Seatcraft Recliner Reviews

The Seatcraft Pantheon is an amazing, sturdy, versatile recliner. It boasts a reinforced wood frame that’s capable of supporting up to 400 pounds of user weight and features extra-wide armrests, making it the ideal choice for bigger, taller users.

Designed along conventional lines, it has a low-key, understated aesthetic that blends seamlessly into almost any room. It’s also a wall-hugger, which conveniently means that you only have to place it 5”-6” from whatever wall you decide to place it near for it to recline fully. That’s handy because as you saw in the product summary, this is a sizeable piece of furniture!

Unfortunately, while its impressive size makes it a great choice for big and tall users, it can also work against you. If you’re cramped for space or living in an apartment or smaller home, it may simply be too big to be a viable option.

If you decide it’s the right recliner for you, you’ll find a lot to like beyond its size and the level of comfort it offers.

Comfort

It’s well-padded and comfortable no matter what type of upholstery you pair it with, but in its default configuration, it comes clad in grain leather, with all the pros and cons that come with that choice. If you buy from the Amazon site, you won’t have the full range of grain leather color options available though (brown or black only from the Amazon site).

Extras

The Pantheon comes with illuminated cup holders and ambient lighting beneath the footrest. Turning these on gives you a subtle, blue glowing light that helps you find your way to your seat if you have to get up mid-movie, so you won’t have to turn the overhead light to make your way back to your new favorite chair.

The Seatcraft Equinox Leather Power Recliner is the slightly smaller cousin of the Pantheon, and in our view, is a slightly less capable chair. While it boasts all the same features and extras as the Pantheon, it’s more lightly constructed and doesn’t support nearly as much weight as its larger cousin.

Aesthetically, it’s honestly a rather unassuming recliner. Not ugly by any means, but there’s certainly nothing inspiring about its design, though, to its credit, it looks a bit more like what we’d imagine a home theater recliner looking.

If you went to a super deluxe movie theater, the chairs you might sit in would probably bear at least some resemblance to this model, which is, we imagine, where the inspiration for the design came from in the first place.

Extras

Like the Pantheon, this chair comes with ambient lighting ringed around the two cup holders on the chair and tucked away beneath the footrest, and you can power these lights on or off as you desire. This chair was also built incorporating wall hugger technology and needed at least six inches of clearance to recline fully.

Accessories

In any case, all of Seatcraft’s accessories are compatible with this model, so if there aren’t enough goodies for you in the Seatcraft Equinox Home Theater Seating’s default configuration, you can certainly customize to your heart’s content. Oh, and before we forget, yes, the USB charging port is present on this model, just like it is on the Pantheon. Essentially, this is a smaller, lighter, slightly re-styled Pantheon, and we gave it a marginally lower score despite the presence of the cool gel foam.

In its stock configuration, the Equinox does boast slightly better upholstery as the company utilizes their Leather 7000 option here, and on Amazon, you’re limited to ordering yours in either black or red. If you want some other type of upholstery, or if you want access to the full-color selection, you’ll need to contact the company directly to arrange your purchase.

Extras

In terms of extras on offer, the Julius offers the ambient lighting kit ringed ‘round the cup holders and tucked under the footrest, it’s got the USB charger, the tray table, and all the other goodies except for the built-in SoundShaker technology which was also left off.

Kudos to Seatcraft for leaving a feature off that not everyone will enjoy. That’s a good move in our view, but honestly, the company would have been better served to simply make a Pantheon variant without it than this model, which winds up feeling like the Pantheon’s poor cousin with a bad headrest design and no lumbar support.

We’d say here in our Seatcraft Julius review that it’s still a very good chair by any reckoning, it’s just not as versatile as the Pantheon and that’s a pity.

On the flip side, it’s slightly shorter than the Pantheon (and slightly smaller all around), and it only requires 5” of wall clearance to recline fully, so if you don’t plan on using the adjustable headrest anyway, and if you don’t have quite enough room for the Pantheon, this might be a good option.

But frankly, it’s just not as good a chair. We still recommend it, but only for users who, for whatever reason, don’t find the Pantheon to be a good fit.

The Seatcraft Solstice Leather Power Recliner is significantly smaller than the Pantheon, measuring almost a foot shorter when fully reclined. It’s a good-looking recliner with an understated design that looks as though it was inspired by luxury seating found in the best and most exclusive commercial theaters.

Its smaller size, though, marks it as a chair best used by people 6’ tall or shorter. If you’re taller than that, you want one of Seatcraft’s bigger chairs.

Extras

The Seatcraft Solstice Recliner comes standard with the lighting package, which gives you accent lights around the rims of the built-in cup holders and an ambient light tucked away beneath the footrest, all controlled by a power button located inside one of the chair arms.

Upholstery

In its default configuration, this model comes with top-grain leather upholstery and is offered in your choice of brown, black or cream. If you want the full range of color options, you’ll need to venture to Seatcraft’s website.

Unfortunately, this chair suffers from the same basic problem where the headrest is concerned. When you adjust the headrest, it pivots forward on a hinge, pushing its way into the back of your head. It’s just a substandard design for what they’re trying to accomplish.

