Sure, anyone can have multimedia room furniture. They might not have any bells and whistles, but you can certainly get by and have a relatively comfortable experience reclining and watching your favorite movies and shows. But what separates the ordinary from extraordinary entertainment room recliners? We’re glad you asked!
As some of the best manufacturers of reclining home theater chairs out there, we’ve got an idea or two of what keeps people coming back for more top-of-the-line media room seating. Here’s our top list of the features that make for some exceptional theater room seating.
The Quality of the Material
Ask anyone. There’s a discernable difference between the leather you’ll find on home theater recliners that are sold at a cheap price versus something more high-end. It’s usually something you can tell upon feeling it, or in some cases, even by looking at it. Theater room recliners upholstered with leather that isn’t of great quality tend to sag easier, and the cushions might start peeling and get damaged easily. When you compare it to entertainment room seating crafted with high-end leather upholstery, the difference is night and day—the leather is smooth, supple, doesn’t bend to weight, and the best part is that it’ll last you a lifetime if you take care of it.
The same goes for fabric home theater recliners too. The cheaper the material is, the less likely it’s going to last you more than 5 years or so. Premium fabric entertainment room seating will have tighter weaves in the fabric upholstery, resulting in a stronger material that’s going to be able to resist the wear and tear that just naturally happens with use. The best home theater recliners on the market are the ones that are going to last you a long amount of time. Seating is an investment no matter what you’re getting, and the last thing you would want is to have to go out and replace them with new ones in a relatively short amount of time.
Space-Saving Designs
A well-made entertainment room seat is going to be one that understands that spaces change and not everyone is going to have a sprawling room full of space to arrange their seating in multiple different layouts like massive rows of home theater chairs that sit 5. Sometimes, a home theater room is going to be more conservative—on the smaller side with just enough room for seating, a television screen, and other equipment.
If you don’t have all the space in the world to decorate with, what’s a movie fanatic to do? Thankfully, the best of the best entertainment room reclining chairs are going to take this into consideration, and they’re going to be built in a way that allows you to maximize your space. If designed right, media room seating that saves space does so by reclining right up against the wall. While it might not seem like much, the large handful of inches of space that this trick saves will make the difference between a narrow walkway to your seating for the evening versus one where you’re able to freely move around the room when walking to your seat.
Plus, if you ever downsize your living situation, how would you make clunky theater seating work in a smaller space? When you have media room seating that reclines right up against the wall, you might not have to worry about that problem, especially if the seating is semi-modular and can be rearranged.
Back Support Through the Whole Film
Your regular entertainment room seating might be comfortable to sit in, but is it really supporting your back? If you answered yes, that caved in back cushion begs otherwise. All jokes aside, a great seat is going to both be designed with ergonomics in mind, and it’s also going to have a suite of luxurious features to give you the best back support you’ve ever experienced.
Ergonomic design and other features like power recline and power headrest allow you to fine-tune your position in the seat and experience some of the most unbelievably comfortable recliners for home theater rooms out there. The power recline gives you the control over how far back the seat reclines, giving you the chance to experiment and find the position that best suits you—same for the power headrest.
Taking care of your back should be one of your top priorities while shopping for seating. After all, your back is what holds you upright. All too often, bargain home theater recliners don’t have the same level of polish that their high-end counterparts do, and your back ends up paying the price when you get up after a movie marathon feeling stiff and lamenting the fact that you just sat in your couch for hours on end. It doesn’t have to be this way, and well-constructed leather entertainment room seating is proof of that.
If you’re stuck with an old, dilapidated couch for your current entertainment room setup, fear not—now you know the makings of top-tier multimedia room couches and what you could have for your home theater. While there are certainly other features that go above and beyond, like media room recliners with heated seating and massage functionalities, the above reflects what we think is the baseline that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary.