Montana Ivory Recliner Sofa: a pale recliner, honestly assessed

Choosing the lightest colourway in a range is a decision about the next few years, not about the showroom. The Montana Ivory Recliner Sofa is the palest of four otherwise identical options, so it is worth being clear-eyed about where a pale recliner shows its age and what this listing is actually promising.

Where a light recliner marks first

Three places, on any sofa, and all of them are worse in ivory. The top face of each arm, which takes hands and sleeves. The headrest band, which takes hair and the back of the neck. And the front edge of the seat, which takes the backs of knees and, on a recliner, every pass of the footrest as it opens and closes.

None of that is a reason against ivory. It is a reason to look at where the sofa will stand. Against a window, in a room used in the evening, with adults sitting in it, a pale sofa stays pale for a long time. In a through-route with a dog and a football, it will not.

What the listing claims, and what it does not

The description sets out a leatheraire fabric with a surface it calls scratch and waterproof resistant, offered as the look of leather without the cracking or peeling. Taken at face value, a wipeable surface is a genuine advantage in ivory: a woven pale fabric absorbs a spill where a coated one may not.

But read the wording for what it is. The listing gives no composition, no abrasion or rub-test figure, no water-resistance standard and no cleaning instructions. "Resistant" is not waterproof, and nothing states what a cleaning product would do to the finish. Before you commit to the palest option, ask the shop what the supplier says about cleaning it and whether anything is advised against.

The figures behind the colour

All four colourways carry the same dimensions, so nothing in the fit changes with the colour:

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

The listing writes those figures in that order without labelling them, and there is no seat height given at all. A full metre of depth is the figure to plan against, and a recliner needs more floor than that once the footrest is out, which the listing does not quantify.

Mixing the colourways

Because the four are sold as separate products at matching sizes, there is nothing stopping an ivory 2 seater beside a darker chair, or the reverse. In a family room that is often the sensible compromise: the pale piece goes where adults sit, and the piece that takes the traffic is the Montana Black Recliner Sofa or the Montana Brown Recliner Sofa. The Montana Grey Recliner Sofa sits between the two. All four listings publish the same packed dimensions, so the route into the room is the same whichever colour you order.

Ordering

Pick the unit you want on the Montana Ivory Recliner Sofa page, or compare colours across the Sofas range. Delivery is free within 50 miles of the Glasgow store and £50 beyond, and the shop will tell you the current lead time when you order.