What's your favorite H&M gr 2 - 4 leather and why?

[vbnet]

I prefer to stay in gr 2-3 range, but I'd like to hear from the gr 4 lovers as well! Could you include your decorating style as well? Traditional, Transitional, Contemporary, Mission, etc.? Thanks in advance! I know the info is all over this forum, and believe me I'm beginning to think I've read most of it but it would be fun to have in one post. Please respect the choices of others

[drcollie]

If I were buying a new H&M piece today....

GR 1: Columbia - great value in a good-looking leather
GR 2: Kipling / Atticus / Ryan / and Aspen if you have to have a finished leather
GR 3: Any of the Burnished or Hand-Antiqued hides, Equestrian, Weston, Tiburon for a pull up
GR 4: Capri ... Capri ... Capri (and Quintessence). You put Capri on a piece and you really have something special.
GR 5: Envy. The world's finest hide and the price tag to match. You can spot a piece in this leather across the room, that's how rich it is.

To add to this here's the leathers I wouldn't buy:

GR 1: Challenger. may as well cover it in cardboard
GR 2: Document. I know, I know...everyone gets it but its the Cheez-Whiz of leather : over-processed and over-worked. And Rio is too "crunchy" for a aniline and I think it looks awful made up. Glazed is not good, either
GR 3: none to avoid specifically
GR 4: Luggage. Too surface-slick, overpriced for what is essentially a painted leather
Gr 5: Hair on Hides for seating areas, they shed and get dandruff. Use on sides or non-contact areas only.

[vbnet]

Any thoughts on cavalier?

[drcollie]

Cavalier is a semi-aniline, sourced from China that has a nice balance of look, feel, richness and top-coat to it. I much prefer it over Document when the two are used in the Town and Country Program as a price-friendly hide.

[Marjflowers]

During my factory tour, I picked up lots of samples. I'm currently leaning toward two of the samples -- Caress Red (good enough) and Capri (OMG!!!). I haven't done any spill tests yet, and that might answer some of my questions. But I love, love, love the Capri -- at least one of the samples.

Here's my question: I accidentally picked up two samples of Capri Claret, and they look and feel totally different. One is okay, but it has a more pronounced grain and doesn't feel to me all that much different than the Grade 2 Caress -- at least for the price difference. The other one, however, is pure butter! It has very little grain, and it is soft as the proverbial baby's butt!!! Assuming I decide that it would stand up to my somewhat careless lifestyle, I would pay the extra cost to have a chair that feels like this in a heartbeat! My question is if I choose the Capri, what assurances would I get that my chair would feel like the sample I love, rather the sample that is just meh?

I also picked up two samples of Bari Lipstick, and they were different as night and day. One had a reasonably smooth finish, and the other had such a pronounced grain that it looked as wrinkled as cotton sheets straight from the dryer. If I ordered that leather and got the former, I'd be delighted. But if my chair looked like the latter, I'd be devastated.

What to do?????

[drcollie]

When a pattern is cut out of hides to make a new piece, approximately 30% of the hide is waste because of flaws in the leather, or it approaches the neck and belly areas when the hide becomes very wrinkled and unsuitable for use. Samples are made from this 30 % that hits the cutting room floor, so you will see some samples very clean and smooth, others full of wrinkles and the like because of that fact. Samples are for color, not texture. One thing I remind folks to do is to look across the entire series of a leather family in all the colorways, and average out the textures when in a store looking at swatches. For example, Capri has twelve colorways, just looking at my set of swatches I keep at my desk, three of the twelve are sub-standard, cut from those bad areas of the hide. Bari is the same way.

You won't see these differences in the Painted/Finished/Protected hides because remember that that have all been sanded down to a uniform feel, the grain pattern is embossed and they've been painted. Caress is an example of this, so all those leathers will always be consistent - its the pure anilines where you see the difference in the swatches.

[needstuff]

I've experienced the exact same thing. I have a chair in Capri that is "pure butter", like you say. Afterwards I bought a ring base cover for it, also in Capri. But that example has a "pronounced grain", like that other one at the factory that you described . I actually was concerned, just like you alluded to, that they gave me a Grade 2 cover instead of Capri. But later I found a sample elsewhere that was also that patterned.

It makes sense to me that they do the "big stuff" (ie chair) in the "good" part of the hide, as they did in my case.
But, short of getting a Cutting For Approval I don't know how you guarantee it. Since evidently not everything they send out comes from there.

[drcollie]

We have a little saying in the leather furniture business that goes like this....

"If you want a color, hand or grain guarantee - buy vinyl."

[Marjflowers]

Funny! When I look at all of the Capri samples I brought home, only the one that I referred to as looking like it has a more pronounced grain looks like that. The rest are positively gorgeous. So I originally thought I'd go with a Grade II until you explained the difference between "Protected" and "Unprotected." Then I bumped up to a Grade III. So now I've talked myself into a Grade IV, because how in the heck is a brain supposed to be sensible when when faced with something that feels soooooo good??? The Capri leather is gorgeous -- both in look and feel.

[needstuff]

So now I've talked myself into a Grade IV, because how in the heck is a brain supposed to be sensible when when faced with something that feels soooooo good??? The Capri leather is gorgeous -- both in look and feel.

I was "done in" the same way, except I was feeling the samples from a sample book, not from the factory floor.
The finished chair did not disappoint. I've received several positive comments about it. One from my brother-in-law, who rarely issues positive comments about anything that isn't his.