I am familiar with the B & Y line and they do offer zippers in both the back and seat cushions. The standard seat cushion for the Sheffield is the spring down. This is a great seat core and because of the springs the seat retains its shape better than just a foam rubber core over time. Many folks that have cats tend to lean more towards distressed leathers that the surface naturally changes over time so a cat scratch would not be much less noticeable. Actually if the surface has wax involved cat claws often just move around the wax surface without breaking the surface of the hide at all. Cats and leather can work and often cats seem to prefer fabric to the leather if they have both in the room.

Before I bought my leather sofa and love seat, I tool the color sample leather swatches home and tried scratching the color I wanted with a nail file, and staining with oil and ink and washing it off.....it was Bradenton Young that won!

lindac92,

who did you purchase from?

thanks

Some furniture store in des Moines....it's been 16 years and I forget which one...for sure it wasn't Nebraska Furniture Mart. The brand is Legacy Leather...just looked....was wrong about the Bradenton Young. The big loser was Thomasville. I had 3 different deliverys ande ach time there was something wrong. the last time I had a replacement love seat, the delivery man ( who was getting to be a good friend by that time) came to the door and said, come out to the truck, I don't think you are going to want to keep this!

I have experience with both manufacturers & own 2 Bradington Young chairs & ottomans. My cat was older when I got these & left this earth about 2 years after I got the chairs & ottomans however about 6 months prior to losing my cat I got a puppy. Neither have harmed the leather on the chairs or ottomans. My mini dachshund jumps on the ottomans all the time & from time to time I find him burrowed in a blanket on the seat of one of the chairs sleeping. Have had experience with Thomasville upholstery also & lindac92 is correct; have always have problems with Thomasville upholstery. Still sell Bradington Young & would recommend it & although no longer a dealer for Hancock & Moore they make an excellent product also.

Thomasville leather is made in China....apparently by children who are paid starvation wages. The workmanship and quality control is awful.

Thomasville upholstery has been poor quality for longer than 20 years as it was about 20 years ago and working at a different furniture store that I had experience with it. We constantly had issues with it.

We've decided to go with Hancock and Moore because of the construction of the frame, amongst other considerations.

I've gotten some good advice from Duane (formerly of this site and now on his own site) and others (thanks to the replies here, too) and now feel a little bit more educated on Leather 101.

We went to FLS but they didn't have a Journey. And because we were there, we browsed pretty much everywhere else and got tired and came straight home, thinking we'd made a decision (on leather color) until I read about problems with the 'Document' line (color sometimes rubbing off), and so I learned more--about protected and unprotected leathers and such. Still wanting to sit in a Journey chair or sofa, I called around. The only place I can find one is Boyles, 2 yrs away.

Gee, I changed my mind from fabric to leather thinking there would be fewer decisions. I couldn't seem to commit to a fabric type / style / color, etc.

I MUST make a decision and take advantage of H&M's winter sale.

What are your experiences of protected vs unprotected leathers (yes, we will do the proper maintenance on either type)? The pics I've seen of the Document line of protected leathers where the top cracks and flakes away are scaring me from "protected" (it's a H&M class 2 leather). Do unprotected leathers do this, too? If they are dyed and the color penetrates, you'd think not--am I thinking correctly about this? I understand, though, without that protective layer, you might get some staining, but I'm going to be looking at darker colors, so that might not be such an issue. Even if staining happens, I'd think that would be preferable to cracking or flaking of the surface.

I found a sofa (in the style we like in pictures) to go try out that's only 80 miles away, so I'll be going later this week, and then I hope to make a decision on leather. I MUST take advantage of this H&M sale.....

Thanks.

Talk to the sales person at the store which you are going to look at the sofa. Let them know what type of usage the sofa will be getting i.e. in a family room setting, if you have pets, if you have children etc. They should be able to answer your questions

The guy where I went to sofa sit knew about leathers, etc., but the lady at the local place didn't appear to know much at all--I'd learned a lot in a few weeks' worth of research. When I first asked about both H&M and Bradington-Young, she said there wasn't much difference, either in quality or price (not what I've learned). We decided on H&M based on what I've read about them, seeing their chair cut-away, their warranty (on everything but the leather), etc. And later, decided we wouldn't let the difference between an okay leather and a really good, nice leather be the deciding factor. But, she kept trying to sell me Document leather. I hope people who are going to spend lots of money on furniture, research it for themselves before trusting just any salesperson for the answers.

Check out classic leather too. I have seen their Portsmouth sofa and really liked how comfortable it is. Apparently, the founder of H&M started at Classic Leather so their products are similar.

If you are not comfortable with the sales person I would ask for another one & request that they know leather product. I will say years ago the Bradington Young sales rep for our area gave many sales meetings with our sales staff & was very informative about leather; much of what I learned about leather was through his meetings. There are sales people who do know their product. Classic Leather is also a good company & I have sold a lot of their product in the past however I don't know that I would compare their product to H & M or BY

Currier Leather in NH told me that Classic Leather is superior to BY. I believe BY has screw on wood feet whereas Classic builds it right into the frame.

Back legs are build into to BY's product; front legs are screw in which allows in some instances for a choice of foot style. Many upholstery manufacturers have a screw in front leg. We do carry both Classic Leather & Bradington Young