The Right Living Room Recliner: How to Choose

When you want the deep relaxation of a living room recliner, choose from over 175 models in stock on a typical day at any of our Roberts Furniture & Mattress locations. The variety of recliners from simple rockers to power models with heat and/or massage may leave you with information overload. To help you best decide which living room recliner is right for your needs, today’s blog post gives you a few matters to consider.

Some Living Room Recliner Cost and Space Considerations

While everything at Roberts is a bargain every day, which our neighbors appreciate, living room recliners come in a wide spread of price points and features. Simple push-back recliners, which open just by leaning back, are just a couple hundred dollars; a good entry-level option but one that might be a bit less durable. Your classic rocker recliner, popping open at the turn of a lever, is a sound mid-range price option that delivers you top comfort thanks to recent refinements in lumbar support, steel coils, and high-density foam. A novel idea for those of you with “cozy” (cramped) spaces are wall-saver recliners. For these models you only need about 6 inches of space between the chair and the wall! Traditional living room recliners require about a foot to open properly. If you want to pull out all the stops, there are ultra-luxurious recliners with goodies such as mechanical massage and heat to relieve your pain from strain or injuries. These marvelous chairs can run you into the upper hundreds or beyond but if you’re a weekend athlete or have a crick in your back, they might well pay for themselves at least in relief. When you’re perusing your living room recliner options, make sure that there are no more than 5 inches between the open leg rest and the seat; ditto for the lever. This is especially important if there are young children or pets in your household. For durable upholstery, leather is king but easy-care microfiber and other man-made fabrics offer affordable plushness and easy care.

How to Test-Drive a Living Room Recliner In-Store

You won’t know if a living room recliner is for you until you really sit in it when it’s opened up! Take your time: at least 5 minutes. Like Goldilocks in the tale you’ll have to work your way through many living room recliners that are just too firm or soft for your frame until you alight on the one that’s juuuust right. Try to find the densest foam in the cushions while remaining comfortable: they should retain their shape even after you’ve sat on them for those 5 minutes.

Make living room recliner buying easy and affordable by coming to our Hampton, VA store or other Roberts locations.

A Look at Leather Furniture Pros and Cons for Your Home

When you see the variety of styles and textures of the leather furniture popular at Roberts, you might wonder if this time-honored tradition in upholstery is for you and your household. Below are some pros and cons to consider. Leather furniture might not be what you think. You may be pleasantly surprised. Or after some deliberation you might conclude fabric upholstery for your living room furniture is the better way to go.

Some Leather Furniture Advantages

You might be in love with that leather power recliner on the showroom floor. Here are a few reasons this upholstery choice isn’t a luxury but eminently practical. Leather has been a favorite material since pre-history because it WORKS. It LASTS. A leather chair will last up to FOUR TIMES longer than one clothed in imitation leather! Leather is actually relatively easy to maintain. With fabric sofas, you need to “strip them down” to give the upholstery a wash now and then. With your leather loveseat, just wipe the leather with mild soap and water, and apply leather conditioning cream regularly, say, every four months, to keep it from drying out. Like a favorite bomber jacket, your leather sofa can last longer than a lifetime if properly cared for. That’s right: your new leather furniture can become heirlooms. Worried about scratches? Don’t. With a bit of cream or polish, such blemishes come right out of this thick, tough upholstery. Spills likewise are no biggie. Wipe it off and you’re good to go. Ditto pet hair. And what’s even more appealing is leather doesn’t start to smell, unlike fabric.

A Few Leather Furniture Drawbacks

Okay, let’s talk price: leather furniture is a costlier initial outlay because you are buying superior quality. If you have young children or large pets, you don’t want them jumping on your new leather sectional while a sofa made of fabric cushions might be more tolerant of this (ab)use. If the room is subject to extremes in temperature, you might find the feel of leather furniture too cold in winter and hot in summer.

Whether your heart is set on supple, rich leather furniture or not, our Hampton, VA store and other Roberts locations are ready to serve you with high-end selection at the most competitive prices.

