It depends on how much you are looking to spend. I will say one thing, motion furniture just generally don't last as long as stationary furniture because the motion mechanisms will break after a while (and the act of motion puts much more strain on the fabric/leather). The best reclining mechanisms are made by Leggett and Platt and Universal. You can find these in any number of lower middle to high end brands and they generally will break eventually no matter what brand they are installed in. Lazyboy does lifetime guarantee their mechanisms. When they break eventually, you will have to replace the mechanism yourself or pay someone to do it though. They will only send you the parts. This is typical for most brands that offer a lifetime mechanism warranty. If you just in general want high quality, Hancock & Moore is pretty much the gold standard of upholstery, but it is pricey. Despite their warranty, lazyboy is generally not considered to be well made any more, however, I would say they are likely not to go bankrupt in the next 10 years as income has been stable the past few years and they are sufficiently diversified. I'd stay away from Lane, Broyhill, and Thomasville (and any of their sister brands). Their parent company (Furniture Brands International) basically went bankrupt a little while ago and the pieces got bought out by an equity firm. The new owners have been closing factories and liquidating assets. My guess is that it will eventually go the route of outsourcing all product and just maintaining the name brands (similar to a lot of shoe companies and other products), but its still a little early to tell what is going to happen. This post was edited by SirJohn on Fri, Aug 1, 14 at 19:45

Kathy, When shopping for a leather sofa with recliner outboard stations (at each end), then you most definitely want to ask some questions if you are shopping quality over price point. Leather is split at the tannery. All upholstery uses top grain (the upper half) and split grain (lower half) is more suited for industrial leather uses. Rather, decide if you want a Finished Leather or an Aniline Dye for your piece. Both have their pros and cons, you can do a search here for the differences. Hardwood frames - definitely. However, just as important is how the frame members are attached. The highest industry standard is currently double-doweled, screwed and glued. Look for that phrase. To test a motion pieces rigidity and strength, push laterally on the arms and check the flex. All motion furniture will have flex, but you will notice the better brands move far less than cheaper products. Motion furniture is always difficult to make stiff, because all portions of the piece are in motion. Mechanisms. The best in the industry are Leggett and Platt brand. All the top companies use them, and they carry strong warranties. Mechanisms that operate on a cable are more reliable over time than those that are push-back operated. You also have power recline options, which have more positions you can stop in, but also need a power outlet nearby (and its a heavier, more expensive piece). Check and see if there is leather all around the unit. Many companies in the mid-level line will use vinyl or bi-cast in areas that are not on the seating surfaces. Corded seams and exotic stitching are done by the top companies, but hard to find in mid-level units. Hancock and Moore and Leathercraft have many options in those categories. I'm sure there may be others, but those are the companies I'm familiar with. When buying reclining sofa units, pay particular attention to size of everyone using them. If you husband is over 6' 1", he may not be comfortable in a standard height reclining sofa. Conversely, if you are under 5'4", you may get lost in the cushions of one that fits him well. I have a 7-year old dual recliner sofa by Bradington-Young that has done well in the media room. Not sure I'd buy it again however. What works just as well - if not better - is to get a large leather ottoman that you can push up to a regular sofa and everyone can use a part of it (40" - 50" Square, etc). Not as limiting as a recliner unit and had more flexibility of use. Duane Collie The Keeping Room

My sister and I just bought the Best home Furnishings hattie reclining sofa for our newly purchased beach condo: http://www.besthf.com/best/Furniture/Sofas/Reclining/HATTIE-COLL Wish the seat depth was a little more. Other than that, we like it very much. I love that it has the little buttons on the side that make it move rather than a remote, Some stores only wanted to offer it in four fabrics, but we found a store that offered the entire fabric collection to choose from. We chose Dune 20969.

That is very true. We'll be buying two so I guess we were thinking at the most around $1200-$1500 each. Of course everybody loves to find things as low as they can. I really just haven't been able to tell by reviews what brands have decent quality for the money because all I could find was bad reviews for every brand I looked at. Was trying to narrow the list before hitting the stores. I live in a small community at the edge of NC/SC so I don't have a lot of places to go to for a large selection.