Seat Customization
Customization is one of those things that can take your products to the next level when done right. If you have a grand vision of your home theater being perfectly plush and pink, you should be able to custom create pink microfiber chairs for your home theater that bring that vision to life.
When you’re shopping at an online home theater retailer, what kinds of seating layouts can you create with their line of products? Do they only offer theater recliners and loveseats? Or do they craft other multimedia furniture like chaise lounges, couches and sectional sofas? Also explore whether or not the company sells home theater risers along with their seating to help you create raised rows of theater seating in the back so everyone can see the screen well. You should ideally have enough options for customization to get a few ideas for seating layouts, materials, and colors that all adhere to your vision or allow you explore possibilities that you haven’t thought of yet.
The right theater seat store won’t make you compromise on your ideal media room seating layout. And they also won’t make you compromise on how you customize your seats for design and comfort. Everyone has their preferences—whether it’s a theater seat made from high-grade leather that’ll age and soften with time or a home theater sectional stitched together with velour upholstery, the company you’re looking to buy from should have those options available.
If you’re looking for those options in your theater seating, try playing around with our seating customizer. Want theater-style recliners that have a bit more room? Try the Tuscany XL. Looking for a loveseat with a console accessory? Try the Oslo Console Edition.
Upholstery Options
A big part of your home theater design is what the seating looks like. And while we don’t mean to trash on black and brown leather theater seating (they’re classic and timeless!), it’s not everyone’s aesthetic. There are so many more upholstery options out there to explore in the world of home theater seats that aren’t made from leather. From velour, to microfiber, to cotton fabric, you’ve got a lot of options to deck out your home theater the way you see fit. When you’re shopping around, keep in mind a few main aspects of the upholstery the theater furniture store offers:
1. Are there leather and non-leather options for their theater seating? Entertainment room chairs upholstered with leather is almost a given due to how timeless and popular the material is, but pay attention to the quality of the leather. Is the material itself high-grade, and does it hold up to the test of time? Microfiber and other fabric theater chairs offer cost-effective comfort. You’ll have virtually any upholstery option available to you at the right media furniture store, everything from full-grain Nappa leather to luxurious velour to soft, comfy microfiber. Even an exclusive, sustainably-engineered vegan leather that rivals Nappa in look, feel and quality.
2. When it comes to color, the more options, the better. Everyone’s home theater is a little bit different, and everyone has their own unique tastes—maybe you do enjoy the timeless aspect of brown multimedia seating, but maybe you want something a little more expressive. Entertainment seating with contrasting, two-tone pink and orange stripes, anyone?
When you’re looking at online retailers, keep the following in mind: what colors are available for leather or fabric seating choices? Are you thinking about white theater seating? Or maybe grey leather recliners? Go crazy with a bright orange if you want. The best theater seat manufacturers will have leather color options you didn’t even know existed. Like, 27 different colors, for instance.
3. What customizations are available? Solid color media seating shouldn’t be your only choice. See if the theater seat store has options like two-tone leather, contrasting piping, diamond stitching, and custom embroidery. And don’t forget the seating finishes, like chrome finishes, powered headrests, LED underfoot lighting, and bass shaker seats. Part of the fun of having a home theater is all the gear that goes along with it—high-powered bass shakers attached to your theater seating will give you immersion like never before, and accessories for your home theater like trays, wine caddies, and popcorn holders ensure you’ll be comfortably in your seat for the whole movie.
Seat Construction
In the era of mass-produced furniture, it’s vital to check how your theater seating is made as well as the quality of the materials used. If you’re looking for longevity when purchasing high-end multimedia seating, do your research and get a product that will last you for many years to come.
The furniture you choose for your home theater should be as quality on the inside as it is on the outside. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare to invest a chunk of money into a luxury product only for it to be chintzy and break down in a month or two—this is where doing your research and weighing your options comes in. Not every company produces their products equally, and the best place to check (besides the reviews) is the item description. If you’re looking for home theater seating made from quality leather, pay close attention to the type of leather used and what kind of wood or metal is used to reinforce it. The best entertainment seating manufacturers craft their home theater seating in solid hardwood and steel, with smooth, ergonomic reclining mechanisms that are durable enough to last decades of use.
Ask about the Leggett-Platt mechanism; it’s the most ergonomic reclining mechanism out there, and it also makes the furniture into wall-hugging seating. Ask about what kind of cushions are used and if there is lumbar support in their products. Your home theater seating should be durable and super comfy; nobody likes watching movies in an uncomfortable seat.
Customer Service
As always, it’s a great idea to check out online reviews when vetting an online retailer. Keep in mind that people are more likely to leave a negative review in general, but multiple, average positive reviews tend to indicate the company is doing something right. Reviews are just as important for home theater seating as they are any other industry. The best companies to purchase entertainment seating from will also have stellar customer service when issues inevitably arise. A company’s customer service is often a large part of people’s reviews. Is the theater seating company’s sales team helpful? What about their customer support? Are they responsive? Friendly?
You can find out a lot about a given theater seat store with a quick visit to Yelp!, Google, and any social media accounts they may have. Companies with a lot of 4 or 5-star reviews are generally reputable—on the other hand, if you notice a good amount of 1 or 2-star reviews with solid evidence backing them up, it might be a good idea to look elsewhere. Disgruntled customers never forget to post about their experience or the fault(s) with the product; the right place to get your home theater furniture from should do everything to make sure their customers have the right experience, and in fact, should be known for it.
