Am also shopping for a sectional. Have pretty much decided on Smith Brothers of Berne, impressed with the comfort, quality construction, price point, and warranty.

thanks for the suggestion! i contacted them through their website to try and find a dealer and they responded that my closest option is unfortunately not overly close. any other suggestions? (i'm located in norther jersey, in case that matters) thanks!

Yep, I have been doing weekend road trips to furniture stores. Maybe try asking them for another dealer?

i can try, but they gave me the names of their nearest options, supposedly. i don't have the capacity for weekend trips right now - sectional is going into the basement TV room that is part of a major two floor reno. this plus two little kids and sports practices, birthday parties, etc...i just can't travel for a couch. i need to find good quality that is local. argh.

if there are any other suggestions for brands, I would so appreciate hearing them. thank you

V-Dub Furniture spams again.

I can suggest what we did -- we went with a moderately priced leather (leather match -- the back and sides are actually a matching vinyl but 12 years later they still look like the seats -- just less worn) when my youngest was probably in 1st grade -- he's in college now. We have two boys and they grew up with the sectional, DH came and took breaks from working in the yard, and two dogs acquired along the way sometimes came in and hopped up before we noticed they'd been in the pool or dirt. I can't think of anything else that would have lived with us so well, been so comfortable that I fell asleep on it the first day we had it and it's still comfortable.

Our sectional is a Lane and I've been surprised to see people calling them junk, but we bought it 12-13 years ago and things may have changed since then. It wasn't top of the line -- the leather match takes it out of that category, but the leather and the vinyl have not given us any problems, Everything other than the Sharpie mark left when my youngest fell asleep while working on homework cleaned up easily, and I even got out the Sharpie. I will stop short of recommending Lane because the reviews now seem universally poor, but I do think it makes sense to go with a modest (not cheap) to mid-range sectional. I wouldn't look at top dollar or maybe even your top budget unless you know you aren't going to be moving for a number of years (the size of configuration might be all wrong for the next house).

We are looking at Omnia at a local dealer. If you don't have a local dealer, there are some locations you can purchase online (including limited models from Wayfair. They are full leather -- not match and made in USA. They have non-reclining sectionals in your price range. All the ones we've sat on have been very comfortable. We have ruled a few out because the backs are shorter. Your DH may like the split cushion back -- they sit 2" taller. My 6'4" sons liked them. Macy's also has some leather sectionals that are sofas and loveseats with a corner wedge. That means have two arms on both sides and can separate them -- even use them separately or in the reverse configuration if you move. I prefer not to have the arms inside the sectional and they don't fit our space anyway, so they aren't an option for us, but I've sat on them and they are very comfortable too. Hope that helps.

We have a sectional from Arhaus. Very nice furniture and price points. I think we paid 5K.

My second choice was King Hickory. http://www.kinghickory.com/products/sectionals

I have a sofa for my living room on order with Arhaus. Their upholstery pieces are really nice. We didn't spend much time looking at the sectionals because the men in the house insist on recliners in the sectional, but for stationary, I would look at them too.

I found out that Arhaus does have at least a couple of sectionals with motion -- don't know about the pricing in fabric, but in leather, they are at least double the OP's price range.