Trying again with the last pic.

Hey it worked! Here are the other pics. :-)

Here is a pic of the kitchen cabinets. Surprisingly, I actually like the kitchen even though I really dislike oak and the color green. I guess it grew on me! :-)

{{gwi:1547219}}

The oak and either of the leathers seem pretty neutral, so no problem with either. However, I think the color of the reddish-brown leather is much richer and more interesting that the brown. Also, I don't much care for the simple/contemporary feet on the plain brown, as the style of the furniture is more traditional. So--yeah, I'd go with the nicer legs, nicer color, and the nailheads!

I like the style of the nailhead sofa better than the other sofa. I think Lynnski hit it. The other one seems too contemporary -- but it's like they didn't take contemporary far enough, you know?

As for color, it looks to me like the nailhead leather has more red to it. That is the only thing that might put me off of it, if I were looking strictly for brown.

Playfish,
Like you our kitchen and livingroom are basically one room. My kitchen cabinets are an alder but stained in a tone very similar to your cabinets. At least I can see some of the same tones in the two kitchens.
Also the couch you like with the nailhead buttons looks very similar to mine. Our couches looks more like the first couch you pictured but are colored more like the second. To me the second tone feels warmer and works well with our cabinets. Like you I also prefer nailhead. And I like the darker round heavier legs on the couches you like. The legs on the chair you pictured though seem to light in color and to thin in build for that chair. For me, massive leather furniture needs substantial wood legs.

Here's a picture I took at Christmas of our livingroom showing my couches.

Here's my kitchen cabinet color....

I like both of them. If one were more comfy, I would choose that one. Sit on them for a while to make sure you can easily sit IN them. Some leather furniture is tipped a certain way that makes me feel like I am sliding off.

I would lean towards a chair rather than a loveseat. If you need more seating, you could then bring in a cloth chair to break up the set.

The nailhead pieces are definitely more traditional. I think the plain one looks too cheap. I mean, not quality cheap.

But then, I've always, always wanted a nail head leather sofa. Maybe when we don't have so many animals in our house!

peskyl,

We have two dogs, a golden retriever and a doxie that thinks she's a cat. Her favorite place to sit is the back of the couch. Both dogs are definitely LAP dogs (especially my golden) and on the couches whenever we are. One couch is 6 months old, the other we got 3 months ago. I have to say I'm surprised that there are no nail marks on either couch. We do exercise our dogs daily so their nails stay trim. Still like you I thought it was going to be a problem and it's not.
Still, "if" or, "when" I start seeing a bunch of marks maybe I can sell the couches as impressionistic art work like that elephant that paints.....*giggle*

Here is a link that might be useful:

I like the brown color of the second and the style of the first one. I can take or leave nailheads myself.
kats I love your house! and the view is fantastic! Sue

kats, I have officially given up on the war on dog hair. We've got a yellow lab and an old schnauzer. And 2 cats. And granddogs that come visit. The sofa in the family room is dog hair grey now.

The dogs wouldn't be so much of a problem as the cats...I don't like the thought of declawing. So maybe when they're gone, we won't replace them and then I can get my leather sofas.

I love the nailhead and really want that style in my sitting room, but I dont know how to match it with the fabric bergere chairs???

I agree with everyone about the brown plain sofa not looking quite right. I do like the color though. I visited a Bassett showroom recently and took some pictures of another sofa and chair that I like. It appears to come in several shades of brown too. I'm hesitant to consider them after reading quite a few negative reviews at consumeraffairs.com. Here are the pics of those. One of them I pulled off their website.

I like the looks of that Bassett sofa and chair, although I can't say I have too much experience with Bassett products. However, I bought a Bassett leather chair at a discount/salvage store for a steal, half expecting it to fall apart instantly, but a year later it's in perfect condition. Here it is -- the green chair -- which I'm sure is one reason it was so inexpensive, but I just had to have it! {{gwi:1547228}}

Playfish,
I don't know anything about Bassett furniture. Sounds like Sueb20 has had success with hers. But on your first Bassett picture the stitching on the seats looks poorly finished to me. The ottoman in the second picture is similar but not as bad as the couch. Maybe it's just the picture but you might want to take a second look at the stitch quality.

Pesky1,
I understand about the cats. Good for those of us with 4 legged g-kids that leather isn't going to disappear off the planet anytime soon! ;)

Cooperbailey (Sue)
Thanks for the nice compliment!

I'd do a search or post on the Furniture Forum about the Bassett leather. I recently purchased a new set of leather furniture and did a lot of research. I don't remember ever reading about Bassett (pro or con).

Cindylouhoo, what are you seeing with the stitching?

Oops, sorry! I meant to address Kats about the stitching.

A brown is certainly a safer and easier addition -- instantaneous cohesiveness -- as you always need to blend your open areas together.

As far as style goes, the red-brown set is so much prettier to me, with great lines and details. The new one is more stylish than the first brown, imo, but a bit heavy looking. If you decide on brown, I'd keep looking until you fall in love with another brown leather sofa. There must be a million fish in that sea!

So, do people with oak do red in their house???

Some visuals to try to help imagine yourself in:

{{gwi:1547232}}

{{gwi:1547233}}

Have you mapped out the size of those particular pieces in your room? They look rather massive to me and might be a bit overwhelming. You may do well to get the leather couch alone and a complementary fabric chair/ottoman set or loveseat to lighten up the weight/mass - I really wish we had done that when we bought our leather stuff, because even in the larger LR we had when we bought it it was still "too much enough already" to have big leather couch plus big leather chair/ottoman. Although I prefer their color, I think the brown pieces have a strange exaggerated shape to the arm that seems very trendy to me, not classic, and given how long leather furniture tends to last (and how stinkin' much it costs! LOL) I think it's far better to go classic.

Also, with many leather-furniture companies you can have different leathers from just what's on the floor at the store. When we bought our leather furniture (Bradington-Young) we spent about ten minutes choosing the style and an hour and a half picking out the leather! :-) Other options like changing the feet, nailheads and nailhead colors, seat-cushion composition, etc. are also often available.

Oh my goodness! Squirrelheaven those pics are great! Thank you!

As much as I love the reddish leather I think it will be safer to stay with the browns. Someone pointed out that the furniture looks massive and I think they are right. I visited another furniture store yesterday and came across this piece which is very similiar to the brown sofa pictured earlier. This one is much smaller and I can choose just about any color of leather I would like. I'm guessing this is still considered contemporary?

City Sofa

The back appears tall but it's only supposed to be 36 inches high. It's only 83 inches wide but can be ordered in a 91 width.

That's actually a great classic couch - works in contemporary or traditional settings. If you'd prefer a more traditional foot and the manufacturer doesn't offer different feet, it would cost about $50 to buy bun feet for it (assuming the existing feet screw on, which is very common).

I like the reddish brown with the nail heads best.

That's very nice and classic looking. I do loove the first one too, though, like Oceanna, but would prob play it safe with a selection of leathers.

Do be careful with your 'leather' research, as there have been some threads about how misleading it can be and how things will wear.

Squirrelheaven, can you clarify what you mean about being careful about the leather research?

There was actually a thread on it a while back. What they call leather may not actually be what you think you're getting, as I remember it. And how they dye/finish the leather will affect how it wears. There is very misleading advertising around it. Maybe start a new thread? The other is old enough to have been deleted already, I think.