chair recommendations?

[ursula]

I need to buy a computer chair. In fact, five minutes with the OSHA website suggests that I need to buy a chair, a desk, a keyboard, a flatscreen monitor, and maybe a mouse substitute, but buying a chair and improvising a footrest seems like the place to start. (I've been using one of the heavy green dining room chairs that alaric gave us years and years ago, and my heels don't touch the ground.) Anyone want to recommend a chair? It should be comfortable for short people, and you get bonus points if it looks like it belongs in a living room rather than a cubicle.

Comments

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I'm not going to be very useful, because for comfort and form I'm going to recommend Aeron, which is outrageously expensive. You can get good ones used, but they're still ridiculous. Also, they're pretty ugly. But this one has saved my ass.

I know there are some companies out there doing similar things now--maybe do a search for Aeron knock-offs? If you find something you like check ebay and craigslist.

These threads aren't astoundingly useful yet, but they have a few ideas:

http://ask.metafilter.com/81309/Office-Chairs-for-Short-Girls#1205559

http://ask.metafilter.com/58113/Help-I-desire-a-700-chair-Is-there-any-hope

You may be able to turn up some prettier suggestions by searching metafilter. I didn't search extensively since I have to scamper off to work.

If you're ever looking for desks, IKEA has the best cheap infinitely height adjustable ones. I got an IKEA jerker on craigslist cheap (they no longer make the jerker, but they make similar things). Again though, it all screams "office."

[ursula]

So is there a local place that will let you sit in insanely expensive office chairs?

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I haven't been shopping for office furniture in Seattle, so aside from knowing where a few office supply stores are, I can't help with specifics. I did some poking around for Seattle options and this is what I came up with:

This place that sells used high-end chairs is in Kent, and they don't list all their inventory online, but they might be worth a look if you can't find what you want in Seattle: http://nwmodular.com/contactus.php

This saga of office-chair hunting claims that Seattle Office Furniture was useful and had a variety of good chairs, and they include a link: http://www.dansanderson.com/blog/archives/2003/08/my_workoncomput.php

A friend of mine, when asked, said:

"mm, the only time I've bought chairs it was through UW Purchasing, who have a contract with a company called Bank and Office Interiorirs (B&OI). I have no idea if they sell retail or not.

i hate to admit it, but when i was picking out chairs at uw i found that the aeron was not only the most comfortable but also cheapest of the options they had. Also they make the aerons in different sizes, so she can get an extra-small one."

(I looked at their website and it looks like they might sell retail, but it'd be a pain in the ass and not worth it to go in and look).

Jerry says that Ducky's has a good variety of chairs to go sit in (they sell used, and they're between Queen Anne and Cap Hill):
http://www.jerrykindall.com/2004/11/09_new_chair.asp

Here's a list of cheaper Aeron-similar chairs (unfortunately not local to Seattle): Aeron Look-alikes Sit4Less "E" Chair, $399 at sit4less.com; Ergonomic eChair, $319 at luxurychair.com; Mesh eChair, $269 at designerseating.com

I think the hardest thing you'll come up against is finding something comfortable for typing and sitting at a computer that doesn't look officey. In poking around just looking at pictures I did find some things that looked less cubicle-like, but the lines were always spoiled by the wheels on the bottom, which it seems that all comfortable desk chairs have these days.

And I hate to suggest this, but you might ask Paul, since he's a comfort/style Nazi and does a lot of shopping. He's likely to recommend expensive stuff, but hell, I'm recommending the Aeron. In fact, I'm surprised he hasn't suggested anything for you yet.

[ursula]

Wow, I can't imagine UW buying me an Aeron. Just getting a whiteboard was epic.

What I really want to do here is fix the ergonomics on my wrists-- this is the second time in a couple of months that I've been noticing tingly feelings in my hand. In a pinch an Office Depot chair & some foot support will probably do the trick.

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess that's overkill for wrist pain! I was thinking back, or something. Then again, you're talking to someone who takes an extra vicodin to sit in a hard chair.

[ursula]

Most of the commenters here seem to be imagining back pain. I guess normal people don't start with the chair when they're dealing with repetitive stress?

Preferentially I work cross-legged with books around me in piles-- there's a reason we often fail to fold the futon up for months at a time-- but that's not so great with computers.

[ursula]

Ducky's also has a cat! It's black with a white blaze on its nose, and it has its very own cubicle.

I took my grandparents' birthday checks and bought the Nightingale LX0, which is office-y but comfortable.

[tejolote.livejournal.com]

Yay! That looks like a good chair indeed.

One of the things I've always loved about Seattle is the prevalence of cats in public life: the cat in a dentist's office downtown, the cat that sleeps in an open safe in the locksmith's shop on Broadway, the cats in the bookstores...

[glasseye.livejournal.com]

I actually bought the table and chairs, but yeah.

I have a usb keyboard floating around that you can use, too.

