My Free Home Reserve Chair Is Here!

Background:  I blogged about Home Reserve furniture a couple weeks ago, and had a couple of comments from readers whose experience with it was not great {post here}.  I also had a comment from the president of the company offering me a free chair to try it out for myself {post here}!

I looked through the website and choose several fabrics I was interested in, and Sandy, the customer service rep,  overnighted the swatches to me.  I ordered the chair on Monday Sept. 13 and yesterday afternoon it arrived on my doorstep.  That’s an eight day turnaround; pretty quick considering they cut out the fabric specifically for you and don’t work weekends. 

 

Everything was vacuum-packed into this one box.

The hardware was bagged and labeled; there were even some extras enclosed.  In addition, they  included a pair of gloves and a sanding block in case there were any rough edges.  We only used it once.

All the wooden parts are very visibly numbered.

The instructions were easy to follow, and all the parts fit very well and without too much effort.

Craig did most of the assembly, and he was extremely impressed with how well everything fit.  The video says the parts are computer cut with 20/1000 of an inch tolerances!  They fit together like a puzzle, and all the holes for the screws were positioned correctly.

From the look of the wood, you might think it’s not very strong, but this is not cheap particle board.  From the website:

“The frames are made from aspen, an engineered wood panel of the type that builders use on houses. We’ve had our products tested in a laboratory and everything carries a five-year warranty. Very rigid and solid, our sofa will support over 2,000 pounds.”

I should mention, however, that 3 of the 4 arm sides did have a break in this very narrow area.  It was not a support piece, though, and in fact once assembled was itself supported by the piece that fit in it.  The warranty says they will send out replacement parts if anything breaks during the 5 yr period, but I’m not concerned that this will have any affect on performance.  (Update:  Sandy contacted me and offered to replace these pieces.  I didn’t accept because I really didn’t think it was an issue, and she assured me that any time during the 5 year warranty I can get replacements if I choose.)

Assembled arms (upside down) and frame:

The fabric pieces were conveniently packaged in the order called for in the instructions.  While snug, they were not difficult to put on.  Though not technically a slipcover, you can take the fabric off for cleaning (some are machine washable, but not all) and can order new cover sets to change your furniture’s look.

Well, this is really long, so I’m going to save the final reveal and review for tomorrow.  Up until this point, I give Home Reserve an A for fast delivery, packaging, engineering and ease of assembly.

Tomorrow:  the final product!

For a 3-minute video on how it’s all made and packaged, go here and click on the How We Make Your Sofa video on the top right.