Yeah, you are NTA. Your husband got this chair from the side of the road in the first place, and did not bother to ever clean it or protect it from beer spills or whatever, but now you’re supposed to put it in the living room and embrace it like it is some sort of special thing, just because he’s never bothered to replace it? Nope.

However, I have no idea why you ever tried to incorporate it in your living room in the first place. That is the sort of thing that goes in the rec room, den, or his own man cave. Instead of getting rid of it, why didn’t you just put it in the basement or back room? (Or return it to it’s origins, and put it out by the side of the road.)

Also, it doesn’t sound like your husband is the one making a big deal about this — you decided all on your own to make it an issue because of his facial expression. Isn’t your husband competent enough to speak up about what’s important to him? Do you always make presumptions about ways he needs to be coddled? That’s not really respectful of him as an autonomous adult.

It was a smelly old recliner. You replaced it with something new, and specifically chose a chair you thought would be nicer for him. Just because he didn’t clap his hands and squeal with glee when he saw the new chair doesn’t mean you did something wrong. He feels some kind of way about the change — that’s a common human reaction, and is not the same as him having some significant emotional attachment to a smelly old roadside recliner, as some people here are suggesting. Stop worrying, and instead encourage him to enjoy his nice, clean new comfy chair.