When Janet Feldman started looking for a recliner for her father in 2014, she was discouraged by the options available. “The chairs were terrible,” Ms. Feldman said. “They were big and corduroy and plaid, with side pockets all the way down. They looked ridiculous.”
Ms. Feldman recognized a challenge in recliner design. To accommodate features such as adjustable backrests, footrests, and levers, the chairs were typically bulky and padded, with the mechanisms often visible. Like the armchair equivalents of minivans, recliners were the opposite of style, a reflection of their owners prioritizing comfort over design.
But in recent years everything has changed. Furniture manufacturers have given recliner chairs a much-needed makeover, responding to consumer demand for chairs that are both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. Contemporary recliners look “so much better, slimmer and nicer,” said interior designer Young Huh, who recently ordered one for a client's library. “In the sitting position they look like normal chairs.”
Ms. Feldman was ahead of her time when she noticed the lack of elegant recliners and decided to design one herself. She knew that such obvious functionality of the options available wouldn't work for her father, who had spent his career in the shoe business. “My father didn’t want to appear frail or be seen sitting in one of those huge, ugly chairs,” Ms. Feldman said. “He wanted a nice chair that matched the other furniture in the room.”
In 2014 she founded the company Assistance With Elegance. After three years of research, she brought in Jessica Banks, an inventor, designer and roboticist. Ms. Feldman's mission resonated with Ms. Banks, whose father, Seth Banks, a former industrial design manager at GE HealthCare, had mobility issues.
Ms. Banks, owner of a kinetic furniture company, RockPaperRobot, and co-host of the Netflix home renovation series “Hack My Home,” was also unimpressed with the selection of lounge chairs, especially when it came to their designs. They were “undeserved focal points of rooms when they really should have blended in,” Ms. Banks said.
Last April, after several iterations, Assistance With Elegance introduced the AWEchair, which retails for about $10,000. Like a souped-up first-class airplane seat, the recliner features a power lift mechanism, a retractable footrest, lumbar and arm support, and secure grab handles.
Despite all the bells and whistles, the chair's silhouette is slim and structured. “It's a beautiful design for a city apartment or country home and looks like a normal 1920s club chair but with top-notch engineering,” Ms. Feldman said.
Assistance With Elegance is not alone in this pursuit. Furniture makers make recliners in a variety of styles, from “modern to traditional, coastal, bohemian and even Scandinavian,” said Veronica Londono Schnitzius, president of furniture company American Leather. They design slimmer frames and discreetly integrate ergonomic and high-tech features such as lumbar support, motor-activated movement, heat, massage and the ability to charge electronic devices.
“Designers strive for modern silhouettes that don’t compromise on comfort, challenging mechanical engineers to deliver the smoothest ride possible,” said Cameron Sellers, vice president of marketing for Hooker Furniture.
Electric reclining mechanisms are often hidden under the frame of a chair. However, in a different approach, interior design brand Serena & Lily used kickback mechanisms instead of lever mechanisms on its recliners, as levers have long been a telltale sign of recliners, according to Kirsty Williams, the company's chief designer. Now she added: “The mechanisms and the movement are a hidden secret.”
Subtlety characterizes these new chairs, which no longer force a choice between form and function. Mr Banks, now 79, described his AWEchair as his “household cocoon” and “a place of safety, protection and comfort”. Here he reads, sleeps and does sitting exercises, he said.
Perhaps just as important is that his chair blends in with the surroundings. “The understated design elegance of the chair gave us the flexibility to place it in my favorite room without it being reminiscent of my condition,” said Mr. Banks.