Leather Sofa for People 5'8" or Shorter in Hawaii

[HIshopper]

We currently are looking to replace living room futon sofa. The frame is oak hardwood and still in excellent condition. The futon itself remains in pretty good condition as well but H doesn't like the rake (tilts too far back for him to sit comfortable upright, with his back against the base of the futon.

We have checked out the few furniture stores in Honolulu, but they really have very few pieces to choose among and most of them do not have at least a 4" clearance so the Roomba electronic vacuum cleaner can clean under them (VERY IMPORTANT as we hate to vacuum any other way). The Ekornes stationary sofas were OK BUT not enough clearance under them for Roomba. The other sofas in the showroom often had virtually no clearance or were too deep for us and/or too high so feet didn't comfortably rest on the floor when seated.

We will be going to LA & SF, and will be checking out furniture stores while we are there, but would love suggestions about brands, stores, things to look for, approximate price range. We are pretty flexible on our budget but would need to have whatever we get shipped to Honolulu. Our living room floor is white oak; we would like a light tan leather, we are thinking.

[drcollie]

That 4" required spec under the frame for clearance is going to make your search challenging as manufacturers don't publish that dimension, nor do their customer service teams have that info. That pretty much means you will have to pound the pavement and take your tape measure with you to shop, and negates anyone making a recommendation as the only people that would know if there was 4" clearance would be people that have the piece in front of them. Good luck in your search.

[HIshopper]

Thanks, Duane! Does anyone have a couch that they love that has at least a 4" clearance? We do shop with our tape measure and are searching for shallower seat depths and shorter couches so we don't feel like "Alice in Wonderland." We have found few manufacturers provide the interior seat dimensions and as you say even fewer provide measurements of clearance under sofa.

By the way, do you ship sofas to Hawaii? Thanks for any help you or others can provide.

[drcollie]

I happen to have a Hancock & Moore # 5507-3 James Farm Sofa in my store, and it has a lot of airspace under the chassis so I measured it. 6.5" clearance at the front and 4.5" at the back (lowest point). Its an extremely handsome sofa as well with the exposed wood all around. You can see it on the H&M web site with other dimensions. I believe you called on the phone as well as sending an email on Hawaii ships and I replied to both that it can be done, but you will need to call your shippers in HI to see who does marine cargo with pickup in CA. You need a specialized carrier for that and I have no ready sources to call.

[HIshopper]

Thanks. I called HM and they suggested I look at their photos of similar sofas to figure out which sofas to ask them about. The three that look like they may be short and shallow enough with 4+ inch clearance look like Mayfair and Sorenson, in addition to the James Farm Sofa you kindly measured.

We will try to sit on some HM furniture in CA this month and get a better feel for what we need and want. We are researching white glove delivery to HI as well, so that it can get shipped NC to Honolulu, with no finger pointing if there is any damage.

If we purchase from you, are you our go to point of contact for non-shipping issues? There are no HM dealers at all in our state.

[drcollie]

Well, even though Hawaii is part of the USA, it may as well be Italy as far as warranty is concerned. The 2-way costs to ship back to NC and back in the event of a warranty repair that can't be handled locally are huge. In the event of a major warranty issue, its the customer (that's you) responsibility to return it to the manufacturer (H&M) or the selling store (that's me). So, you would have to have it packed up in Hawaii (probably $ 300 to crate it), put on a ship and send to San Diego, then onto NC (probably $ 1,000). You don't want to do that and I don't want to tell you that's how it works in the event of an issue.

But to answer your question - YES - the selling dealer is your warranty contact. For minor issues like a pulled seam, that can be done locally. Or a seat casing can be shipped back UPS - that's not too bad.

Are there really no high-quality sofa stores in Hawaii? I find that hard to believe! I could move my operation there...<g> any good retail storefronts available near the beach?

[HIshopper]

Sadly, the stores here have a lot of glitz but no HM nor BY. They have a lot of Ekornes, Natuzzi, American Leather and some Mitchell & Gold. Nearly all the sofas we saw had far less than 3" clearance.

I was very interested in the HM NC119-3 Mayfair Sofa, 5905-3-W Sorensen Sofa and the 5507-3 James Farm Sofa. They all look to have a clearance of >3.5" for the robotic vacuum.

We are also considering a Kleindesign a Brigger Sofa in leather, as their shipping is only $217 to HI. It wasn't what we envisioned, but hadn't expected buying a sofa to be so dang tough!

Any insights about these sofas would be great.

White glove shipping rates I've been quoted today between NC and HI are $1900-2600; am hoping the quotes I'm going to get tomorrow will be less insane, but don't know and am saddened.

Crate and Barrel wants $3999 for a (Lee?) Briarwood Leather Sofa and $721 for white glove delivery to HI. Have not read good things about Lee leather sofas.

[drcollie]

Don't use a White Glove Service all the way though....that's too high. Use a dedicated shipper that runs a regular route because you would want it left in the H&M packing all the way (its designed as export packing).

Yellow Freight to Honolulu - picking up at Hancock & Moore in NC - with street side curb drop at your home (I assumed Honolulu since I don't know where in HI you are located) - on an average 84" sofa that is 225 lb would run $ 1,360 and you would have to unpack and haul it in yourself. That number WILL change depending on where in HI you live and the sofa model you pick as sea rates are done by cube and that depends on final box size.

[HIshopper]

I guess we are worried that if we use a trucker to ship it from H&M to CA and then a shipper to get it from CA to HI, they will point fingers at one another if there is any damage and say that the other party caused the damage, leaving us in the lurch, which doesn't appeal to me/us. Since many of the shippers charge the same whether it is one sofa or two or a sofa and two chairs, we may buy more than we had planned.

By the way, what is the rough charge for a H&M sofa to be transported to Gardena, CA? The shipper would take over from there & get it to HI. Thanks!

Anyone heard of KleinDesign Brigger furniture? It has a quaint country appeal and is lower profile and lighter than many of these other sofas (sort of like a garden bench with a back and padded cushions). Their sofas are very light and some assembly required. Shipping to HI from MA is only $217! I think I would prefer a H&M, but will see soon when I am able to sit in them while visiting CA showrooms.

[drcollie]

If you use one company all the way through - then you have no worries on responsibility. Probably around $ 400 to $ 500 to ship to CA, I would need more specifics to be accurate.