[ultranurd.livejournal.com]

I have a non-chair chair recommendation: a medicine/pilates ball. You pick one of the diameter roughly appropriate to your leg length, and then inflate (this takes a long time typically) to fit. Since it has no back, and requires active balancing, you literally can't slouch. I don't buy the free core-toning that some claim, but it certainly got rid of my occasional lower back muscle spasms/cramps when I switched both home and work to a matched pair of balls.

Note that there are some products that put the ball inside some kind of frame so it stays upright, but in my opinion that defeats the purpose.

[ultranurd.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the best part: a basic medicine ball is like $30. And they're rolly, comfy, and you can bounce along to music :o).

[ursula]

But my cats would be sad!

[ultranurd.livejournal.com]

I think I'm missing some context here. You do still have a lap when sitting on the ball. I personally think it would be funny to watch a cat try and curl up on one :oD.

[ursula]

Our cat Martin will jump off your lap if you tense your legs-- for instance, if you're playing a game and reacting to attacks-- so constant balance maintenance would probably be too much for him.

[nobu.livejournal.com]

here are some fun but completely unhelpful suggestions.

http://www.geekologie.com/2007/06/meltdown_chair.php
that one is just cool. but probably not the best thing every for computer use.

http://www.funforever.net/wp-content/nobody_and_co_bibliochaise2.jpg
i have wet dreams about this chair. only i build it right into built in shelving as well and mod it for a swing around/fold out keyboard or laptop tray.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2005/12/nethrone_for_th.html
ok, in my wet dreams i've cheated on the previous chair and mattcu with this chair/awesomeness combo. sighz.

[viking-food-guy.livejournal.com]

The most comfortable work chair I've used (and am sitting on now) is a Herman Miller Mirra. Super comfy, highly adjustable, but insanely expensive. For many years before this I used a big rubber ball, or one of the smaller rubber balls on a frame that had a back rest and casters on the bottom. That's the second comfiest.

[ursula]

Thanks! The rubber balls sound entertaining, but I kind of like my current desk, even if it wasn't built for short typists.

BALLS OVAR ALLZ!!!1!111!1

[llamaontheloose.livejournal.com]

Avoid big-box office supply stores at all costs--the vast majority (if not all) of their chairs are total shit, ergonomically speaking. Same goes for IKEA, Target, etc.

When I was shopping for a chair in college, I picked a handful of well-known manufacturers (Steelcase, Herman Miller, etc), priced out their used goods on eBay and Craigslist, then went to their dealers to try out the same models news. (You can find dealers through the manufacturers' websites.) After waiting a month or so for a good deal to emerge, I wound up nabbing a Steelcase Criterion for about eighty bucks total, which was, in fact, a wicked deal. I was pretty pleased with the chair, but I find that these days, I don't use it very often.

My employer recently bought a bunch of brand new fancy-pants office chairs, and though I can't remember what they're called, I could definitely find out--as chairs go, they're pretty nice. THAT BEING SAID, I and a number of my coworkers eschew chairs entirely, preferring exercise balls. There are also fancy-pants "exercise ball chairs" for which you can pay through the nose, but paying extra for one of those is like paying extra to have a new pair of pants "enhanced" with horse guano and fire: a completely dumb idea.

You can pick up a totally decent exercise ball at Whole Foods for something in the neighborhood of $25. Prana's a very common brand, and I've been sitting on one of their balls for something like a year now with nary a problem. You can probably also find them at Yogalife or Target or Joe's Sports. If you go to Yogalife when a class is not in session, I'll bet they'd let you try sitting on an inflated ball to figure out which size is right for you--you want your knees to be bent around a 90 degree angle or so, maybe a little wider.

You'll feel a little unstable during your first couple of days on the ball, but after that initial period of neuromuscular adaptation, you'll think nothing of it at all. (It's kind of like getting your "sea ass," where the sea is a sphere of stretchy polymer.)

Re: BALLS OVAR ALLZ!!!1!111!1

[ursula]

Note that I already have 2 perfectly nice albeit pre-computer-age desks, so I'd rather get an adjustable chair & figure out how to work with a desk that's too tall than get the exercise ball of the gods and still have to buy a desk.

Re: BALLS OVAR ALLZ!!!1!111!1

[llamaontheloose.livejournal.com]

Well, you could try an exercise ball that's bigger than normal, but if the desk's too tall, then what you really need is a stool-chair--one with an attached footrest. If you're sitting too low to the desk, you'll hurt your wrists, but if your feet are dangling above the floor, then your legs will fall asleep.

Ever considered a keyboard tray? Though they range from flimsy cheap to insanely expensive, you can probably nab one on craigslist that would work for at least a trial...

Re: BALLS OVAR ALLZ!!!1!111!1

[ursula]

Yeah, my wrists (or technically my right index finger) don't love me so much this week (so of course I had to ask the internet about it).

[llamaontheloose.livejournal.com]

Here are seven Criterion chairs for $10. They're in Illinois right now, but maybe you could ask Barack Obama to bring them over for you when he comes to Queen Anne tomorrow.

http://cgi.ebay.com/7-Steelcase-Office-Chairs_W0QQitemZ270209913099QQihZ017QQcategoryZ61675QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem