Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Thrive Furniture Review - Grant Chair

Thrive Furniture's business model is essentially what every American company's should be: provide a reasonably priced, well made product that's made here in the US, ships for free, and includes free return shipping if necessary. Free return shipping! No restocking fee or fine print. If your butt doesn't like your purchase you just call and schedule for a truck to come pick it up and they'll take it back and refund your money, no questions asked. There's a limit of course to how long you can return a piece for free (7 days) but even if you exceed that time period you have a full year to return it and all you have to do is pay the return shipping and they'll refund your money. Pretty simple but pretty amazing.

So yeah, that philosophy combined with a 20% off Black Friday sale and I couldn't say no.

I ordered the Grant Chair and ottoman in Klein Granite and 3.5 weeks later it arrived at my door! Now, I didn't reach this decision easily - I'd been looking for a "chair and a half" for probably a year or so and had the hardest time finding one that was comfortable and reasonably good looking. For some reason all furniture manufacturers presume everyone wants fat, puffy chairs with rolled arms. The only other good looking chair and a half I could find was the Crate & Barrel Klyne Chair and a Half but upon sitting on it, I found it too shallow and the arms too high to really relax in. If it was more affordable I would have bought it, but at $1300 with the ottoman, it just wasn't worth the compromise.

BUT, good thing I gave Thrive a look and found their Grant Chair because its dimensions and comfort are truly perfect. I ended up with the standard chair (not the chair and a half) because it's plenty big for 2 people and their chair and a half model was HUGE! We're talking loveseat size and I definitely didn't want something so big. The proportions of this chair are perfect. So yeah, here are my findings:

Pros:
  • Very sturdy and well built.
  • It's wide so you have space for 2 people to lie next to each other comfortably.
  • The arms are low so you can hang over them or rest your head on them. 
  • Made with high quality materials.
  • It's deep so you have plenty of butt room and curl up room. Almost too deep - if I didn't have the ottoman I'd feel like a little kid dangling his legs over a too tall chair.
  • Looks nice and boxy and modern, not overstuffed and fluffy looking like most other wide chairs. 
  • Great for reading!

Cons:
  • The down back cushion is too thin and deforms too easily. It can be fluffed and smacked back into shape but it really could use some more stuffing. It's not very supportive - the cushion just forms to the shape of your back, rather than supporting it. You can't slouch too comfortably without putting some extra pillows in there.
  • The seat cushion (foam core wrapped in down) is starting to lose its squareness. The edges are no longer sharp like the arms and the back cushion. I've only had it about a month so I'm worried about its long term hold up.
  • The ottoman is almost too deep. It almost looks square. This isn't really a con since I have the room for it but it's something to note.
  • The chair is so deep that the ottoman has to be pulled right up to it for my legs to rest right. Doing this means there's no gap between the ottoman and chair so it's a little awkward getting into the chair.

Conclusion
I love this chair and it's the closest thing to perfect I'll ever find. Aside from the seat cushion deformation and back cushion flattening, the cons are very minor. Check out their website and buy something. The quality is definitely there and if you wait for a sale (most major holidays), their prices are exceptional for what you're getting.

Support a great American company... 


Update
I've had the chair for over 6 months now so I thought I'd add a few pictures to show how it's wearing:

Back cushion looking a little sad from watching a movie in it last night.





You can also see how close I have to pull the ottoman to the chair. I'm only 5'8" though so maybe normal sized people won't have a problem.


Here you can see how the seat cushion has lost it's hard edges. This can't be smacked back into shape like the back cushion.



And here's what it looks like after I flipped the back cushion and fluffed it up a bit. Looks good but if you want it to look like this always expect to do this after every time you sit in it.


9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Found your blog whilst googling narrow cabinets and dishwasher. Great blog and witty journaling. I'm currently in the process of renovating my mother's 60's home. As an avid DIYer, I admire the efforts of others. Keep up the good work and postings!

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  3. I am thinking to order the Grant sofa with leather. Does your foam core wrapped in down cushion still hold?

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    1. Hi RT, I added some more photos so you can see how they're holding up.

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  4. Hello! Found your blog while reading about Thrive furniture. I manage a store and am considering carrying thrive but wondered how it held up to everyday usage. Still have it? How's it doing?

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    1. Hi Tara, it's still holding up well. The back pillow is still just a bit too thin for my tastes but I've had no issues with the actual durability of it (and we just use some extra pillows for lumbar support). It still looks like the pictures above.

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  6. Thank you sooo much for posting this. I have been looking for a way to organize my girls books. This is PERFECT! Not to mention really inexpensive. look at this site

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