Brand Recognition
When it comes to luxury products, one surefire sign you’ve found a quality online retailer of multimedia furniture is that they work with celebrity clients. Even better, that celebrity clients seek them out to partner with. It probably doesn’t have to be said, but catching the attention of celebrities shows that the company is reputable and is able to consistently deliver on high-end theater room seating—essentially, they’re doing something right. Pro gamers, pro athletes, car enthusiasts – a quick search around the company’s blog or social media will get you your answers; people love to name drop, especially on custom projects they’re proud of. One of our favorite celebrity seating customization projects was getting the chance to match a chair to Supercar Blondie’s Rolls Royce!
When you see these home theater seating companies having fun with super-unique collaborations and celebrity-inspired designs that break the mold, you can feel comfortable you’ll be able to create the media room furniture that’s perfect for your home theater. When it comes to that level of detail, anything’s possible. Two-tone loveseats for your home theater in bright, poppy colors? Done. A back row of wall-hugger theater seating on risers with all the customized accessories? Done. It’s just another collaboration for them; it’s what they’re good at.
Sustainability
It’s one thing to be good at something and maintain a level of achievement in a marketplace like multimedia seating for private cinemas. It’s another thing to strive to be better. In recent years, sustainability—and manufacturers’ roles in helping promote it—has become the forefront of the conversation on conservation. From using more sustainable materials, to creating products that actually can last a lifetime, the attention is on companies more than ever. One focus of any theater seating company should be minimizing their carbon footprint and offering more sustainable non-leather upholstery entertainment chairs. And it’s possible. It all starts with shifting some of the focus and working towards sourcing better materials and investing in renewable energy.
Valencia has been working towards sustainable manufacturing for over 20 years. Now, not only do our factories run on 80% renewable energy; our Green Vision also motivated our founder to create a new kind of vegan leather. Made entirely from fruit and vegetable waste, our vegan leather seating looks, feels, wears, and lasts just like our full grain Nappa leather. The differences are there are no animal products, the carbon footprint of manufacturing it is much smaller than hide leather, and it’s made of natural material rather than plastic, like most pleather. What other home theater manufacturers can say that they’re dedicated to delivering top-notch entertainment room chairs that aren’t made of leather?
Doing Your Due Diligence
Your home theater seating is a large part of the budget in any DIY media room, so making the right decisions is key to getting the most bang for your buck. While searching for the best companies who make home theater seating can take a little bit of legwork on your end, choosing the right seller of theater seating and you’ll have beautiful media room furniture that lasts for years and years. All you’ve got to do is a bit of research first, and once your new home theater is set up and you’re sat in front of that huge projector screen, you’ll realize it was definitely worth it.
It’s no secret that the convenience of online shopping makes it a little too easy to buy things these days. It’s a good thing, though, really—online shopping presents more options, and with shipping speeds these days, you’ll likely have your purchase in your hands within a week or so.
Buying home theater seating and equipment online is super common now, simply because there are so many ways to customize your media room design that you just can’t find on a retailer floor. Theater seating with fabric upholstery usually takes the sidelines for theater seating made from leather, the breadth of accessories for your home theater isn’t there, and you’re limited on colors. The issue with the multimedia seating that’s on the retail floor is it’s generic. Minimal choices for colors, features, style, design – it only makes sense, really. All of those cinema room chairs take up space on the showroom floor, so you’re really only seeing the most popular choices—leather theater seating in neutral tones, a couple of sectionals, and some theater seats that are on the cheaper end thrown in. While it’s nice to test drive the seats in-person before you commit, you just don’t get the same options as you do online.
Why Buying Your Home Theater Seating Online is Just Better
Brick-and-mortar vendors want to show media room furniture that appeals to a wide demographic. They might have some of the best home theater seating out there in their showroom, but only in the sense that it’s what’s popular with a large consumer base. They certainly can’t have red-blue two-tone leather Euro-mod chairs on the floor, just hoping that the right customer will walk in—it’s just basic business practices to stock more of what will easily move rather than going all in on more unique pieces that need to wait on the right person with the right home aesthetics to come in. But what if you want crazy mixed-leather theater seats? That’s where buying your home movie seating online comes in.
With online ordering, you don’t have to settle with a standard seat in brown or black leather, a cup holder and manual recline. If you want to, you can design a whole home theater sectional in bright red velour, tricked out with chrome cup holders, powered recline and LED underfoot lighting. Or that racy red leather with blue piping we talked about earlier. But that leans a little… red(blue) flag, don’t you think?
There are some wildly impressive home theaters out there, decked out with some highly saturated theater seating that screams “luxury,” unique furniture, and impressive accessories like high-powered bass shakers that clip on your theater seating. Brick-and-mortar shops just won’t have that selection you need to conceptualize your dream home theater.
Deciding on the Right Company for Your Private Cinema Seating
The caveat of ordering anything online is sometimes it’s hard to know if the company you’re buying from is legit and represents their products accurately. And while there are arguably several quality companies who sell theater seating, there are qualities that make some stand out from the rest. Here’s our advice on how to vet a home theater seating company before you design that custom media room furniture: