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.

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.

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.