Sofa purchase: to recline or not to recline?

ps99472

ps99472

New member
Time for a new sofa, an important furniture in the house and probably the most used/abused.  This will go in family room in front of the tube, so don't need fancy stuff.. While we like the comfort of recliners, they do look ugly and convey a "lazy" atmosphere.. But then who doesn't like falling asleep in front of the TV?  With our little one, we're thinking vinyl (bonded leather) for durability.  Not worth spending $2-3000 on a couch to get pee'd or puked on.  Any feedback from experienced parents? 
 
We have microfiber at home and really like how easy it is to clean.  We have baby puke on it already and it wiped off with out much resistances. 

It's cheap, durable and it looks decent. 
 
We have microfiber as well for our current sofa... newborn puke is nothing.. wait till they turn 2 and down a cup of milk too fast...  i still have curds buried deep in my sofa that I can't even reach.. :)

If two people are around, it's fine, one cleans up the mess, the other cleans up the child.. but if there's only one of you.. the sofa is marinating nicely while you attend to your child..
 
We have microfiber with the stain guard/ stain proofing. So far so good- we had a coffee spill, wine spill, coke spill, chocolate milk spill, that liquid from the glow in the dark sticks ooze out, scribbles from ball point pen, marker dots, pencil drawings.. all gone.
 
We have leather recliners (sofa and loveseat) and while they do hold up to stains... dirt is visible and they get worn over time.

I don't really like the reclining feature (I never use it but the wife does) as it has to be a small distance away from the wall and it will cause scuff marks in your wall if it's too close.

I don't like leather (or pleather) seating as a whole because it doesn't feel comfortable to me... does anyone have a leather bed?
 
ps9 said:
We have microfiber as well for our current sofa... newborn puke is nothing.. wait till they turn 2 and down a cup of milk too fast...  i still have curds buried deep in my sofa that I can't even reach.. :)

If two people are around, it's fine, one cleans up the mess, the other cleans up the child.. but if there's only one of you.. the sofa is marinating nicely while you attend to your child..
Click to expand...

Downing a cup of milk too fast might be a bad choice...
MILK-WAS-A-BAD-CHOICE..png


For the record, I would prefer the microfiber for the couches.
Mrs. IR2 (our deciding voter in our two-vote household) likes the leather couches.
We, as a result, we have leather couches.

As to the title question, I'd also vote for a recliner vs. a rigid-back couch. March Madness is coming and comfort matters when watching 8 back-to-back-to-back-to... games

(And for IHO, we have neither a leather nor a microfiber bed.)  :-\

-IR2
 
ps9 said:
Time for a new sofa, an important furniture in the house and probably the most used/abused.  This will go in family room in front of the tube, so don't need fancy stuff.. While we like the comfort of recliners, they do look ugly and convey a "lazy" atmosphere.. But then who doesn't like falling asleep in front of the TV?  With our little one, we're thinking vinyl (bonded leather) for durability.  Not worth spending $2-3000 on a couch to get pee'd or puked on.  Any feedback from experienced parents?
Click to expand...

Falling asleep in front of the TV is nice but I hate the part where I have to wake up in the middle of the night and walk to the bed. Worse still I may have to carry my wife to the bed too. Now we only watch TV in bed. Bonded leather is easy to clean. But as your little one starts to jump up and down and cat reflects its claws while you're not watching, sooner or later the bond becomes undone and you'll end up with flakes of cheap leather all over the house.
 

Attachments

  • DSC05822.JPG
    DSC05822.JPG
    2.8 MB · Views: 183
Good point.. don't have a cat though.. while at the furniture store, I noticed most of the microfiber recliners have wear/tear around the seating area already.. where as the bonded leather (pleather or vinyl) seems to not have the same prob.  I would think with a recliner the most wear/tear would be around the thigh area, as that has the highest amount of force applied as you close the recliner.  Maybe I should just spend the 2 grand on a leather one..
 
