Not your grandfather’s recliner
Out with the clunky, in with sleeker, tech-driven styles
Several years ago, interior designer Saima Seyar of Elima Designs was looking for an attractive recliner — an oxymoron back then — with a lift component for her mother, who had mobility problems. She couldn’t find what she wanted, and she couldn’t even find anyone who could build it for her.
Ultimately, she bought a clunky thing that she would never recommend to a client, but it did help her mother maintain her independence.
“It was my mom’s gift from God; it helped her not have a nurse in her home longer,” Seyar said. “But so many chairs or even sofas — sectionals — have built-in recliners now. We use a lot of modern styles … it’s amazing what’s out there.”
Indeed, what were once puffy chairs with bustle backs and armrests as big as oversized pillows are taking a back seat to sleeker models in line with changing trends. And it’s not just baby boomers who are looking for more contemporary recliners — everyone from millenials on up want form, function and, more than anything, comfort.
Seyar uses the Italian modern luxury brand Bracci for many clients and has installed sectional sofas with built-in recliners and chairs that tilt and swivel with push-button motion or remote controls. Some will heat up so they’re warm when you sit down, and they’ll charge your phone with built-in USB ports.
“People would want one for one person in the family, and this is a stereotype, but it was usually a man or someone older who wanted it,” Seyar said of her experience. “I would discourage it, and say it’s better to use an ottoman because most recliners were not ergonomically correct. I used to say ‘no way,’ and now I’m the one recommending it. If someone had told me 10 years ago that I would be recommending a recliner, I would have laughed at them. I’m obviously eating my words now.”
Recliners go back further than you might think. In the 1920s, two Michigan men designed the reclining wood-slat chair that launched the La-Z-Boy brand, and in 1940, Edward Barcolo acquired a license to make “scientifically articulated” chairs, and the BarcaLounger was born.
Both would be considered the granddaddies of recliners, though today’s models by many manufacturers look dramatically different.
“Over the years, styles and trends have changed. We have seen things shift to sleeker and on-trend styles where perhaps you don’t even know it was a recliner,” said Paula Hoyas, vice president of merchandising at La-Z-Boy. “The other thing that’s popular now is power. It is so smooth and sleek — it’s a hightech world, and we’re bringing technology into upholstered furniture.”
La-Z-Boy won prestigious 2019 Good Design Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum for its wireless remote and cradle and for its control panel for motion furniture, a signal that manufacturers are amping it up with technology. And Hoyas said some of the brand’s chairs even come with the ability to tell you where your remote control is if you’ve misplaced it.
“Those big old puffy recliners are still out there, and many people still want those. (What we have) runs the gamut, but most of our sales are what we call
transitional,” Hoyas said. It’s been an evolution over the past several years, and in the past two years it’s really starting to amp up. Part of the reason, quite frankly, is power. They go hand in hand, the sleekness of power.”
The motion, or power, in reclining chairs and sofas appeals on a number of levels. For older people, it can help with mobility — literally lifting a person to a standing position. For others, it’s about convenience to have so many adjustable parts. And to some, it’s just about changing with the times.
“Millennials are obsessed with, how many functions does something have? Maybe it starts with our phones … we expect things to multi-function,” Seyar said. “Design is shifting from how pretty something looks to what can it do to improve your health, safety and welfare? If you’re getting older, how does it help you get up?”
Houston interior designers Pamela O’Brien and Danna
Smith of Pamela Hope Designs are used to steering clients to chairs and ottomans when they ask about recliners, but in the past few years they’ve widened their scope to include versions that you would never even know are recliners.
“People ask with a little bit of hesitancy. They say ‘Well, what about a recliner?’ And sometimes we suggest them now,” O’Brien said. “‘We know we’ve got a great look and you, your husband would really like this.’ I’m not sure how many people realize how many good options we have now.”
One client was Louann Barmore nett, whose husband, Steve, had an old-fashioned recliner before they got married. When they moved into a newer, downsized home, they wanted a chair for a nook off of their kitchen, and O’Brien and Smith found one at Design Within Reach. It’s a recliner with a footrest that so carefully tucks under that they’d have to tell you it’s a recliner. They’re buying another one for their den, where they watch TV.
O’Brien shopped at James Craig Furnishings at the Houston Design Center for a different client who wanted one recliner.
“The salesman said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want two? Everyone who buys one comes back and buys a second one because everyone in the house wants to sit in it.’ ” O’Brien said. “They cannot keep these chairs in stock. It is the most comfortable chair I’ve ever sat on in my life.”
They’re everywhere and at every price, from a few hundred dollars to several thousand. You can even find a sectional with reclining sections at Costco, and websites such as Wayfair.com and potterybarn.com have them.
Higher-end furniture-showroom owners who once wouldn’t have a recliner on their floor now keep them stocked. Meredith O’Donnell of Meredith O’Donnell Fine Furniture, Sharon Stetzel-Thompson of Stetzel & Associates at the Decorative Center and Connie LeFevre of Design House at the Houston Design Center all have become fans.
“That used to be my dreaded comment from usually the male in the household — he’d want a recliner,” LeFevre said. “Today,
than half of the furniture sold is motion furniture. They are so easy to customize so they don’t stick out. I’ve totally changed my feelings about them … I’ve almost gotten to the point that I think every home ought to have one. If you’ve ever had surgery or been hurt and can’t lie in a bed, I’ve known people who had to buy a recliner after surgery.”
An end-of-the-year sale cleared most of the recliners from O’Donnell’s store, but she’s expecting more in soon, including a leather sofa with three seats that all recline. She said many of the motorized chairs are popular with people who are downsizing or are moving into retirement communities and want furniture that does a little work for them.
Hancock & Moore’s Greyson recliner is Stetzel-Thompson’s top seller; the chair’s entry-level leather version comes with a $5,755 starting price tag. She also sells recliners by Sherrill Furniture, Theodore Alexander and Hickory Chair. Some can be customized using hides from customer hunting trips or branded with a ranch logo.
“They come with motorization and all kinds of options. You can pick the arm you want, the legs you want, have it skirted or nonskirted,” Stetzel-Thompson said. “I guess I sound a little excited about them, and I am. They’re a big improvement and a real help to people.”