David,
We are on the downhill side of a full family room / theater remodel. Deciding which seating technology would offer the highest performance in our system became the most difficult and most researched aspect of the project.
As Mark mentions above, Costco has a killer deal on a configurable recliner and chaise collection, and a four piece setting would be ideal for our plans. Berkline seats seem popular and scream decadence. Several sectional designs displayed at local retailers have the expected extras, fold down/flip up's, hide-away phones, electric recline for the lever challanged, etc. We settled on the Costco set up.
The next evening while reviewing the order, I thought it would be fun to cut a scale footprint of each piece from from paper and arrange them on the floor. After checking measurements twice, my wife summed up both our feelings with "you've got to be f***ing kidding me...". It was massive! Huge beyond reason with no possible application. Feeling like village idiots, we were none the less grateful for the lesson.
A pair of Berklines was our next idea, but I think they look like pods from "Body Snatchers", and expensive as well. Sectionals with multiple do-dads were out of the question. The various "theater" combo's so many A/V retailers offer seem absurdly priced, wood-grained cup holder or not!
The answer to our situation came from a couple of members of this and two other forums (as often is the case). I noticed a small but resolute group that own Ekrones Stressless chairs. We are now members of that group (sort of). Anyone in the market for so called theater seating should give these chairs a look. While not for everybody, many will find them the ideal solution. The only issue for us was the expense. Big bank. Even though the product's no compromise quality justifies the price, a lot o' money is still a lot o' money. Enter Palliser Furniture. They make chairs nearly identical in design and function to Ekrones, but at half (and less) the price. As luck would have it, a Palliser distributor is an hour drive. No retail showroom but they have a few chairs in the lobby, and we were welcome to visit. And should we be the least bit skeptical that Palliser models are the level of Ekrones Stressless models, an Ekrones showroom was just across way! We compared the Stressless chair that we wanted to the Palliser equiv., with the two all but side by side (a parking lot away). The Stressless was $1600, the Palliser $749. (both were the highest grade leather available. they had a kind of silk feel). The Palliser is $100 less in leather of only "superior grade top grain". Bottom line, we bought four in the best leather. They are built to order in Canada, shipped free, 3-4 weeks. 5 year warranty on the leather(!!) and lifetime on the frame.
Check out the model called "the Ethan" at
www.palliser.com http://palliser.com
Pardon the length of this post, but it was a long journey.
Best to all!
