Leather couch questions

18 years ago

Now that my dh and I have recovered from a way-over-budget remodel - for which I often relied on garden web users for advice - we need to buy some furniture.

A leather couch, and maybe loveseat, are high on the list. My challenge is that I no longer live in a major metro area with oodles of shopping options. I'm really limited where I live in Southern Oregon. But since I want the best I can afford - within reason - I'm willing to shop 'outside of the box'. I've seen Hancock & Moore mentioned a lot on this forum; can someone help me with the following questions?

1) what makes them superior, is it leather, frame or both?

2) is there any way to buy their product outside of the normal channels (eg. a major furniture retailer in Portland or SF).

3) are they sold as H&M brand or are they generally sold using someone else's brand, eg. Restoration Hardware, Stickley?

4) are there other brands you'd recommend for leather durability, style, frame choices if it's not feasible to get H&M?

What I want is a pretty classic style, ie. not too modern, not too southwest, on the longer end (90-94") with deeper than average seats (22-23"). Longer couches that are a little bit deeper are not as plentiful. I also have two 5 year old boys who are going to be less gentle than we are, so I want durability.

Most of what I see in my area is Natuzzi - which I don't want - and I can also order Thomasville, Stickley and Bernhardt. There are other brands I can order too, but I imagine they are average quality.

I'm interested in a couch & loveseat combo, but if the price for good quality is out of range - given all the other things we need to spend money on! - I'd settle for a good leather couch and find some suitable upholstered chairs to match.

One last thing...what's the deal with the attached cushions? I have a hard time believing the furniture salesperson who told me this style is better. If my kids got their hands on a permanent marker and doodled on the couch I'd be really unhappy. Is this something the less expensive brands are doing or is this a trend?

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks.

Jimese

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Comment (1)

dcollie
18 years ago
Hi Jimese,

I'll try to answer some of your questions.

1) All that you mention. The devil is in the details, and better makers sweat the details. H&M is not unique in what they do, there are other companies equally as dedicated to the craft of proper furniture making, but H&M has a wide product range and offers more hides and styles than any high quality maker I know of. It would take several pages to answer in detail what makes H&M and others like it what they are. You can read a lot of that by checking earlier posts here on the forum.

2) Sure, you can find plenty of dealers glad to ship to you. I have H&M orders in the hopper right now for customers in California and Washington state. Its mainstream to ship cross country and even get leather swatches to you.

3) H&M is a unique brand and is not sold under any other labels, however they own several companies and make their furniture under other names (Hospital division, Commercial Division, Decorator lines, etc).

4) The only line of leather I've found comparable to H&M is Leathercraft, though I'm sure there are probably others I'm not familiar with.

Deeper seats are tricky. Most sofa depths are 20" to 21". H&M's deepest sofa is the 4192 Settlement model, and its 100" in length.

Durability is a function of frame construction, spring rate and type of springs, as well as cushion interiors and type of leather covering. For kids, you want a Finished, or Corrected leather that has lots of topcoat on it so its a simple wipe down to clean up any messes.

Attached or loose cushion really doesn't matter on leather, as the hide is only on the seating surface of the cushion anyways. The non-seating side has to have a vent panel in it to let the air escape when its sat upon, so you can't flip the cushions on any leather pieces. Regular fabric breathes and the air escapes through he weave of the fabric, leather does not have that breathability, hence the vent panels.

Permanent Magic Marker is a real problem, don't let your kids do that. There are specialty cleaners that will remove that from leather, but in 95% of the cases, they take the hide color with it, and the leather has to be redyed in that area.

Good luck!
Duane Collie

Here is a link that might be useful: H&M Settlement Sofa
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