Where Wallpaper and Furniture Meet

If you are like many of us, after that last day spent with a steamer and scraper, you said, “never again.” But wallpaper is back in big way and the trend shows no signs of waning anytime soon. Whether you want to make a bold statement with large patterns and rich colors or introduce subtle sophistication with tone-on-tone patterns, there are more options available than ever.


Brightly colored pieces like these McCartney chairs in
Elmo Soft Strawberry Fields can provide color cues for wallpaper.

Your American Leather furniture can inspire your wallpaper selection. A brightly hued upholstered or leather piece can provide a color cue for your wall-covering; simply choose a pattern that incorporates the color somewhere in the design or let your furniture take center stage with a solid or slightly textured wallpaper as a backdrop. Neutral leather or fabric can be paired with almost any wallpaper motif and can be accessorized with pillows that pick up color, pattern, or themes of your wallpaper. If your sofa or chair has a bold pattern, that doesn’t mean your wallpaper can’t have a design as well just make sure the patterns ‘play well’ together so they don’t create visual noise in your space.

 For those who prefer matching wallpaper exactly to upholstery—another trend making a comeback—American Leather can help you accomplish that unified look in which furniture seemingly becomes part of the background rather than standing out.  If your wallpaper has a matching fabric available, we can cover your American Leather chairs or sofa in the material you provide. Simply ask your retailer about the Customer Owned Material (or COM) option.

Solving decorating problems two at a time: Pairs of chairs

Chairs don’t get enough credit. In the furniture world, the sofa is the headliner attracting the most attention. We understand why: The sofa -- or the sectional -- is often the focal point, the place where the most people sit and the centerpiece of the room.

But where chairs really stand out in ways that sofas can’t match is as style accents, much like jewelry for the room. On top of their strong style statements, chairs are physically smaller, which allows people to place them in settings where sofas just won’t fit.

So, since we are soon promoting a Chairs & Pairs sale with some of our best retail partners, let’s talk a bit about how chairs are effectively employed, especially the Accent & Occasional chairs from the American Leather catalog.

This vignette created by our friends at 24e in Savannah, Ga., shows how a pair of chairs creates an intimate seating area perfect for conversation or, with the window nearby, reading. The Cole chairs shown here have a clean, appealing, modern design, and they are also quite comfortable.

A sofa would be so wrong here because it would block the beautiful piano and probably hinder access to the French doors. Instead, the Cantoni designer who created this gorgeous setting employed four swivel Feliz chairs around an ottoman and a leopard-pattern rug. With the swivel feature, which American Leather offers as an option as many of its chairs, attention turns easily to the piano. Notice, too, how the shape of the Feliz chairs is similar to the taller bowl on the piano. Nice touch!

From the Robert Legere Design Center in Asbury Park, N.J., another sumptuous example of the Cole chair being put to great use. With the round table over the round shag rug, this is a fun setting that just calls out for people to sit down and enjoy each other. Beautiful!

In this wonderful display created by Isidro Dunbar Modern Interiors in Destin, Fla., the sweeping curve of the Alyssa swivel chairs make the strongest style statement while the stainless steel base serves as a design link between the Rex bench in the foreground and the Savino sofa.

As we said, chairs deserve more credit. For more ideas on how chairs can make a style statement, check out our assortment here. Or use the Dealer Locator at the top of our web page to find the American Leather retailer nearest you.

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 Best of American Leather: The Anniversary Collection

Twenty years is a long time. Enough time to look back and see trends come and go. Enough time to recognize a flash in the pan from a classic.

Think back 20 years. What was your favorite song in 1990-91?

Chances are you were groovin’ to the sounds of some Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and M.C. Hammer. You may even have a pair of flashy harem pants like Mr. M.C. in some back closet waiting for a fashion revival. Don’t count on it.

Most fashion is meant to be fly by, thankfully. Trends come in with a fit of loud noises and splashy fanfare but they don't last. I don’t think there was anyone who didn’t try one of M.C.’s dance steps. I mean, that was back when MTV played the same 20 music videos every day. How could you miss trying?

That wasn’t the only thing happening back in 1990 and 91. Just about that time, American Leather was just getting started in the back of warehouse in Dallas. Three young entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to be the best and biggest leather furniture manufacturer in the United States and they took it.

Along the way they had their fashion hits and misses. Fortunately, the hits have far outweighed the misses.

Now, the company is celebrating those hits -- the classics. Over the last 20 years, American Leather has introduced almost a thousand different furniture collections. Out of those, the company has gathered the “best of the best” into a special “Anniversary Collection.”

The Anniversary Collection represents the top 11 (because 10 was not enough) collections over the last 20 years.

Take a look at American Leather's:

Tuscany

Allessandro

Randy

Kaden

Kendall

Astoria

Savoy

Carson

Inspiration

Lisben

Which is your favorite? There’s no doubt you’ll love it for a long time – even 20 years from now.

Hugo girl!

When Metropolitan Home calls you answer! That's what we did when the editors asked us to make a Hugo chair, the swiveling conversational sweetheart, in Pantone's color of the year: Mimosa Yellow. We matched Pantone with Duval Maize, the happiest yellow leather on earth. Hugo's beauty impressed everyone, enough to make the June cover!