Fun with Feng Shui for Peaceful Interior Design

The Chinese philosophy of arranging items in your home for good results is named feng shui, pronounced “fung shway.” According to this belief system, rules for object placement maximize cosmic energy, called chi. Whether you believe this premise or not, its results are loved by designers and homeowners around the world. So for this blog post we at Roberts Furniture & Mattress will apply this idea to some furniture in the Hampton Roads area to give you ideas to add some life to your decor.

The Feng Shui Living Room

According to feng shui, energy is masculine (yang) or feminine (yin). Living rooms use masculine energy because they are so active with new people and conversational buzz. To make the most of the yang circulating in this room, proper placement of your living room sofa is important. Have a wall behind it and place it strategically in the “command position” so that sitting on it you can see the door. However, do not have it directly facing the door. This can get tricky! Because you want to turn up the energy in your living room, it ought to be one of your home’s brighter rooms. Ideally this should be sunlight but artificial light will do in a pinch. Beware mirrors: even if they’re not broken they’re bad luck here! However, potted plants draw good chi into your living room. Finally, try to configure your living room furniture so that it has “four corners,” so arrange it in a square or rectangular fashion. According to feng shui, this attracts good people.

Successful Home Office Feng Shui

Everybody works in the hope of succeeding, and feng shui principles are here to help with arranging your home office furniture to do just that. First, pick decor that pumps you up, making you feel successful. Place your desk in the command position. Try not have it facing a wall! The south side of the room has fire as its feng shui element, which governs fame and reputation, so fan those flames with warm colors such as yellows. Cool colors are bad for your home office. The southeast corner should have a theme of abundance!

Feng shui promises gradual change as you apply it. For your home furniture and accents, stop by our Hampton, VA store or any of our other state locations.

Don’t Miss Out THIS Black Friday on EXTRAORDINARY Deals

We at Roberts Furniture & Mattress know that by now you’ve been inundated with Black Friday Sale announcements. But we’ve got to tell you THIS Black Friday furniture extravaganza is the REAL deal! ONLY the weekend after Thanksgiving at our End of Season Black Friday Sale can you get THESE fantastic furniture bargains.

Black Friday Weekend Deals Too Good to Pass Up

When you need a small chairside table for your drinks, enjoy this doorbuster, a handsome stand in wood, finished in gray or white, ONLY $29. Another with a drawer in distinguished espresso or oak is $89. Get them before they’re gone. Another doorbuster special perfect for the bedroom is our wood-framed oval cheval mirror, just $29.99. Living room reclining furniture in Italian leather has never been THIS easy to get. At all of Roberts’ stores this Black Friday weekend you can have YOUR choice of dual reclining sofa OR console for $899. If all you need is to settle into a relaxing new living recliner, FRIDAY ONLY is your big chance to get one for as low as $149 (no layaway). If you require power to operate your new recliner, Roberts has got something for you too, for only $299. Or sink back into our Black Friday special lift chair, going for an unprecedented $699. Share the relaxation affordably this Black Friday weekend with a stunning 2-piece dual reclining sofa and loveseat set for as low as $799.

Queen bed need replacing? Our trim modern Black Friday weekend special practically GIVES one to you at $169. If you prefer an upholstered tufted queen headboard, swing by one of our stores, where your new bed awaits. Take it home for $299. Don’t settle for a sagging mattress when you can get a new one for as low as $99 for a twin, $139 for queen, and $479 for king.

We at Roberts appreciate the finer points of decor. That’s why this Black Friday weekend you can take home a lovely wood accent table in blue or white for $42, a gleaming white accent credenza table for $99, and, perfect to show and store seasonal mementos, a handsome accent cabinet in your choice of blue, black, or ivory at a record-low $199.

Stunning Furniture Sets Only This Low for the Weekend

Roberts’ End of Season Black Friday Sale includes entire sets to redo a room. Our Bedroom Madness starts with an understated 7-piece queen bedroom set with chest, in black or gray, for $799, up to our deluxe Woodlands Mansions bedroom, including a queen mansion bed, dresser, mirror, and nightstand, which you can take away after this Thanksgiving for an astonishing $1,799. For a new living room look, enjoy sofa and loveseat sets starting at $699 this weekend only. That sectional sofa you’ve always wanted is in Roberts’ stores too, from $999 to $1,199. Now is the time to SAVE!

