Not your grandpa's La-Z-Boy

December 15, 2018 10:27 AM

La-Z-Boy seems to have come a long way. I like some of the basic sofa styles on the site and price seems good... but I am shopping for our #1 seating area and we are ... not a slender family. And we have a cat. So my couch needs to be sturdy - as well as comfortable! Any Mefites have a recent La-Z-Boy experience to share? (Alternative recommendations also appreciated)
posted by nkknkk to Shopping (10 answers total)

I bought a whole new living room setup, and a recliner for Mr. Darling to use in our bedroom, from La-Z-Boy in January 2016. We don't have a lot of flexibility in how our living room can be arranged, so we needed a very specific length sofa, and they had the best options from the national chains. We got a leather sofa, leather armchair, fabric armchair, ottoman, and the recliner for ~$5k and later went back and purchased two rugs I saw in one of their display setups.

The experience was mostly good; I hate buying furniture from places with commission-based sales people generally, and the folks in our store were varying degrees of smarmy/desperate. In retrospect, I wish I'd asked to look around on my own so I could eavesdrop on how the sales folks interacted with other customers, rather than being somewhat bum-rushed by the first guy who met me at the door. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, so it wasn't long before I was handed off to the designer to pick out fabrics.

I'm pleased with how things are holding up so far. We have a dog so I cover the sofa with a sheet to cut down on dirt, and one of the cats tore up the fabric chair to the point that we could see the wood frame, but I don't blame LZB for that. (Thankfully, I had the foresight to order an extra yard of the fabric used on the chair when we bought everything, so I could patch up where needed and it would be from the same dye lot. Highly recommend doing that if your cat is destructive.)

I got a three-year no interest deal using their store credit card and adjusted my payment so it would be paid off several months early, just so there wouldn't be any chance of getting stuck with retroactive interest. Our payment was around $175/mo.

They have an almost-overwhelming selection of fabric and leather options, and everything is custom made, so it will help if you have some sense of your own aesthetic that you can describe to the in-house design staff. I think I remember browsing the website by collection to narrow down my choices and minimize the potential to be up-sold.

It took about 6 weeks for us to get everything (although now I'm remembering that the sofa was more like 8-10 weeks?). They were good about keeping us updated on the order status and delivery was pretty painless, and also free?, if I'm remembering correctly.

Sorry to write a novel, but hope this helps. I would definitely shop there again.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 11:11 AM on December 15, 2018 [5 favorites]

Best answer: We bought a pair (as the "pregnancy and eventual nursing chair") about 10ish years ago. About 4 years ago one had a grindy nasty sound in the mechanism. I dug out the warranty receipt and called. 3 days later a burly dude showed up and fixed it. He also overhauled both mechanisms and lubricated or something. And then waved and off he went all covered under warranty. They get absolutely abused. They have been moved 3 time, once sitting in a uhaul in 100+ summer heat for a month. In their retirement they now get full day southern sun in windows here in Florida. The fabric has only very slightly lightened.

I'm sitting in them with an extra kid and a cranky, farting, chihuahua with me; other spawn has been reading harry potter in the other one for.... Oh wow. Like 4.5 hours now. Whenever someone gets sick we end up sleeping in the lazboy.

I very highly recommend them, and highly recommend buying from a real bricks and mortar store. Treat it like buying a car: Go a few times at different times of the day, wearing different clothes, before and after a meal etc. You can still haggle at lazboy if you want too!! Honestly, they are similar priced to others but we will soon be replacing an ikea sectional with something from lazboy. Not even a thought about going anywhere else.
posted by chasles at 11:13 AM on December 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

We bought two recliners and a sofa from La-Z-Boy 8 years ago. After 3 years the recliners began to develop tears in several places, and we're not hard on our furniture. The sofa, which doesn't get much use, is still fine. We wouldn't buy La-Z-Boy again.
posted by davcoo at 11:19 AM on December 15, 2018

My parents like their recliner sofas and have bought them several times over the years. Their impression is that quality is declining. They also had some issues with their order this year (the items they received weren't nearly as structured and firm as the showroom versions they tested.) The customer service when dealing with the lack of satisfaction was appalling. La-Z-Boy essentially told them "tough luck, suckers."
posted by quince at 11:23 AM on December 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

I have a La-Z-Boy couch and sofa. We didn't get reclining versions - we just liked the style! So far, holding up great 3 years later.
posted by heathrowga at 11:51 AM on December 15, 2018

My experience with La-Z-Boy was not good. We bought a double reclining sofa, double reclining love seat, and recliner for about $2500 IIRC and the longevity was not what I expected. Mechanically everything was fine, but the leather on the sofa and love seat pretty much disintegrated in under 10 years.
posted by COD at 1:13 PM on December 15, 2018

I am disappointed with the longevity of the couch. We got a $2500 non-reclining couch marked down to $800 as it had a scratch in the leather. Within one year of being in the house, the leather had worn away a bit in the corner most frequently used for seating (and possibly slightly abused by the dog).

I am a larger lady. With two years, the seat area has deformed so that both corners have sunk in tremendously and the middle appears puffy. The leather has worn on the other side as well.

We bought a conventional rocker/recliner at the same time and it has stood up better to wear.

I will not buy La-Z-Boy again and will seek other alternatives when I replace this furniture.
posted by crazycanuck at 1:23 PM on December 15, 2018

I live in a tiny house so I bought a LZB recliner to serve as seating and sleeping. There's a discount furniture store here so that's where I went. Tested several recliners, no particular brand, settled on one design (which turned out to be LZB). Two of the same model tested and one footstool was like an inch longer, which meant my heels didn't hang over (a plus), so I bought it. About $500 incl. delivery and placement. Has had daily use as seat and for sleeping. It's been great for almost two years now. It's some sort of fabric, water resistant, easy to clean. As a bed, it's been wonderful: shoulder pain gone, bad knees less painful, bad hip less painful. Of course, I'm basically sleeping on my back with an occasional shift sideways a little. All in all, very pleased.
posted by MovableBookLady at 1:45 PM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I bought this sofa in the spring. My concern was much like yours... I am a big girl, work from home, and the couch is my office part of the day. My husband and I could NOT agree on a couch, we just have very different tastes. After many arguments in many stores, we settled on this. I was willing to spend more, but it got good reviews and I also was attracted by the La-Z-Boy reputation. In the store this felt firm, and gave me the support I wanted. After a couple of weeks, I realized we'd made a mistake. The back of the couch sort of stops right below the top of the cushions. So when you sit, and the cushion compresses, there is no lower back support. Super uncomfortable. Also, on the armrests, the foam or batting has already compressed so that you can feel the wood frame underneath. We just bought a house and I need other furniture, so I'll live with this for a year or two... but definitely don't buy their lower end stuff.

I wish I had gone with Flexsteel. There's a 8 week wait, which is why we didn't get one at the time. My aunt and mom have FS sofas, and they've held up beautifully.
posted by kimdog at 2:44 PM on December 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, all! I'm marking two contradictory answers as "correct" bc that's just how sofa-shopping goes. I appreciate all of the feedback and am now leaning away from La-Z-Boy but still may go sit on a few in a showroom.
posted by nkknkk at 8:09 AM on December 17, 2018