in the motion pieces, the seat height is lower on Your Way 1 as well. Of course, that assumes an average height person. If you are over 6' 1" then you may find you would want something deeper.

You should see if you can find a store that has one to try out. Also, the Bradington Young 900 series is nearly identical to the H&M Your Way 1, and their 200 series nearly identical to H&M Your Way 2 if you can locate one of those as well, they would be close enough. Also note the B-Y 200 and 900 series come as modular builds as well.

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Originally Posted by drcollie

No, its not too shallow in the motion pieces, the seat height is lower on Your Way 1 as well. Of course, that assumes an average height person. If you are over 6' 1" then you may find you would want something deeper.

You should see if you can find a store that has one to try out. Also, the Bradington Young 900 series is nearly identical to the H&M Your Way 1, and their 200 series nearly identical to H&M Your Way 2 if you can locate one of those as well, they would be close enough. Also note the B-Y 200 and 900 series come as modular builds as well.

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Hi Duane - I'm a little confused about the BY 900 series. When I looked at the BY website, the 900 series reclining sofas showed an interior seat depth of between 21" and 22", depending on the model. The BY 200 series showed an interior seat depth of 21.5". The H&M Your Way 1, on the other hand, shows an interior seat depth of only 19.25" which is concerning and my local retailer doesn't have one I can sit in prior to purchasing. They do have a couple of BY reclining sofas, but both are 21.5" deep. Am I missing something or misreading the specs on the website? Do you have much experience with the H&M Your Way 1 and if so, does it feel a little shallow to you? I'm 5'9" tall, so fairly average. Appreciate your help!

Hey rongolds,

I have been at this for several months...by "this" I mean trying to understand the pros and cons between the 200 and 900 series from BY vs the Motion your Way series 1 and series 2 from H&M.

Out of the gate for us...the cut outs showing on the back were a big issue....so that takes out the series 1 and the 900 series. Although I will admit that the 900 series has a very nice sit and I liked the depth...have sat in it many times and the split back model (the name of the design is imagine I believe) is attractive to my eye.

We have sat in a single or solid back 200 series and not liked the sit...we think we sat in a 2 piece or split back 200 series (raider I believe) early on in our search but we didn't know enough at that point to take notice and frankly our abilities to evaluate a "sit" have advanced significantly since we started looking....I mention this as the cushion style makes a big difference and wanted you to consider that in your decision.

We have yet to sit in a H&M series 2...we are considering going to the factory to achieve this experience but I digress. Comfort is subjective as is one's physical attributes. I am 6'2" and around 180-185 lbs. My preference is for a deeper sit...specifically, we would not consider anything non-motion under 23.5 inside depth. The key there is "non-motion"...I have sat in the series 1 and been quite comfortable...the recline is fantastic...if it didn't have the cut outs showing on the back we would almost certainly buy one! I will admit that (for me!) that comfort decreases a bit when the series 1 is set back to the starting point. HOWEVER...you will almost never sit in it that way!!...I felt that I could tweak the sit to make it more reclined (thus feeling deeper) and at the same time bring the headrest up to maintain a pretty upright sit if you wanted to have a face to face conversation.

So that's enough of me running on but I hope it's helpful...we haven't bought a motion piece yet so take that for what it's worth.

Best of luck and know that Duane is the man so you are in capable hands!

It’s a big mistake to buy a piece on published dimensions. That’s not a good criteria for making a purchase for several reasons, including that specs can be wildly inaccurate. At 5’ 9” I can guarantee you none of them will be too small.

Recliners are designed to be the best fit when reclined, not when fully closed up, and all specs are with them closed.

Thanks, Duane (and Inconceivable). Sounds like the biggest difference is that unlike a non-motion sofa, a reclining sofa is designed to be most comfortable when in the reclining position so comparing dimensions between a fixed position sofa and reclining sofa isn't really appropriate. I also found it very helpful that Inconceivable mentioned he sat is the H&M Your Way 1 and found it comfortable even though he's taller than me and would need a much deeper non-motion sofa. Interestingly, the B-Y reclining sofas are 21.5" deep and H&M Your Way 1 are 20.5" deep (my local retailer told me they were 19.25" but the H&M website lists them at 20.5") so there's not a huge difference. We'll either get the H&M Your Way 1 (without being able to "test drive" it first) or the B-Y Luxe or Imagine series (both available to sit in at a local retailer). This forum is incredibly informative and I appreciate your help!!

There are really two reasons measurements are inaccurate and why you should nor rely on them - I look at them as a "Guesstimate" to show how large or small the piece may be, never to buy one based on comfort or fit.

1) All items are handmade, not done by a computer or robot, so published measurements apply to that ONE unit they took a tape measure to coming off the line. The industry standard that they all go by is +/- 2" from published dimensions. If the piece you order arrives and is within that +/- 2" of the published spec, they will not consider it a manufacturing defect and will not remake it. So, a sofa that has a published depth of 20" Seat Depth can be anywhere from 18" deep to 22" deep and will be considered within spec. That's quite a wide range, and I rarely see that, but I will see (all the time) a 3/4" variance, its quite common. So that same 20" published spec piece will average between 19.25" and 20.75", and that is unremarkable

2) Sofa cushion flex, and they vary in density from one batch to another to make some cores softer, and some firmer, than others. Another factor is it becomes an issue of WHOM is doing the measuring and where are they taking their measure points? Are they running the tape measure to a fully puffed up back core or seat, or are they sitting on it, then getting up and measuring it? That can lead to an easy 3/4" variance as well.

Also, keep in mind that no one measurement defines a piece. It's a combination of 1) Seat Height 2) Seat Depth 3) Cushion core height 4) Back angle pitch 5) Fiber fill density in the back 6) Seat suspension type and number of coils - that all make up the comfort of a piece. All these work in combination with one another to aim for a comfortable sit. When I go to the factory at H&M on visits, there are always mockups of new piece in various stages of completion. It's pretty typically to find five to six revisions of a particular piece before final design is locked in. Of those revisions the first two are for style, the last three to four are to tweak the comfort altering one of those five specification above. And with each revision, several people in the factory sit and lounge on them, and render their opinions, the evidence is always in the dumpster out back of the ones that are not finalize in design.

This is also why we like to sell Hancock and Moore long distance to clients who have never sat in a model. Because they spend so much time tweaking designs for comfort, I personally find that 95% of what they sell suits most people sight unseen, so it gives dealers like us a high confidence level to ship product to those that don't have a showroom near them for hundreds of miles. To put that into perspective, I would assign Bradington-Young / Jessica Charles / Taylor King maybe a 80% rating, Century a 70% rating and Leathercraft maybe 50%. Nothing takes the place of trying it out for yourself of course, but if you go into a showroom and look at a maker's product on the floor, and find MOST of their pieces suit you, then you have a relative safe bet you can order something sight unseen. Again, speaking in generalties.

Bradington Young has a June 1st price increase, FYI, nothing coming from H&M that I have heard to date. We are happy to give you a quote if you like, just fill out a request on the quotes and orders page if interesed.