Julian Bowen Brown Fabric Malmo Recliner and Footstool

I bought this chair for a number of reasons and being a recliner was just a bonus for me. I was looking for a narrow chair in black leather (or leather effect) to match a cheap sofa I bought for my living room a while ago. The price was a major factor for me as I am still renovating my house and could not afford to go over the £100 mark. I purchased both sofa and this recliner with the view to replacing them at a later date when funds allow. I was very surprised at the quality for the price I paid, the chair was assembled in 15 minutes using the tools provided - nothing else was required. I have had it a few weeks now and it is very comfortable and easy to clean (in a currently dusty house) I have decided to keep it when the house is finished as I don't see any need to replace it. Visitors who have tried the chair have been amazed at how little it cost. I can totally recommend it.

I had one of these previously. Eventually the surface cracked and came off and its was a bit unsightly so i go rid of it and thought i would go back to a normal cheap swivel chair. that lasted 3 days and wish i had my old chair back, so ordered a new one and glad to have it back, its definetly worth the extra money. the chair is very comfortable, other chairs give me a sore back, although i do use a small cushion on this but its night and day from a normal home office type chair. Assembly is easy, thought it was going to be difficult to line up the hinged part betweeen seat and back but someone on here gave a good tip about turning it over which i did and had the top of the head rest against some drawers to fix it in place then it was easy to line up the fixing, couldn't have taken me more than 10 or 15 mins once i'd read the instructions for the chair. The recliner part is slightly stiffer than last chair but it does stay in place and chair has no height adjustment but its perfect height for home office desk i have which has a slide out keyboard, if it didn't have that then it might be slightly to low for the actual desktop part. This time i have covered the chair with a blanket and hopefully the faux leather will last longer, in fact if i had thought of it i might just have kept my old one which apart from the cracking and flaking was still comfy and in good working order after years of daily use and just put a cover over it. For me this is a great chair and worth the money, i don't think its quite as comfy as my old one and doesn't have wheels to move it easily but definetly glad i purchased it and would recommend, just check height is what you want as its fixed if you're using it at a desk.

My existing 3 piece suite is now too low for me to get up easily. This chair is a few inches higher and makes all the difference. It is also remarkably comfortable, especially when used with the footstool. Construction was perfectly straightforward,though a certain amount of firm pressure is required to align the bolt holes in the arm rests. The instructions are easy to follow and include an illustrated parts checklist. The parts are packed in logical groups making it easy to identify what is what with the different sized nuts, bolts and washers seperately bagged, making identification straightforward. The finished chair and stool are perfectly level on completion. The only flaw was that the thread on the handscrew used to adjust the reclining action was not cut accurately, making it impossible to install. A quick phone call to the included Julien Bowen support number had a perfect replacement sent to me by return. The company clearly believes in good customer support. The included tools are of better than some I have found in some self assembly kits in the past and were used to build the chair, it would have been slightly quicker to use my own toolkit, however, I was too lazy to go out and get them as those included posed no problem. This chair represents excellent value with alternatives with more sophisticated reclining mechanisms, say, costing significantly more.

I'm sitting in this chair right now, having just assembled it, and I am impressed. For just over £100, I wasn't expecting much, but it is unbelievable value and very comfortable . . . almost comparable to a few £700+ recliners I've tried. I absolutely hate self-assembly, but I managed to put together this chair with limited frustration. It took me a while (maybe about 2 hours, with a coffee break), because I've never assembled a chair before, but I managed just fine and it was worth the effort. I ordered two of these chairs as a hold-over until my sofa is delivered, I planned to leave the second chair for my husband to assemble but I'm going to do it myself now -- it's easy enough. There is a scent to the material but I've had it out of the box for a few hours and it's already dissipating. The chair also looks nice, the brown is a chocolate colour and the padding is stitched in an attractive design . . . it looks expensive. The wooden feet are a much lighter colour than I was expecting based on the product photo, I don't really like the look but they're okay and aren't super noticeable. I bought these chairs as a temporary seating solution, but I expect to keep at least one of them permanently. For the price and free next-day delivery with Amazon Prime, you can't go wrong.

Quite easy to assemble. I'm a middle aged woman and if I can assemble it in less than half an hour on my own, anyone can. The wooden feet are molded plywood with a thin layer of sprayed wood on top (which was peeling off on one of the feet but I put that one at the back, and another one was scratched) The upholstery feels exactly like what it is - thick plastic. It doesn't sit in the base very well and rocks quite a bit. The screw to hold it in place at any given reclining position isn't very good, it's a large plastic covered knob, maybe if you are very fit, and /or a body builder, you may have the grip and strength to tighten it sufficiently. But given the weight and leverage of a body sitting in the chair, it's hardly surprising that the position still moves. The chair is definitely too low to be used at a regular desk, I'm 5'8" and the edge of the seat touches my upper calves when I stand against it. The chair does not have a pneumatic cylinder so it doesn't sink and spring back when you sit/rise, which is a good thing, other wise you would be at floor level. It is well padded and the supports at the edges of the back are really comfy against the ribs. I wish the arm rests were adjustable as a bit more height would have been nice. It has flame retardant material against cigarettes etc. Looks very smart. Footstool is comfy and the chair is much comfier when using it. This chair is not very big, and has quite a small seat area, so if you are a bit on the weighty side, you may find this a snug fit. All in all, an acceptable chair for the budget conscious, although I personally don't think this is worth the asking price, maybe £80 would be fairer.

I used to like this chair however it is very cheaply made considering the price tag. I weigh a little over 9 stone however after 9 months one of the legs has snapped. The chair has sat in my office and was used for up to 3 hours per day. The footstool still works but I did not pay nearly £140 for a footstool. I have searched the internet trying to find something I can use to fix this i.e. office chair legs however the column connecting the chair to the base is 35mm, too thin for standard office chairs which are 50mm. The only way I would be able to fix this is to create new legs which would take time I'd rather not spend fixing an expensive chair. Also the lack of height control is annoying and the padding isn't firm enough to sit on for extended periods (90 minutes plus) which causes pain in my lower back, this is the only desk chair that has caused this and I am not prone to back pain. £130 mistake.

I bought 2 of these chairs in brown in NOVEMBER 2013 for use in a snug area in my kitchen. They've been in constant use and have had just about everything thrown at them over the last 8 years including grandchildren jumping from one chair to the other. They're so comfortable I've fallen asleep in them many times also they're easily wiped clean with a damp cloth. Just a couple of months ago I flopped down into one chair too hard and unfortunately I broke it! The other chair and both footstools are still OK and in daily use. I would 100% recommend these chairs to anyone. 👍 8 YEAR UPDATE -13/05/2021 Just to add to my review, I'm so pleased with the quality and value of these chairs that I have just today ordered one more! :-) :-) :-) ** One thing to note, these MUST be assembled correctly. If the seats 'wobble' when you first sit on them they have NOT been put together properly and the seat where it is attached to the base needs to be looked at again and adjusted accordingly.**👍

This recliner seemed good value when I bought it a couple of months ago. It seemed reasonably well made for the price and was comfortable. Unfortunately the seat height is not adjustable and is much too low for the average person, you almost feel like you are sitting on the floor. I have had to drill and fit additional feet to the legs to raise the height about 30mm, (see photo). The other problem so far is that the varnishing on the legs is very poor quality and has already started to wear off exposing the white base finish. I was looking for a better quality recliner chair and would have been prepared to pay more if I could have seen one in the flesh. Unfortunately all the local furniture retailers I visited did not stock the type of recliner I was looking for to replace my old Lazi Boy.