Been hunting for a while, hoping to buy soon

[hopson77]

Hello everyone, I'm the latest newbie to the forum. The wife and I have been looking into purchasing high quality leather furniture for some time and have been frustrated with the overall lack of quality available at places like Pottery Barn, La-Z-Boy and the like. We've got a pretty good idea of what we want, and to this point haven't been able to find it. I'm hoping that this forum can help us, and hopefully allow us to make a purchase at some point relatively soon. We're about an hour from the showroom in Alexandria, for what it's worth.


We're looking for well-built, heavy duty furniture. The kind of stuff that's going to last a decade or more, even with large people and large dogs flopping all over it. Something that is both robust in its construction as well as covered in the type of leather that will age well with just a little routine maintenance. I'm a Saddleback Leather kind of guy, if you are familiar with their products. Good leather means a lot to me. Good construction means even more. We're not interested in replacing this stuff for a while. As I get a little older, the mantra "buy once, cry once" has more and more appeal to me. That said, we're not wealthy, so price is an issue- but we need to find something that satisfies all of our needs before satisfying our wants.

At the moment I believe we're in the market for a larger sofa (maybe two), as well as a loveseat, and possibly a club type chair with ottoman. The designs, colors, and arrangements are more my wife's speed; I'm about ensuring quality. Our front door is fairly narrow (33"), so there's a limitation in what we can fit through the door.

Thanks for reading.

[drcollie]

If you are only an hour from my showroom, I suggest you make the drive and we can discuss at length in the store. I don't have any sub-par furniture in my store and can show you higher level builds and a variety of hides. I have probably (80) pieces of leather upholstery on the floor at any given time.

Better hides, like Saddle style will cost more, I'll tell you that right up front. You can take a sofa and cover it in a promotional leather from China or $ 3,000 and that same exact sofa in a top shelf saddle style leather will be $ 5,000. All that is changing is the hide. And my sofas will go three decades or longer of you take care of them, not one!

[hopson77]

Thanks for the reply, drcollie. It sounds like you're the man to see. Should we make an appointment to meet and discuss our needs/wants/budget etc.?

[drcollie]

I don't really do appointments per se, The Keeping Room is a one-person operation and if there are multiple clients in the store, then I have to be able to help everyone. Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m are busiest.

There are times when I will have to go to the off-site warehouse or unload a truck, etc and have to lock the store. It's not a bad idea to let me know if you are coming then I can make sure I'm here, however.

[hopson77]

I don't really do appointments per se, The Keeping Room is a one-person operation and if there are multiple clients in the store, then I have to be able to help everyone. Saturdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m are busiest.

There are times when I will have to go to the off-site warehouse or unload a truck, etc and have to lock the store. It's not a bad idea to let me know if you are coming then I can make sure I'm here, however.

My apologies for taking so long to get back to you here.

We're going to be in the area in the early afternoon on June 10, next Thursday. Hopefully we can meet up with you then to look at and discuss our options. What, if anything, should we bring with us (measurements, etc.)? The only choke point for this furniture would be the front door, which I believe is 33", but I'll remeasure ahead of time.

We're looking forward to meeting with you.

[drcollie]

I plan to be here all day, door measurement is good to have!

[hopson77]

I plan to be here all day, door measurement is good to have!

Outstanding. We're planning to be there tomorrow early afternoon. Door width is conservatively 34.5", probably closer to 34.75". See you tomorrow!