Decorating Your Living Room with Recliners

by: Michael O'Brien

These are not your father’s recliners. Thought to be outdated, the recliner chair is making a tremendous comeback and is once again a fixture in many living rooms. The concept of the recliner chair dates back some two hundred years and has emerged as an essential piece of furniture. Not just for the living room, there are recliners that can add to the decor of most any room in the house.

For decades, decorating the modern American living room has centered on the sofa. The sofa, a coffee table and perhaps a set of end tables were essential to most American homes. The addition of one or more occasional chairs and a side table or two made the ensemble complete. The introduction of the upholstered recliner in the nineteen forties added a new dimension to the traditional selection of living room furniture.

The concept of the easy chair was part of a typical patriarchal household and today evokes stereotypes of Dad sitting in his favorite chair. Recliners have been associated with more of a male place to sit, relax and maybe catch the big game. Today the stereotype of the man of the house, comfortably reclining at the end of hard day’s work has changed. It is no longer just Dad’s recliner.

Recliner designs have extended beyond the simple up and down motion of the traditional recliner chair. Today’s recliners can not only recline but they can rock, swivel and even glide. Mechanisms have become more reliable and well designed. In addition to the more traditional mechanically activated levels or pulls, many recliner model feature power assist mechanisms.

In many American homes, recliners have taken over where the simple sofa or side chair left off. The tremendous popularity in home theaters has given to changes in how people view chairs and sofas. The home theater experience relies, in part, on creating a comfortable sitting environment. The family room has been replaced by a home theater room, often furnished with separate, theater style chairs. Recliners provide home movie buffs with all the comforts of home, often at a fraction of the cost of home theater seating.

Taking a cue from the renewed popularity of recliners, many furniture producers offer recliner mechanisms, not only in chairs, bit in sofas and loveseats. Reclining sofas are another popular application of the laws of comfort. Designed in much the same way as a standard recliner, reclining sofas have become particularly popular with folks seeking to have the best of both worlds. Combining the look of a traditional sofa with the comfort of recliner has caught on with many people.

Just like their larger cousins, reclining loveseats offer all of the advantages of a reclining chair. For those folks looking for more just a reclining seat, recliner loveseats often include rocker motion. Each half of the loveseat can rock and recline independently. Most reclining sofas and loveseats feature a zero wall mechanism. A zero wall mechanism provides all the comfort of a fully reclined position without taking up a lot of space.

Decorating with recliners has a plus side for plus size folks. Whether you call them big and tall recliners, big man recliners or plus size recliners, these oversize recliners are most than just over size. Quality big man recliners feature strong, specially designed mechanisms and upholstery. Big and tall folks often need a bit more room in either the seat or the recliner back. For a tall person, a large chair back can make all the difference.

So whether you are looking for a new look for the living room or adding more seating, consider decorating with one of the new lines of recliners.

About the Author

Michael O'Brien is Staff Writer for Fine Web Stores.com