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

[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...