3. Pick Vendors/Manufacturers Willing to Assist You
Choose vendors that become part of your team, not just the cheapest supplier you found! What if you have a problem designing seating that will work with your designer/room?
What if the viewing angle, the materials or the platform elevation come into question? Does it align with the SMPTE® (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) standards/recommendations? Will the furniture company assist you (or even understand you)? Have they ever studied what goes into a theater room plan?
Look for a seating vendor that will work with you, with your client if you are designing and with your builder. Find a vendor that will offer design layouts. More importantly, find a vendor that will deliver right to your home if needed.
4. Budget for Quality
How do you determine the cost or recommended budget when it comes to furniture/seating for your entertainment room?
Remember: You are, or your clients are going to sit in these recliners with family and their/your closest friends for many, many hours. The chair is the one element they will, literally be in contact with you and/or your client throughout the life of the home theater. Now that’s important! The ultimate “software.” “Nobody was ever sorry for buying the BEST!”
Figure that this important investment of comfort and style should represent 12 percent to 22 percent of the total retail value of the theater. A $100,000 project could and should portion $12,000 to $22,000 in what would typically be two rows (or 5 to 7 recliners). This puts a quality recliner (in the $1,700 to $3,500 retail price range) into your created experience.
Or you can consider the cheap seats — just think about a $999 retail recliner: It goes from manufacturing to distribution to wholesale and retail, with all the usual mark-ups. It probably costs $200 to $250 (or less) to manufacture and does not equate to a value to investment ratio compatible with the rest of the theater investment. You were taught a long time ago; “You get what you pay for!”
To achieve that low cost, the manufacturer uses blown-in polyester fill, stapled-together chipboard stick frames, stamped and flimsy three-point mechanisms and a cover made from some imitation leather (vinyl), bonded leather or suede fabric material. “Leather Matched” is a term to confuse the end user that they somehow have leather, when in fact only about 15% of the chair is leather (seat top and arm tops) the rest is a vinyl (petroleum) imitation of leather. Even some 100% leather chairs can also be made from inferior, over processed, painted and destroyed hides.
By comparison, a superior level of seating quality delivers a totally different set of characteristics: Hardwood frames glued and doweled, layered solid core memory foams, seven-point scissor lift mechanisms with lifetime warranties (made in America), European, top grain, 100 percent leather upholstery, full spring support systems, whisper quite motors, etc.
Sound a little different? continued https://www.premierehts.com/eights-tips-part-three/
