Montana Black Recliner Sofa: the clearance a recline needs

A recliner is the one sofa whose listed dimensions are not the dimensions you have to plan for. Sitting upright it occupies the footprint on the page. In use it occupies more, in front and often behind as well. The Montana Black Recliner Sofa is worth approaching with that in mind.

The footprint when nothing is moving

• 3 Seater: 228 x 100 x 107cm
• 2 Seater: 175 x 100 x 107cm
• Chair: 115 x 100 x 107cm

100cm of depth is a full metre of floor gone the moment the sofa touches the wall. In a room 3.5m from wall to wall, that leaves 2.5m for everything else, and the recline has to open into part of it. Put a second unit of the same depth on the facing wall and you are down to 1.5m between the two before a coffee table is in the room at all. The 107cm height is the other figure to watch: it stands above a typical window board at around 90cm, so a unit placed under a window will cross the glass.

The measurement this listing does not give

Nothing in the description states how far the footrest travels forward, or how much air the back needs behind it when it tilts. Those two numbers vary enormously between mechanisms. Some designs sit almost against the wall and extend forward only; others need a hand's width or more behind them to open at all.

So ask the shop for the reclined depth of the unit you want, and until you have it, plan on the generous side. In practice that means pulling the sofa line forward on your sketch and keeping the coffee table further out than you would with a fixed sofa. Measure the real gap on the floor with a tape rather than judging it by eye.

Lever or motor? worth asking

The listing describes the Montana as a recliner but never says how it reclines. There is a difference that matters: a manual mechanism needs a hand free and nothing else, while a powered one needs a socket within reach of where the sofa stands and a cable run that does not cross a doorway.

For comparison, the Rose Brown E-Recliner Sofa is explicitly described as motorised, so if power is what you want, that is the family that states it. If you prefer a lever, confirm with the shop that this is what the Montana uses before ordering.

Black, and the three other colourways

The surface is described as a leatheraire fabric with a scratch and waterproof resistant finish, intended to give the look of leather without the cracking. That is the supplier's own wording: no composition, no test standard and no cleaning instruction is given, so ask what the supplier recommends if the sofa is going into a busy room.

Black is the darkest of the four colourways and the most forgiving of marks. The others are the Montana Brown Recliner Sofa, the Montana Grey Recliner Sofa and the Montana Ivory Recliner Sofa, all listed at the same sizes, so the choice is purely colour.

Ordering

Pick the unit you need on the Montana Black Recliner Sofa page, or see the rest of the Sofas range. Delivery is free within 50 miles of the Glasgow store and £50 beyond, and the shop will confirm the current lead time when you order.