Leather Sofa
category: furniture, sold by:Leather Interiors
Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10
Have you ever noticed just how easy it is to know what has gone wrong -- just after it has all gone wrong?! Here I am, with a brand new sofa, and it is all wrong.
What could go wrong with buying a sofa? you ask.
Before the fact I would have asked exactly the same question. Now I know a lot of the answer.
Apologetic note:
This is a story of my own bad judgment. There is nothing wrong with the construction of the sofa. The leather is excellent, the frame is sound. There is nothing wrong with the design -- it is just that it is all wrong for me.
Yes, the recliner mechanism is very badly designed. It may be faulty, though I doubt it. It is simply a bad design. But the recliner mechanism is straight from a Chinese factory. It may be a bad choice but the local sofa manufacturer has installed it correctly.
Most of the problems below are a result of my own bad judgment: I failed to understand what I required for a comfortable sofa. Feel free to learn from my mistake.
Short-term Comfort
For weeks on end, I tested sofas. Tested sofas in shops, from one end of town to the other. I sat on sofas, reclined on sofas, even lay down on sofas.I read about materials, especially leathers. I checked catalogues. I discussed options and prices with helpful sales assistants.
And I never, ever, wondered what it was that made the old sofa quite so comfortable.
Worse yet, all of my testing for comfort was done in a hurry.
Not a great hurry! I was too careful for that. But I never sat in a sofa in a shop and attempted to read all of War and Peace in one sitting.
Price is All -- and Nothing
I believe that now is a good time to buy furniture. As was last year, when I bought the sofa. Consumers are keeping their savings in the bank, shops are discounting, left, right and centre. I was confident that I would get a good price.
Then I settled on “Made in Western Australia” -- for purely parochial reasons -- and good quality leather -- for feeling good and lasting long. All of a sudden, cheap prices are out of the window.
Ah well! A nice new sofa will be worth the expense!
Now, as a piece of formal and decorative furniture, the new sofa is great. As a piece of functional furniture -- it fails.
The Size is All Wrong
The size is all wrong? But it’s a standard size! What could be “wrong”?
The size is all wrong for me. I bought this sofa for me. The sofa is all the wrong size -- for me.
It’s too long. The new sofa is a three-seater, the old was a two-seater. I can no longer brace my feet on one end in order to push myself into a more comfortable position. I can choose to put my feet up at one end -- or to put my head up at the other. Not both.
So what? Well, this sofa is for me. I sleep on the sofa. Not as a permanent thing, just when the day is too long and I need a rest. I stretch out, and sleep on the sofa.
Not on the new sofa! It’s too long, a minor problem. It’s a shade too narrow, for a comfortable lie down. The back is too vertical, which makes it seem even narrower. The seat is horizontal rather than sloping down at the back. So I feel as though I’m about to slip off.
The armrest is too high -- and too firm -- to use as a pillow. Sure, I can use a cushion as a pillow. But why?! I chose a “soft” armrest specifically so that I could lie on the sofa and use the armrest as a pillow. Except that I did not recognise that the armrest is too high for comfort.
What’s the other name for a sofa? A “lounge”... Why is that? Because you lounge on a lounge!
Not on this one!
I lounge down and I lounge sideways. Sometimes I relax -- and sometimes I sleep -- halfway between sitting up and lying down. This is all a part of my requirement for a comfortable sofa.
Sit or lie in any position other than vertical -- and I start to slide down...
Sitting, I start to slouch. And the nearly vertical back makes this very uncomfortable. Semi-recline -- slipping down towards lying down, put my feet up on the sofa -- and I start to slip. There is not enough grip on the leather. The far end armrest is too far away to be a brace.
Sitting and lying on the new sofa requires a constant effort to remain in place. Far from relaxing, I am constantly in fear of slipping... I am not able to “lounge”.
The seat is too high, too.
Just a couple of centimetres higher than the old sofa, just an inch or two. Firm cushions make it seem even higher. I perch on the sofa, lower legs straight up and down, not able to stretch out my feet or they will be off the ground...
But wait! There is a recliner seat at one end! The three-seater is two fixed seats plus one recliner. Surely all is not lost!
Recline at Your Peril
After years of using a footstool I decided that the new sofa required a recliner with built-in footrest. How wrong I was!
Release a catch and the footrest springs up. Put your feet on the footrest -- and it may sink down again!
There is no positive fix-in-place for the footrest. The only way to keep the footrest raised -- is to recline the back. You want to sit up straight with your feet resting comfortably? Too bad! There's a chance that the footrest will sink under the weight of your feet.
Push the recliner back and the footrest is locked in place. Don’t relax yet... If you relax, the reclining back tends to straighten up -- and the footrest may sink again. The recliner spring is too strong for my weight.
Push the recliner back? Not as easy as it sounds! The mechanism moves easily -- but not as easily as I move, across the smooth leather of the seat. Pushing the seat back requires firm bracing, with a firm grip of the arm rest on one side and the fixed cushion on the other.
If I want to both recline and relax, I need to push the back back, as far as it will go. I am almost horizontal but at least I can relax... Carefully.
I am relaxing, comfortably horizontal in my recliner chair. As I relax, I sink down in the chair. As I sink down, the balance of my weight shifts towards the front of the chair. As my weight shifts -- the chair slowly rises towards the vertical.
There is no way to lock the recliner in place. Shift your weight and the recliner will shift, usually towards the vertical. There is no way to simply lean back and relax...
While I am tensely holding my reclined position, there are other problems.
I am a lounger; I lounge. But not on this sofa.
As the back sinks back, I move back behind the fixed seatback of the next seat. Want to lounge to one side? No way! The next seat back is in the way. Want to lounge to the other side? No way... The high armrest is in the way.
So I am now the disappointed owner of a new recliner sofa which is difficult to recline. The footrest works best only with the back reclined. The back tends to revert to the vertical. Sit forward -- to pick up a cup of tea, for example -- and the footrest may sink down.
And what happens when I stand up? If I’m not very, very careful -- the footrest springs up behind me!
When the sofa back is vertical, the footrest slips down, under the weight of my feet and legs. Remove the weight and the footrest springs up again. Before I walk away I must make sure that the footrest is locked down.
There is no positive sign that the footrest is locked... No “click” to indicate that it is safe to walk away. I just have to press firmly -- very firmly -- and hope for the best.
What Next?
I now have a difficult decision to make... Do I dump the new sofa and try again? Or do I put up with it, accepting that it looks good and feels good but is very uncomfortable to use.
There is a large rubbish collection in less than two weeks... Do I put out the old sofa? There are holes in the leather -- thirteen years of dog on one end, twenty years of me at the other -- but the old sofa is still more comfortable than the new. Far more comfortable.
I have bought three sofas in twenty years. Obviously, I did not learn from the first two... Have I learnt from the third? If I do buy another new sofa -- will it be any better than this one? At the time of purchase, this new sofa appeared to be at least as good as any other that I found. Did I look in enough shops?
Already -- with my new knowledge of what I want -- I have found a manufacturer which offers a recliner which does lock in place. With a footrest which works whether or not the back is reclined. Is it worth the risk? Is it worth the expense?
Buying furniture is more difficult than I expected. Luckily, my next major purchase will be relatively easy. We need a new car...
For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com. |
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