My hometown was the home of Drexel Heritage and Hendredon, and Lenoir was the home of Broyhill and a couple others. Most of their stuff is now done overseas, with the upholstered stuff being sewn there and assembled here. Almost all of the local factories are closed and gone.

If you can find it, EJ Victor is still made here and is high quality furniture. My dad retired from there a couple years ago and my wife worked in the front office for several years. It's really nice furniture.

I have southern motion theater seating power recliners and they have been great. I feel your pain though. I’m looking at new couches for my new house and about to pull the trigger on a $5000 full leather chesterfield set.

20 some years ago we bought a lazy-boy recliner & couch ... we had to order it because they didn’t have the fabric we wanted ... 3 months later when it finally arrived it was like sitting on a park bench, when we went to the store and sat on the same couch it was much softer and comfortable. They claimed it was “broken in” as people sit on it all the time. 3 years later when it was nearly out of warranty it was still as hard & uncomfortable as the day we bought it.
Sold it and bought a non electric Flex-Steel, its held up well.


About 10 years ago we bought an electric Flex-Steel and 6-months later the right end seat seemed to be failing, it was sagging. When they came out to “fix” it they just flipped it over and stuffed more foam under the support and were “in and out” in under 15 minutes. When I pointed out the support was failing he said that “this is all we can do because we don’t have the equipment to replace the support”. So other than the sagging seat area on both ends it’s held up well. By the way, the electric stuff move s very slow ... if I have to get up from a recliner position to answer the phone it’ll be starting the 3rd ring by the time my feet hit the floor ... my wife & daughter tend to roll out & leave the the foot rest up.

I have the Flexsteel Fleet Street set in my family room. 2 leather couches and one chair, all with power recline. It was about $2k for each couch, almost $6k for the set w/tax, from a locally owned furniture store. They are only about 3 years old and have held up well so far. I don't see them having any problems for many more years.

They look like this:

https://www.galleryfurniture.c...er-living-room-group


The leather is very high quality and has not worn at all, all stitching is still perfect. The frames and recline mechanisms are all still solid and everything operates smoothly. The cushions have compressed somewhat in my usual sitting spot (butt groove) but unless you get something very firm and uncomfortable that is bound to happen eventually.

I think Flexsteel is still a good mid-range option. We looked at other comparable or less expensive brands and the leather on them was noticeably thinner than on the Flexsteel couches we got. We also looked at Ethan Allen and did not feel the price premium was worth it at this time.

That is the same as ours, color and prose too except we got the couch, loveseat and chair the only problem we’ve had with the leather is the chair got a 3” scratch but it has otherwise held up well ... I just wish it wasn’t “power”

I bought top of the line Lazyboy recliners for the living room in December and so far so good. I have a moderately priced lazyboy recliner in my bedroom that's been there 5ish years (including two long distance moves) and it's in great shape (to be fair, I don't use it much as it's mainly for sleeping more upright when I'm congested).

I made the mistake of buying two couches from Rooms to Go 2 years ago. They are the Cindy Crawford line which is their top of the line, but they're not comfortable for me (people under 200 lbs seem to be fine sitting on them so I suspect the cushion foam is cheap) and the back cushions always look disheveled.

I recently purchased through Wellington’s Fine leather furniture on line

They contract through the NC factories.

I figure I saved about 2k for the exact sofa from Braddington Young (I’m convinced it was made by them, just different label)

What about commercial grade/hotel grade? Not sure who makes it.

Quality is expensive. My wife bought a $7500 fabric couch a few years ago. It still looks brand new.
I have a leather recliner from Arhaus that I like looks like it was about $2500.

In a word, Hancock and Moore

If you want a great dining room set, find a good Amish or Mennonite furniture maker and buy from them. Years ago a friend of ours bought a solid cherry dining room table with a rack and pinion mechanism from a company in Lancaster, PA. It was made like tables were made 100+ years ago: something that took two or three strong men to move around.

A search online shows a number of companies which make recliners, too. I have no idea of the quality, but I suspect if you do your homework you will find the old time quality you are looking for.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
If you want a great dining room set, find a good Amish or Mennonite furniture maker and buy from them. Years ago a friend of ours bought a solid cherry dining room table with a rack and pinion mechanism from a company in Lancaster, PA. It was made like tables were made 100+ years ago: something that took two or three strong men to move around....

My first job out of college (40+ years ago) we invited my boss and his wife to dinner at our house. Hand-me-down furniture, the water in the glass would slosh everytime someone cut their steak. We decided to upgrade. Problem was, we couldn't afford quality furniture, and we didn't like anything we could afford. I ended up making most of the furniture we now have in the house. Bottom line is quality furniture is not difficult, but it is usually expensive.

quote:

Originally posted by Scoutmaster:
quality furniture is not difficult, but it is usually expensive.

I found it was more expensive to buy from a small Amish company than buying from a big box store, but not much more if you want something that will last. A quick search of the web shows a lot of companies that claim to be Amish, with flashy websites. If one is able to sort through them and find the real deal, it is possible to order solid cherry, hard or soft maple, hickory, oak, and more, in wide variety of styles.

The big store stuff tends to be made of imported veneers. I prefer hard wood furniture. Cherry is my favorite.

Of all the large consumer goods we buy, it seems to me that furniture is the hardest to get right. Most furniture stores have stuff that is not to my taste at all: pretentious, overdone, yet crappy construction.
Yes, Chinese manufacture has put domestic makers out of business.
"Contemporary" style stuff seems made out of re-used pallet wood or something similar.
Right now I'm happily sitting in an Ekornes Stressless chair, and looking at a handmade madrone rocker that is beautiful, comfortable, and will certainly be an heirloom. It was very very expensive.

My sister does custom interiors and sources a lot of furniture from the US. Most of it is produced in the High Point area of NC, which also has the High Point Market, largest home furnishings trade show in the world. I don't believe that show is open to the public but, some of the wood working manufactures have their own showrooms/shops open to the public.