There are many benefits to choosing a reclining sofa over a traditional standard or fixed sofa. With so many styles, colours and features to choose from, the chances are there is a reclining sofa out there to suit your requirements. The price of reclining sofas has also dropped considerably over recent years mainly due to imports from places such as China and Eastern Europe meaning you can source sofas of a very high quality for the fraction of the cost of sofas that have been produced in the UK or places such as Italy that are renowned for their quality leather furniture. Sofa sellers on both the high street and online regularly have reclining sofa sales so if you shop around there are bargains to be had.
Reclining sofas have the obvious benefit of being able to adjust the angle and seating position with either a manual or electric motion. Manual reclining mechanisms tend to have a 3 stage reclining mechanism, stage 1 is where the sofa is in an upright or un-reclined position and the footrest is stowed away against the front of the sofa or chair. Stage 2 is where the handle is pulled and the footrest has flipped up into a horizontal position and the backrest remains upright. Stage 3 consists of the footrest being in the up position and the back cushion pushed back so that it is either flat or parallel. Electric recliners have the same range of motion as a manual model but the reclining action can be stopped at any stage resulting in more seating positions with even less effort!
With all reclining sofas you will need a little clearance space from the wall, however in most cases this is a lot less than expected as the seat of the sofa will move forward once reclined. If space is limited in your living room it is worth checking what clearance is needed before committing to buy.
Reclining sofas in general have much higher backs than standard fixed sofas and therefore offer better support for the shoulders, neck and head. For this reason they are also very suitable for taller people and due to the adjustability of the seat people with back or neck problems can also benefit from the custom seating positions that can be achieved.
Buying an additional footstool alongside a fixed leather suite is obviously an extra cost and requires more room for storage, the footrest section on a reclining sofa conveniently stows away meaning that when not in use the footstool does not take up any additional room.
Although reclining sofas are in most cases fairly large and bulky they can come in sectional pieces, usually with the backrest being removable and the bases coming in a number of pieces, meaning that if you do have a tight access it can be quite easy to manoeuvre the sofas into your living area. It is worth checking with the sales person at the point of sale if the reclining sofas do come in various pieces or can be dismantled to allow easy access.