You’re not done giving thanks, because Roberts Furniture & Mattress is offering Hampton Roads and Winchester households like yours the furniture deals of the season. Stop by our Hampton, VA store or any of our other locations to save BIG this Black Friday weekend ONLY!

Make Your Too-Large Room Livably Smaller

It’s hard to believe there can be too much of a good thing until you’re faced with it. That goes for a room in your home that seems to have more square footage than you know what to do with! Never fear, dear readers. Hampton Roads’ furniture specialists since 1960 are proud to share with you some designer’s tricks to scale down that behemoth into something more human, a space that’s even intimate if you want.

Smart Furniture Tricks for Instant Coziness

A common rookie design mistake is to manufacture smallness by trying to employ small pieces of furniture in a big space. This backfires because the first thing you notice is all the dead space around them. Actually, if you pick furniture that fits the room’s real proportions well, such as long sofas and consoles, it makes the room appear smaller. Placing the furniture along the walls, as though it were part of the wall, works wonders as well.

Doing the Shrinking-Room Shuffle: Arrangement That’s Magic!

An obvious solution to a too spacious room is to break it up into two or more rooms. Don’t want to bring in the contractor to add walls? No worries. An accent folding partition (room divider) can inexpensively do the same thing while giving you flexibility if you change your mind or your needs for the room shift. Another designer’s tip is simply to treat the room as if the dividing walls were there by clustering furniture for different uses in various spots: sofa and loveseat combo gathered around the TV, bistro counter-height table and chairs in another spot, and so on. How about your whole home bar taking up a third of the floor space? Your eyes will focus on only one section at a time and thus you won’t be overwhelmed by the room anymore.

Light and Color Tricks

A standby for interior designers is light creating the illusion of space. So what do you do when your room’s too big, brick up the windows and light the room with candles? While we’d love to sell you accent candle-holder sets, you don’t need to do anything that drastic. Just choose more subdued, less reflective colors for your room’s palette, from the furniture such as a living room sofa to your area rug. Recommended hues to turn your echo-ey airplane hangar of a room into an inviting space for your friends are charcoal gray, burgundy, deep green, and chocolate brown.

Patterns and Textures That Fill Your Space

Big, striking patterns on your furniture and draperies, again agreeing with the room’s proportions rather than trying to fight them, fills the space visually, scaling down your brain’s impression of it. Good old-fashioned wallpaper works for this too. Another design trick: avoid anything with too much shine such as chrome. Stay away from lacquered wood, for example. Try painted or stained finishes instead. Metal should be dull or wrought-iron. Mirrors in these cases are a no-go.

For home furniture suggestions to fill a room affordably, check out Roberts Furniture & Mattress in Hampton, VA or one of our many other locations.

Reassess and Redress Your Living Room to Be Yourself at Home

As the years pass and your tastes change, it only makes sense to rethink your home decor now and then. Classical motifs that once enamored you in youth may now feel static and overstated; while what was once too avant-garde for you may now in fact complement your style. Pondering all of these heady questions of style and aesthetics, it’s only natural for your mind to drift to your most prized and personal pieces of home decor: your living room furniture. 

A Leather Sofa Changes How You Relax

In many cases, what your living room may be lacking, in both style and function, is comfortable leather sofa seating. Here, your options can feel seemingly endless—but don’t panic! Start out by asking yourself if your space and your furniture is hard-lined or rounded. If in fact your living room decor could do with a helpful injection of curvature, try out an affordable faux leather chair and matching ottoman, for a delicious blend of antique aesthetics, and state-of-the-art durability.  

Picture Yourself and Your Partner on a Brand-New Loveseat

Somewhere, at some point, you’ve undoubtedly thought of cozying up with a special someone on a sleek classic loveseat of your own. In your living room, a new loveseat means giving yourself a shot at elegance, along with a look and feel that’ll ease your mind the second you and your partner are seated. As far as versatility goes, this timeless piece of living room upholstery will fit almost perfectly in any home—softening out edges, and making an afternoon into a truly sensible and memorable experience for yourself and any of your guests.