I like this thread because I'm doing all new living room furniture soon. For my last purchase, the salesman scared me out of microfiber. He said it's good with stains but if your kid stabs it, say, with a ballpoint pen, it would show puncture marks. I like leather but Mr. SoCal feels it doesn't breathe enough for him. We ended up getting something I can best describe as like a chenille. (I have a picture of it HERE in the background of the balloon frog. He is sitting on my couch.) I like but do not love this material. My boy threw up on it and when I went to scrub it off, it scrubbed the material off as well! Now I have a bald spot on my cushion. It also "crushes". Other than that, it is very forgiving - hides everything - and is comfortable.

I have two recliners on the ends of the sectional and never use them. I didn't realize that 1) there is no room for them to open without hitting the coffee table and 2) there is not enough clearance due to having carpet. It is really a struggle to get them to open and close. Also, same as IHO, I don't want to pull the furniture away from the wall to allow the recline. In my case, it would suffocate the room.

Instead of a recliner, I am either considering a chaise on one end or doing one of those ottoman-type coffee tables. I've seen a couple styles of tables. One where the top flips over to create a tray and back again to use as an ottoman. The other is like a trunk style where it's padded on the top and hinges open for storage. It would also be good to use as extra seating.
 
ps9 said:
Anyone care to comment on power recliners?  Kinda cool kinda feel like a hospital bed
Click to expand...
I have one this one and love it (I've lost count how many times I've fallen alseep on it)...

http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/franco-leather-power-recliner-chair-51w-x-43d-x-39h?ID=559641&CategoryID=35368&LinkType=#fn=CHAIR_FEATURE%3DPower Reclining%26MATERIAL%3DLeather%26sp%3D1%26spc%3D14%26ruleId%3D54%26slotId%3D12
 
35b24a05746b09ee3c1197206a9c5bab_zps8603ebbf.jpg


Thinking of getting this 6 piece sectional for $2850.  Leather in seating areas only, power recline at the corners, wedge, and console cup holders.  Seating is wide, about 1&1/2 seats per cushion, so if necessary can fit a lot of people, though it might be too close for comfort. Delivery quoted at $130 but seems negotiable.  Hard sell of the furniture plan at $260 for 5 years. 

Worried about the power recline, if it breaks, what then?  Don't want to get the extended warranty but might consider if they throw in free shipping.  They do have non power options, but since the seating area is so wide, my wife would have problems de-clining. 
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Is the power option necessary? Can you get it with just mechanical recline?
Click to expand...

Manual is available for cheaper, but with the heavier wider seats, my wife had problems folding the recliner e back into upright position.  It really works out your glutes!
 
ps9 said:
Manual is available for cheaper, but with the heavier wider seats, my wife had problems folding the recliner e back into upright position.
Click to expand...
Ah yeah... I don't use the recliner on ours but the rest of my family always leaves it reclined and so I have to "decline" it using the footrest to push it back and I'm not even sitting it in and it does take some effort.
 
I've been having trouble finding a good enough selection of deep sofas in the 40" range, give or take an inch according to how padded the back is. Anyone having any luck? I did find a handful at Living Spaces but nothing I loved. One of them was actually 43" which was super comfortable but maybe too comfortable because it's difficult to get up once you sink in that far. I just need something that hits me in the back of my knee which is pretty much only 40". It's funny because Mr. SoCal is slightly taller than me but has these short, teeny legs. I think 36" hits him in the back of the knee. hehe.

Apparently they are made all the way from like 35-50 but most stores carry 35-38 with a few 40s. Seems like 36 is most common. Hrmph.

Fwiw, you guys, there is a place called Build A Sofa in the Marketplace where you can customize.http://www.buildasofa.com/
 
Since I'm redoing everything in the room, I'm also changing my furniture style to Transitional. Slightly more contemporary, less traditional, and more eclectic. It seems the more contemporary you get, the lower they sit and the more shallow the sofas are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top