Armchairs

A butaca is not a poltrona:

and neither one is a recliner, though a shop tag may call all three armchairs. The butaca is the light one, narrow and upright on four bare legs, made for a bedroom corner. The poltrona is wider, deeper and upholstered all over, and it is usually bought in pairs to face a sofa across the coffee table, so it has to sit well with whatever is already in sofas. The reclinable is built around a mechanism, with a footrest that swings up and a back that drops, and it belongs in the TV room more than the sala. Swivel rocker-recliners add a base that turns and rocks, and the folding wood-and-leather mecedora is filed here too. For a seat that adjusts to a desk, look at office chairs instead.

Lever, push-back or power on a recliner:

decides how the chair is used and where it can stand. A lever recliner kicks the footrest up first and lets the back go after; it is the simplest kind and the easiest to fix. A push-back has no handle: you lean into the backrest and the footrest rises, which looks cleaner but takes some body weight, so it suits a solid adult better than a slight grandparent. A power recliner moves from a button, stops at any angle and needs a socket close by. Measure behind the spot before you buy: an ordinary recliner needs a clear gap from the wall to open fully, while a wall-hugger slides forward as it reclines. With poltronas and butacas, the choice is seat height and depth. A low, deep poltrona is for lounging; anyone who finds it hard to get up is better off with a firmer, higher seat and arms to push on.

What a poltrona or a recliner is worth once it leaves the shop:

a butaca or poltrona from a Costa Rican furniture store runs roughly ₡90,000 to ₡180,000 new, and a single recliner ₡140,000 to ₡230,000. They lose value for different reasons. A poltrona has nothing in it to break, so a clean one in a neutral fabric holds its price well, and a matched pair is worth noticeably more than one chair alone, because buyers want them facing each other. A recliner’s value rides on the mechanism: one that opens and closes cleanly sells, and one that sticks halfway is priced as a repair job, however good the cover looks.

The footrest and scissor arms on a pre-owned recliner:

open it fully and close it three or four times. The footrest should rise level and fold back flush with the front; a sagging corner or a gap that will not close points to a bent link in the scissor arms underneath. Tip it forward and look for rust, missing bolts and fabric caught in the joints. Lean back at each stop and check the backrest holds rather than creeping. On a power model, a motor that hums without moving is a failed actuator. With a butaca or poltrona, grab an arm and rock it sideways, because the legs are usually screwed in and the threads strip, and look at the side that faced a window, where fabric fades and goes brittle first.

A butaca, poltrona or recliner described the way buyers search:

starts with the right word in the title next to sillón, so it shows up for both searches. Give width, depth and height, and for a recliner the depth fully open, since that decides whether it fits the room. Say which mechanism it has and whether all of it works, photograph it closed, reclined and from underneath, and say if it is one of a pair. Plenty of recliners come up because they were bought for one person, a parent who has since moved in with family, and an honest account of how much it was used goes further than the word excellent. Someone driving from Guápiles to collect in Escazú will ask whether it goes in a car: a butaca with its legs unscrewed fits a hatchback, and a recliner usually wants a pickup.