What would work better here, in our view, would be a massage chair airbag in the headrest. Activating the headrest adjustment portion of the control would begin to inflate the airbag, plumping it up until the desired adjustment was made. Reversing the action would cause the headrest airbag to deflate to its default position. Why this approach wasn’t used, we’re not sure, but on a premium chair like this, that would be more in line with our expectations.

In any case, we rate the headrest here in this Seatcraft Solstice review as the single biggest point of weakness in the overall design. It’s a good chair though, and the full range of Seatcraft accessories will work with it. If you’re going to get this one, our recommendation would be to definitely invest in the neck pillow accessory.

First and foremost, the Seatcraft Imperial is a niche product in an already small, exclusive market. It’s a beautiful recliner, no doubt, and the Old-World aesthetic is stately and refined, with its rounded back and tufted seatback that hearkens back to ages gone by, but that’s the problem.

In the real world, most households aren’t decorated like that, which means that this chair is simply going to clash with many household décor schemes. As such, most people are going to give it a pass.

Extras

Although this model features the cup holders and the ambient lighting kit, a lot of the other fun extras, including the hidden storage, are simply not included in this design although you can create a highly customized version of this chair with those elements by working directly with the company.

Upholstery & Finishing

All that to say, the main reason most people gravitate to this chair is the look and feel of it, and the Seatcraft Imperial offers a few lovely details and finishing touches that enhance its Old World aesthetic, including the fact that the cup holders are bronzed instead of being finished with a brushed stainless steel look, and the area surrounding the cup holders is set off from the rest of the chair by the presence of bronze nailhead accents.

In its default configuration, this chair comes upholstered in top grain leather and is offered on Amazon in either black or brown. If you want access to the full range of top grain leather color options, you’ll need to go to the Seatcraft website direct.

It’s a very good chair, but its minimal feature set compared to other Seatcraft models and its Old-World design mark it as a chair that’s targeted at a very narrow sliver of the market. If you happen to be in that sliver, you’re going to love it. If you’re not, you’re probably not going to give it a second glance.

Final Note: One thing we don’t especially like about this design is that there’s no pillowed area on the headrest. Worse, although you can buy the optional neck pillow accessory and it will fit on this chair, it looks decidedly out of place. It does solve the problem of head and neck support, but in our view, it’s a crude, if effective option for doing so.

Leather Gel Upholstery

Whatever option you choose, the contemporary design of the chair lends itself well to blending seamlessly with almost any home décor scheme. In its default configuration, the Orleans is upholstered in one of Seatcraft’s lesser upholstery options, “Leather Gel,” which is a hybrid of leather and PU. It’s more durable than PU, but not as good as grain leather and isn’t a pet-friendly upholstery option in the least.

It will stand up reasonably well to light to moderate use, but if you want something longer-lasting, you’ll definitely want to pay to upgrade the upholstery to either breathable fabric, top-grain leather, or the company’s premium leather offering, Leather 7000. 

From the Amazon site, brown is the only color option offered. If you want to make upholstery or color changes, you’ll need to go directly to the Seatcraft website.

Note that even if you opt for the manual recliner option here, the Seatcraft Orleans Home Theater Seating still needs to be connected to a power supply to use the ambient lighting and USB charging features. The upshot is that in addition to saving yourself a bit of money if the lights go out while you’re sitting in the chair, you’ll be able to return the recliner to its upright seating position and get out without difficulty.

Also note that even if you select the manual recliner option, the chair is still compatible with all of the other fun accessories the company sells. This is a great little chair and offers tremendous value for the money!

The Seatcraft Raleigh Theater Seating is a purely manual recliner. There is no power option available here. That’s not a bad thing though; mostly, it comes down to what kind of chair you’re looking for. If you have your heart set on a power recliner, then this one won’t spend more than a second or two on your radar, but if you’re willing to consider a manual option, this one has a lot to offer.

Space-Saving Armrests

It does make a few sacrifices, though. Most notably, in a bid to create a chair with a smaller footprint, the Raleigh incorporates space-saving armrests, which makes it impossible to utilize built-in storage. The chair does offer a food and work tray, but there’s no storage compartment to put it in, so you’ll have to work out a place to put it when it’s not in use.

Wall Hugger

The Raleigh has a delightful contemporary design that looks great in just about any environment. Even better, in keeping with the space-saving paradigm this model was designed around, it incorporates wall hugger technology into its design, which means you’ll only need 5” of clearance between the seatback and whatever wall you place the chair close to. That makes this chair a good choice for people who live in smaller homes or apartments, or anyone for whom space, in general, is at a premium.

Lightweight

It’s also a lightweight model, so if you decide you want to relocate the chair sometime after you purchase it, that’s something you can probably do on your own, and something easily accomplished if you have a trusty assistant standing by when you decide to relocate the chair to some other part of the room, or to a different part of the house.

Upholstery

If you’re looking for a good home theater quality recliner with a smallish footprint, and you don’t have a ton of cash to spend, this is a great option to consider. Unfortunately, the default configuration of the chair is upholstered in the company’s Gel Leather option, which is a mix of PU and Leather.

It’s more durable than PU, but that’s not really saying much. If you have pets or are looking for something that will stand the test of time better, you’ll definitely want to talk to a Seatcraft representative about upgrading the upholstery to either fabric (the most pet-friendly option), top-grain leather, or their premier Leather 7000 option. 

If you order straight from the Amazon page, you’ll get your choice of brown or black, in the upholstery mentioned above.