Look Beyond Upholstery: End Tables to Reframe Your Room

After you’ve reexamined your living room seating, it never hurts to look beyond the ordinary and inquire into suitable end tables to enhance the ‘livability’ of your space. One small, adorable and affordable end table, positioned at the side of your leather sofa, can serve as the ideal spot for a piece of artwork, or even your smartphone. The decorative potential of an occasional table is—in a real sense—almost infinite, so long as you give yourself permission to have fun with decor in your living room. 

Your Local Furniture Store Knows All About Living Room Decor

Whether your Williamsburg, Virginia home or apartment was decorated last year or 5 years ago, do yourself a favor, and think about restyling it with affordable living room furniture from Robert’s Furniture & Mattress. 

How to Choose and Place Your Coffee Table

When you’ve got your living room seating picked out, put some thought into this space’s second most sought furniture, the coffee table. It can be your room’s centerpiece if you desire, rather than the sofa. Here are a few placement and style suggestions for yours.

The Rule of 2

Most living room coffee tables are 16 to 18 inches tall. It’s generally recommended that your coffee table be 2 inches lower than your seats such as your living room sofa or loveseat.

The Rule of 18

Some interior designers say your coffee table should be 18 inches (a foot and a half) away from your sofa, making it close enough for you to set down plates and drinking glasses but roomy enough for you to stretch your legs, so consider that when measuring your floor space to pick the size of your coffee table.

The Rule of 30

Consider which part of your living room floor gets the most traffic as a passageway. Your coffee table should be narrow enough to allow about 30 inches of space from the side facing away from the sofa to accommodate this.

Use Contrast

If your living room sectional or sofa blends in with a simple design and neutral color, make your living room’s decor “pop” by using contrast: make your coffee table interesting, for example, with a dark finish and/or intricate woodwork. Likewise if your living room furniture uses bold lines and primary colors, consider a nearly invisible but still handy glass-topped metal coffee table.

Child-Friendly Coffee Tables

If you have young children running through your house, consider getting a coffee table without sharp edges; round or oval designs might be better for you.
For an incredible selection of living room coffee tables visit our Hampton, VA furniture store and other Virginia locations.

Design Inspiration: Living Without a Sofa

We know what you’re thinking—“What’s a living room without the sofa?” But hear us out. In some cases, a sofa can make a living room feel crowded, or worse, uninviting. Some layouts simply don’t accommodate a big three-seater. Considering that most homeowners arrange their furniture around the television (in houses built before the tube was a major fixture), awkward placement of sofas has become commonplace.

If you have this problem, or you simply want a fresh interior, read our design tips on the many ways you can live without a sofa.

Armchair Army

Versatility is the name of the game when furnishing your living room sans sofa. A collection of armchairs opens up your space, and provides greater flexibility in regards to positioning and organization. Plus, with a living room chair for each person to call their own, it eliminates the potential for your guests to accidentally bump elbows, or get stuck in the middle seat.

Gathering two to four matching armchairs gives your interior a sense of unity. Fabric upholstery in neutral colors also allows you to inject color into your design scheme through the use of vibrant accent pillows, while patterned area rugs can lend texture.

Throw in one or two armless accent chairs to keep your living room from becoming monotonous, again in neutral colors to allow your lighting to really glow in the room.

And of course, no living room is complete without a classic recliner. Try to find one that has a wood grain that is similar to the feet of your armchairs, to maintain visual harmony.

Loveseats Are for Lovers

Two-cushion loveseats are never a bad idea. They take up less space than a full sofa, and are more than appropriate for snuggling with your sweetheart while watching a movie, or simply enjoying each other’s company. Remember to be consistent with your color choices. Similar tufting to your other chairs will also lend to the room’s synchronicity.

Chaise the Dream

Perhaps the most obvious drawback to not having a couch is the lack of lounge seating. Who doesn’t enjoy an afternoon nap on the sofa? However, with a low-profile chaise, not only do you keep your living room unobstructed, you also get all the benefits of lazy Sundays.

For more living room furniture, including ottomans and occasional tables, visit Roberts Furniture & Mattress in Hampton, VA. Our low-priced chairs, loveseats, and chaise lounges are of the highest quality in both construction and design. Let our family serve your family!