What are some stylish and comfortable home office chairs?

March 28, 2020 6:18 AM

Like many others, I've been working from home full time now and trying to create a comfortable and productive work space. I realized that sitting on a cheap wal-mart dining room chair is probably not helping. I'm looking for something super comfortable that I will enjoy sitting in, supportive for lower back pain, goes well with a black desk, and is somewhat cute/stylish. I liked the look of this chair. Looking for your recommendations! Thanks!
posted by koolaidnovel to Work & Money (13 answers total)

As far as I’m concerned the only possible answer to your question is to get an Aeron Chair. Me, my back, and my somewhat tasteful eye for decor have relied on them for two decades.

Pricey, but worth it.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 6:32 AM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Not fashionable but this one is around $120 at Costco and works great for long work hours. If you're going to spend any time in the chair in a non-arctic environment then mesh seat's are highly recommended. I also generally flip the arms up as they don't go low enough to suit me.

Bayside Chair
posted by Awfki at 6:35 AM on March 28, 2020

Agree re: Aeron. I bought one used, 5+ years ago, and it’s one of the best $350 I’ve ever spent. My girlfriend and I are sheltering-in-place together and working from home, and take turns using it. If it were feasible to buy another used one right now, I definitely would (but hopefully business liquidation/surplus stores are not an essential business where I am). I understand that buying one new is probably a hardship-level expense, but if you can stretch your budget you will have no regrets.
posted by Alterscape at 6:47 AM on March 28, 2020

I bought this chair when I started working from home almost two years ago. It's very comfortable and I think the white would look sharp with a black desk!
posted by Sweetie Darling at 6:49 AM on March 28, 2020

As a counterpoint, I find the Aeron chairs horribly uncomfortable, and at the last office where I was given one I lasted about two days and then went into the break room and got a folding chair from one of the tables and used that instead. The hard plastic edges on the Aeron chairs cut into the backs of my legs, and I just don't feel like the mesh seat gives me any support. I know this is the iconic chair that everyone loves and wants, but.. no. Not for me.

When it was time for a new chair for my home office, I went with the budget pick from the Wirecutter, the Hon Exposure. At the job where I refused the Aeron chair they bought me a Hon 24 Hour Task Chair (similar to this one), and it was the best chair I've ever had.
posted by ralan at 7:04 AM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I have a garbage back and I got that Bayside chair above at Costco and love it. I have two part time office bookkeeping jobs and made each of my bosses get me one. If you have hardwood floors, get rollerblade wheels to replace the ones that come on the chair. They have them on amazon and eBay. Apparently the wheels are all the same size unless they are ikea chairs. They have a thinner stem.
posted by artychoke at 8:13 AM on March 28, 2020

Best answer: That Aeron chair does have a hate club so I suspect it depends a little on the individual and I would be afraid to drop $1300 on one without a long test drive. My back doesn't like chairs for long periods and I suspect it is less the chair than just the nature of sitting so I have a standing setup, a sitting set up, and a reclining set up and move between them as different parts of my body begin to hurt or lose sensation. For sitting I use any old office chair and adjust the height every once in a while for change, standing is standing and the only thing is I have to remember to wiggle or move about and not just become motionless. The recline position is an IKEA Poang chair and ottoman. I have a monitor arm screwed to the wall and a little platform for a mouse attached to the arm of the chair, the recline is the least painful of them all.

I did a brief stint in a tax office and the chair there was pretty good, I don't know what make or model but the most distinctive feature wasn't any kind of adjustment but rather that the seat cushion was very thick and made of a very dense, possibly slightly viscoelastic (aka memory or astronaut) foam.
posted by Pembquist at 9:39 AM on March 28, 2020

Yeah, I was able to get my Aeron at the price my works gets them for (~600), and it’s so good that not only would pay full price (~$1200) for my model, I’d probably pay 3x-4x for it as well. I’ve put 40+ hours a week for a year into this thing with literally zero comfort issues. I’m sure I could just spend 100% of my waking hours sitting it without getting a sore anything.
posted by sideshow at 10:57 AM on March 28, 2020

What's your budget? How important is style, really? I'm one of the Aeron haters around here, and I mentioned a few comfortable and more or less stylish chairs in this comment just a month ago. Humanscale and Haworth both seem to get extra style points (Humanscale from retail placement at "upscale" places like Design Within Reach, if that still exists, and Haworth from placement on TV shows), but I don't think anything I listed is going to come in under $750 or so new. Most of them will be significantly more expensive than that.
posted by fedward at 11:03 AM on March 28, 2020

Another vote for that Bayside chair from Costco ... I got one a couple of weeks ago and it has made a 1000% difference in my long computer days!!
posted by mccxxiii at 2:12 PM on March 28, 2020

Steelcase. Aeron hurts my back!
posted by oceanjesse at 7:02 AM on March 29, 2020

Best answer: I think it really depends on your body and how you sit. For example, my arm proportions are off, with my elbows being basically at the top of my thighs when seated, so standard ergonomics are not great for me. Most standard office chairs have arms that cannot go low enough to not cause pain around my shoulder blades. So, my biggest piece of advice is to really think about your body and look at the measurements for the size of seats, where the arms hit, depth of seat, etc. Adjustable options are helpful, but only to the extent that they can adjust.

A few years ago, I bought this chair, which is similar to the one you linked to in your question. It was reasonably priced and looks fine in a normal room. I don't expect to be giving this chair away in my will (for example, after a few years I can already see the cushioning on the seat has shifted a bit under the upholstery). But it is comfortable and I can sit like a gargoyle in it, which is what I wanted.
posted by past unusual at 10:46 AM on March 29, 2020

I just ordered a Steelcase Amica, which gives a lot of the same features as their more expensive Gesture and Leap chairs, about a week and a half ago.

They produce out of Michigan and are locked down so they can't ship currently (or it is very slow). It will likely be another month/month and a half to wait to get them.

I also had my eye on that Hon exposure chair but since it was going to a month shipped from Amazon anyway, I just went with the Steelcase.
posted by gregjunior at 12:09 PM on March 31, 2020