Alternates to Document leather

[chrism]

I'm new to the forum--we're in the process of replacing a 20 year old Leathercraft Sectional, which is still comfortable, but the leather is showing lots of wear, primarily because we really didn't clean/maintain it as we should have. However, we're ready to update the look in our family room anyway, and want a change from a sectional. We're going to start with a sofa and then look at adding other pieces. We looked at an H&M September locally, and it was really comfortable (it did have upgraded down cushions). We're also considering the smaller City (as it is on promotion). We like the look of the Metro also, but it is not on promotion. The September was in a Document Copper, which looked really shiny to me, and almost more like vinyl. We brought home some other samples of Document leather and Cavalier--and think the coloring of Document Harness and Chestnut and Cavalier Mocha could work in our room. However, researching a bit more here on grades of leather, etc is making me wonder if there is a better choice of leather that could still get us to a price point around $4000 for a sofa. The prices we were quoted locally are: $3419 for the September in Document Copper and $3959 in any other Document leather. For the smaller City, $2999 in Cavalier Henna, and $3599 in any other Cavalier leather. The Metro is not on promotion, but would run $4599 in any grade 2 leather--only thing with the Metro is in the picture, it looks like it has some kind of contrast stitching, which I don't think I like. But I do like the lines of it (my husband prefers something with more substantial rolled arms).

So I'm really looking for some leather recommendations that would be similar in color to Document Harness & Chestnut and Cavalier Mocha that would get us in around $4000 on any of the 3 sofas I listed. Also, as we only sat on the September, any recommendations between September, City (smaller) and Metro. I'm wondering if the smaller City will be too small. We also sat on a Campaign, which seemed smaller, not as comfortable as the September. Thanks!

[drcollie]

You've got a lot of size variation in style, the September is MUCH larger than the Metro (which is about the same size as the 9840 City). So first, focus on which size you would like to get the right fit for your room and your body.

As to leathers, the promotional pricing you are seeing are "Married Covers" (you can search the forum for lots of info on that and what it means). They have the price advantage. To get into something other than highly processed hides, you will have to get into the GR 2 leathers at the very least and you already see what that does to your price structure. You can look at the Colombia series of leathers in GR 1, they're decent for the price point but to get into what I call "real leather" you will be into Kipling, Atticus, Ryan, Yardley, etc, and they are non-promotional Gr 2's.

Good luck!

[chrism]

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly.

It is difficult to get a sense of scale of the sofas from the pictures (I know dimensions are there as well, but it is still difficult to get that sense without actually seeing/sitting on them). Probably in reality, the scale of the September is more of what we are looking for. Given that, as an alternative, would you recommend the larger size City (9840)? Are there any other sofas that sit similar that you would recommend us considering?

Also, I'm just trying to get an understanding of how the pricing varies by leather grade--With the exception of the promotional Grade 2 leathers (Document and Cavalier), are all of the other leathers in that group priced similar/the same, or is there still variation within the leather grade level?

Thanks very much!