American Leather in the news: Monarch

We never get tired of seeing our products featured in beautiful homes or prestigious publications. So, we were doubly pleased to see a sumptuous Monarch sectional featured in a recent slideshow by The New York Times in its Great Homes and Destinations series.

The featured home in the Jan. 15 feature on “What You Get for … $900,000” was a midcentury modern ranch-style home in Portland, Ore., and the Monarch configuration showed up in the first interior photo of the slideshow.

Monarchis one of the more unique designs in our catalog. The arms and the back of each piece have an overhang that allows a bench – or benches -- to slide snugly underneath, creating additional seating. It’s all very informal and fun, especially with the abundance of pillows that are included with each Monarch seating piece.

Here’s one of our photos of the Monarch, showing how the arms overhang – allowing the benches to slide underneath:

Lounging in style, like a Monarch.

In The Times feature, every inch of the 1951 house, surrounded by towering pine trees, is lovely and appealing, but we were so pleased to see how the three-piece Monarch sectional was set up as the focal piece of the simple yet elegant living room. The sectional is covered in rich velvety fabric in a dark mustard color, set off nicely in both contrast and color by the linen pillows. Here is a link to the slideshow featuring the Monarch: http://tiny.cc/9buiax

Several accent chairs in our collection would be right at home in any room of this house, like the Aaron and Cole.

The Aaron has a beautiful sculpted walnut base with a retro feel. The Aaron and Cole chairs are going to included in our Chairs and Pairs promotion starting February 7. Please contact your retailers for more details.

A fine complement to the Monarch, Aaron keeps the midcentury vibe going.

3 more reasons to love leather

The leather on this Danford sectional is inviting you to sit down and relax!

It shouldn’t come as too big a surprise to learn that we think leather is great for covering furniture. It is, after all, part of our name.

Leather has been such a big part of what American Leather has been doing these past 23 years that we occasionally find ourselves assuming that everybody already knows what makes leather such an excellent choice in home furnishings. But we still find ourselves explaining the advantages of leather: It’s a combination of things, actually, ranging from esthetic appeal to enduring value, but here are some of our faves.

There’s a reason Rod Stewart wore those pants: We’re just going to put it out there: Leather has sex appeal. Something about leather makes most of us want to touch it, see how it feels. It’s appealing to the eye like few other natural materials, and it draws us in. We usually recommend that shoppers fondle our leather so that they select the one that looks and feels best.

Leather wears in; it doesn’t wear out:  It lasts four times longer than most upholstery fabrics, and while a fabric sofa will never look better than the day it is delivered, leather gets better looking all the time. As we use our leather sofas and chairs, an attractive patina develops, and the leather seems to develop more character.  Few things in this world look more inviting than a well-used and loved leather chair.

Good leather breathes: It’s cool to the touch in the summer and warm in the winter. American Leather uses only top-grain and full top-grain leathers. Without getting too technical, we’ll say that these are top quality, and like all good leathers, they “breathe.” What that means is that natural oils and moisture moving back and forth in the leather – transpiration -- which keeps the material soft and supple. Your skin won’t stick to it, and it will adjust quickly to temperature changes because it breathes.

We could go on and on about why we are proud to make beautiful, comfortable furniture covered in leather, but we’re going to get back to filling our Christmas orders so that everybody gets what they want when Santa arrives with his delivery truck.

The beauty's in the details

A devotion to detail produces furniture with the beauty of jewelry

Something as simple as the stitching and the seam on the front edge of this sofa's arm must be straight and true or it will be upsettingly wrong, unacceptable. Most people will not give that seam much thought, but hopefully we've piqued your interest just enough that you'll now take a moment to notice the tailoring on the next sofa you sit on. Is it as clean and precise as this. Believe it or not, seams this straight require skill and craftsmanship and a whole bunch of engineering beforehand to make sure the frame and leather pieces go together just so.

And there are literally dozens of examples that can be cited in every piece of furniture, although many of them can't be seen. For instance, next time you sit on an upholstered chair, squeeze the arm. Then reach down and run your hand along the side panel. How did all that feel? Could you feel edges of the framing under the arm or was the padding thick enough to hide the hard parts? On the side, was it all padded and reinforced, or was it hollow?

In many cases, the beauty can be found in the shape, the design. Consider the side profile of the Lennon collection's back: 

The plane, angle and shape of Lennon's back create an appealing contrast to both the arm and the back cushion. It works so well and seems so simple, but a ton of creative thought went into developing that design.

There are tons of examples in the American Leather line. Small details that by themselves may not catch your attention. But study it a bit, and we think you'll be impressed. For instance, the button tuft on the seat of the Luxe sofa. A lot of sewing created that perfect little tuft, one of dozens on each piece from the Luxe collection:

The elegant sweep of the Alyssa chair's back:

Or the ready-to-leap stance of the Sandy collection's legs:

These are the small details that make a design special, the beautiful elements that -- we believe -- give our furniture many of the the lovely facets of jewelry. 

Not just leather anymore

It's been a year since American Leather introduced a line of fabric sofas, chairs and accessories.

This fall, we're offering fabric on EVERYTHING we make. How many other companies can make the sofa of your dreams, just the way you like it, here in Texas within 30 days?
None.

Make mine a Cole one

Did you see the new November House Beautiful? Check out their feature, "I'm looking for a leather chair." to see their pick...American Leather's Cole. Retro without a hint of old school boredom, the sexy wraparound club chair is a bit of a chameleon. Put it in leather and you have a library chair with attitude. Choose a fabric and the edges of the chair move into softness. Settle into a nubby velvet and suddenly you have a bedroom accent chair to die for. Tonight, it's champagne in honor of the noble Cole. Any other excuses to pop open a bottle?