If you or someone you know is pregnant, you may already know that to glide or not to glide is one of the many baby-preparation decisions a mom-to-be will have to make. While often very comfortable, glider chairs are rarely appealing to non-pregnant folk. As if beamed from a slightly askew, Star Trek-designed parallel country-home universe, gliders generally look like granny's rocking chair: wood frame, upholstered cushions attached, and genetically-altered silently-swaying mechanism and platform -- where the old-fashioned curved rails used to go -- underneath.

Optional features include swivel, to turn the chair when getting in and out or to reach for the remote while seated, and recline, for when the baby, or you, fall(s) asleep from the gentle wave-like motion.

The thing about gliders is that most people don't buy one except when they are visualizing nursing a baby in one.

Unless this is you, you probably aren't aware that they are pretty darned comfortable pieces of furniture, even for the childless, and that the best darn place to buy a glider chair is located right here, in the greater Bay Area.

First of all, you should know that the go-to company for such an item is French Canadian manufacturer Dutailier. We know this because we've been shopping for one.

In fact, we've shopped at Rockridge Kids, Baby World, Lullaby Lane, and Target. All carry said manufacturer, with floor samples available in various numbers. At Rockridge Kids or Baby World you can test-glide about six models, at Target (in Albany) you can LOOK at one, bolted to a shelf four feet off the floor (though many more models are available online). At Lullaby Lane, you can sample many many models, but the chairs are placed back-to-back, which makes gliding difficult, especially if many people are trying the chairs at once, and on our visit, sales assistance was spotty.

For us, the best experience, hands down, is Rocking Chairs 100% in San Rafael.

The showroom floor hosts two circles of Dutailier gliders (with gliding ottomans). One circle is comprised of the wood-frame models, which come in a variety of styles from most farmhouse to most craftsman, and a range of cushion styles and fabrics. In our opinion, the two most comfy here are the roomy "Grande," a.k.a. model number 911, and the 978, a more compact version that features a special cushion with ergonomic foam core wrapped in something or other to make it feel like down.

We were all set to pull the trigger on the Grande in a lovely, soft 100% cotton sage green upholstery, when we were inexplicably drawn to the OTHER circle.

Speaking of Star Trek, these chairs, all in either leather or microfiber materials, would look perfectly appropriate on the deck of the Enterprise, or/and in a swinging 70s retro-futuristic bachelor pad.

Aside from losing the granny-style, this circle of chairs benefits from three additional features: A) The ottomans slope down, supporting the ankles and calves, for a more ergonomic gliding experience; B) The seats and backs are more padded than the wood frame ones, with increased lumbar support; and C) The most expensive models feature a nitrogen something-or-other lever which makes reclining much easier than the manual twist-knob mechanism on the rest of the chairs.

(Additionally, Rocking Chairs 100% carries upholstered "normal" armchair-style models, for those who would like to hide their glider affiliation altogether. For us, those chairs were too small, or not padded quite the way we liked, to be worth long consideration.)

You could certainly learn all of these details from the manufacturer's website, or from a helpful salesperson at any of the above-mentioned shops. The thing about Rocking Chairs 100% is that the salespeople are so helpful and well-informed, the atmosphere so friendly, the test-drive selection so wide. Plus you can view many of the fabrics in whole -- on the cushions -- rather than only in tiny swatches.

And they just don't mind if you come in and test-rock all day. In fact, they'll sit in the circles and test-rock with you, for ages, in case you have any questions.

We started rocking at 11 a.m., took a break for lunch at nearby Il Davide (traditional, Italian), and continued rocking, debating, choosing fabrics, until we'd made our purchase at 3 p.m.

Other store pluses: They carry many models and fabric options in stock to take home that day, and if you have to special order (as we did), they'll offer you a free loaner of a comparable chair from the floor models until yours arrives. At which time you have 60 days to return, if not pleased with your decision.

We expect to be happy with ours, as does our husband, who thought we were getting a frou-frou nursing glider and now happily anticipates the arrival of our dreamily suped-up leather recliner.

Rocking Chairs 100%
850 Fourth Street, San Rafael
(415) 456-6677
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed Friday and Sunday

Image sources: dutailier.com and rocking-chairs.com