I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sectionals. They are so comfortable especially for watching tv. I got a huge one from Ikea for my basement. The pieces do join together so they don't move at all. Mine has a chaise in it that is very comfy. I find that the best seat is the corner or the chaise. I would think a recliner would be nice in it too. I don't have a coffee table as I need the floor space for my children to play. I do have my desk behind the part of the sectional that is not against the wall so we use that for our drinks. I have thought about adding a shallow shelf to the wall just above the other side of the sectional for the same function. I also have a little C-shaped table that I can move around. I go this at Ikea too for like $15. When I measured I just measured along the wall and then followed the L-shape into the room since ours is not in a corner. The Ikea ones are very flexible in that you can rearrange them and add additional pieces to fit your space. The only con I see about them is that they are casual, maybe not ideal for a formal lr and they are big so you need to have the room. But, I really love mine.

We have a brown leather sectional with a square leather ottoman in front. I just love it. We can lay on it or sit with our feet up comfortably. Two people can lay on it while watching tv and a third can till curl up in the middle with their legs on the ottoman. It comfortably sits 5 adult with plenty of space between. 7-8 if you touch or there are kids.

One of the best decisions I made. Mine is on carpet, but is pretty heavy, so I don't see it moving around on its own. There are metal brackets that you can hook the pieces into so they can't move around separately. I don't have mine connected because I wanted to be able to move it easily for cleaning etc..

The nice thing about my sectional is it is only two pieces. The two ends meet in the middle and connect and then the middle seat cushion covers up where they meet, so I think that makes it much more solid too. My sectional is the Bernhardt Jackson. I ordered if from NC - Boyles Furniture for a great price of about $2400 if I remember right. I worked with a Diana Henry there who is wonderful.

Here's a picture of the Van Goh style from Bernhardt. Mine looks like this but has straight arms on the sides. Also, I chose a more solid chocolate brown which doesn't have the distressing like in this photo. But this is the ottoman I ordered from them too. You can go out to Bernhardt's website and see all their styles including the Jackson.

I have a sectional in my basement. It is 2 pieces and the place where it attaches has a large metal bracket that looks like a huge open staple. It drops into slots between the 2 sections and holds everything together so there is no problem with the 2 pieces separating. I just have a regular coffee table with mine. It is situated so it runs along the long end of the sectional. People sitting on the short end can place drinks on the very end of the coffee table. I love all the seating the sectional provides.

We have a Natuzzi leather sectional in our living room which is very similar in design to caroleoh posted. We love it. It sits on hardwood floors, but is latched together so the three sections don't separate. I have a large round coffee table placed in the center that is reachable by anyone who sits on the sectional.

The only disadvantage that I can see is that you need a fairly large area to accommodate it comfortably, and once you put it in place, you are more or less committed to keeping that seating arrangement. This could be a drawback for some rooms, as you don't want the size of the sectional to overwhelm the room and diminish the scale of the other furniture in the room. You should be able to appreciate the other furniture, (chairs, tables, etc.), in the room and not just see this huge sectional.

My Flexsteel sectional has metal clips so the two pieces hook together. It's on a wood floor but it's against two walls so it's not going anywhere (it also weighs a ton). No recliners; we plan on a cat sometime soon and I once injured a cat by trapping it under the recliner when I closed it up, so I swore I would never own a recliner again.

We did choose to use a larger coffee table because we needed the surface space, and the coffee table that had fit the regular couch just fine was too small for the sectional, both visually and functionally.

Regarding measurements, our sectional sits in a corner against two walls. I simply measured the two walls and allowed a bit of space for small end tables, then hunted down a sectional that fit those measurements and wasn't too bulky for the room. Small-scale sectionals that aren't just two loveseats stuck together or a couch with a chaise stuck on (I find it very difficult to get out of the chaise) are not easy to find, but they're not ALL ginormous! Ours is something like 90" on one side of the "L" and 110" on the other. If you plan to "float" your sectional, get a roll of blue painter's tape and map out where your sectional's going to go, right on the floor with the tape, until the proportion looks right and then measure that; if you have the standard sofa-loveseat combo now you can shove them together into that space and get a rough idea of scale.

The biggest "pros" in our house are that it wastes no space in our small living room - when we had a couch and loveseat, there was a substantial area in the corner that was wasted (furniture arms take up a lot of space) and we couldn't both stretch out to watch TV, read or nap while now we can and still have room for the dog. :-) The main con is that it IS a little bit heavy-looking for the small room, although cut-back arms, a relatively low back, and a slightly-bland midtone sage color do reduce the visual weight somewhat.

I love sectionals also and have had one for many, many years. Instead of buying a new one, a few years back I had custom fitted slipcovers made which immediately changed the look from contemporary to traditional. The pieces I have do not lock together and ever since removing the carpet and having the floors refinished I do notice that they tend to move quite a bit.

Caroleoh, I will probably be in the market for another sectional after I relocate in a few months and have been considering leather this time around. I love the one you posted. It's exactly what I've been envisioning in my head but could not manage to find anywhere. Thanks for solving my problem. lol

We have a large one in our family room - love the seating space! Each piece hooks together with brackets, so it doesn't move around, although we did recently put it another room and were able to detach and reassemble differently so it fit the new space better, which was nice.

We have a chaise, a hide-a-bed section, and a recliner. I find that we don't actually use the recliner all that much. Partially because the way things are set up that seat doesn't face the TV so we don't use it as often. Partially (for me, anyway), it's kind of a pain to get it open - you have to pull the lever, lean back hard, and get it to open. That could be just the one we have, though.