5 Best Office Chairs to Upgrade Your WFH Space

Chairs come in a wide variety of designs, styles, and sizes. Choose a chair that allows for smooth movement and is simple to maneuver.

The chair’s height may be adjusted to fit your height and comfort. If your home office is small, choose a chair that can be tucked under the desk to allow for enough circulation.

IMAGE SOURCE: Unsplash

There are several poor chairs on the market that might cause injury if used for lengthy periods. Dining chairs and deck chairs, for example, are rarely at the right height and do not usually promote the required upright posture.

If you can afford it, invest in a professional office chair like the Aeron, which allows you to customize the fit to your body and environment. However, such normally cost $600 or more; there are other far less expensive office chairs — between $150 and $250 — that will suffice. If at all possible, try them on in person because you can’t tell if they’ll fit from a photo on a website.

Make sure it’s adjustable in height, rolling, and has lumbar support for your lower back. It should also have adjustable seat pan tilt, arm height, and lateral arm position. It is ideal to utilize an armrest, but only if you use it correctly: That is, your forearm should rest gently on the armrest, with no pressure exerted by your arm on the armrest. The armrests’ main purpose is to remind you to keep your arm in the right posture, not to support its weight as a seat does for your buttocks.

The most important piece of furniture in your office, after your desk, is your chair, especially if you sit in it for lengthy periods of work.

Unfortunately, finding a good office chair is similar to finding a good mattress—there are so many alternatives, at so many price ranges, and no one size fits all.

Furthermore, manufacturers may slap the “ergonomic” word on any product they choose, even office chairs, so don’t rely only on that promise.

What to look for in an ergonomic office chair is as follows:

• Lumbar support: The back of the chair should match the natural curve of your lower back to support your lower spine.
• Seat depth: Fitted chairs allow you to sit comfortably with your lower back against the lumbar support and an inch or two between the back of your knees and the seat. As a rule of thumb, make sure you have three or four fingers’ width between your legs and the seat’s edge while seated.
• Chair height: Your chair’s height should be adjustable so that your feet are flat on the floor or a footrest.
• Armrests: Armrests should be at a comfortable height so that your shoulders aren’t hunched and your arms are parallel to the ground.
• Recline-ability: Sitting at a 135-degree angle in your chair may be healthier for your spine than sitting straight up at a 90-degree angle.
• Material: This is purely a matter of personal choice, although some people tend a mesh chair because they feel overheated in other types of chairs. You also want a chair’s material to be long-lasting; foam seats on low-cost chairs tend to wear out rapidly.

The more adjustable these places are, the more likely the chair will fit you well and keep you comfortable throughout the day. You can adjust the lumbar support stiffness and position, as well as the seat depth, in high-end chairs.

What Are the Dimensions of Cubicles? What are the most typical cubicle sizes?

Let’s start with the Work From Home (WFH) office’s standard cubicle size. Cubicles may be somewhat perplexing! Steelcase, Herman Miller, Knoll, Haworth, Allsteel, and Hon, for example, all have their components and height requirements.

When it comes to cubicles, the sizes are provided in feet and based on the cubicles’ floor print. The most typical panel widths are 2′, 3′, and 4′.

The biggest single panel you’ll see is 5′. With this in mind, you could build a 6′ x 6′ with two 3′ panels or one 4′ panel and one 2′ panel. To help you visualize the various sizes, here is a graphic.

Cubicle sizes have shrunk and become shorter in recent years. There were more requests for 4′ x 2′ cubicles and fewer requests for 8′ × 8′ cubicles. We expect this to alter as an impact of Covid-19, with a return to larger, taller cubicles.

There has been pushback on the negative impact of open office spaces on employee productivity and office distractions, and now the necessity for social separation might be the last nail in the COVID design’s coffin.

It is our responsibility to keep current with office design trends. We can help you if you require a standard Cubicle size.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Colors: Black, white, gray
• Material: Fabric
• Seat width: 20 inches
• Occupant size: 5’2″ – 6’2″
• Weight Limit: 300 pounds
• Size: 25 x 24 x 38-42 inches

REASONS TO BUY

• Numerous adjustment points
• Reasonably affordable
• Attractive design

REASONS TO AVOID

• Seat a bit firmer than Herman Miller Aeron. While the Branch Ergonomic Chair is sleeker than most other office chairs, it isn’t overly flamboyant, which may be a good thing. We quickly forgot about this $300 office chair once we were seated in it while working from home. But isn’t that what a good office chair is for?
• The Branch Ergonomic Chair offers seven easy-to-adjust adjustment points (armrest height and width, as well as how far forward you want them, seat height, backrest angle, and seat position relative to the backrest). One criticism we have is that the cushioned seat was not as pleasant as the mesh seats.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Colors: carbon, graphite, mineral
• Material: 8Z pellicle elastomeric and aluminum
• Seat width: 18.5 inches (large), 16.5 inches (medium), 16 inches (small)
• Weight Limit: 350 pounds

REASONS TO BUY

• Very comfortable when sitting for long periods
• Fully adjustable
• Long 12-year warranty

REASONS TO AVOID

• One of the most expensive office chairs. The Herman Miller Aeron chair may be synonymous with dot-com luxury, but for good reason: it’s incredibly comfy.
• This top-tier chair lets you adjust everything, including the tension of eight fabric zones (including the important lumbar support) and the tilt and angle of the armrests. It also allows you to work in two different profiles: one for leaning forward and another for leaning back and reclining.
• It’s somewhat unsurprising that all of this comes at a price, with prices starting at over $1,000. You only have one butt, so if you’re going to be working from home for a long time, it’s worth investing in a pleasant location for your rear to rest. Our recommendation is to look for it on sale at offices that are liquidating inventory.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Colors: barley, black, blue, gray, marble, and red
• Material: microfiber and aluminum
• Seat width: 20.4 inches
• Weight Limit: 400 pounds

REASONS TO BUY

• Live back technology adjusts as you move
• Armrests can be moved in multiple directions

REASONS TO AVOID

• Less breathable than Herman Miller Aeron. If you have back discomfort, you’ll want a chair that adapts to your needs. While many chairs may be customized to meet your needs, the Steelcase Leap Chair takes an alternative approach: it shifts while you sit on it.

As you adjust your position, the backbends, the lumbar support shifts, and the entire chair tilt; you set these by utilizing three controls that allow you to customize how the chair is configured for your spine, lumbar area, and posture.

This chair is ideal for people who have chronic back or spinal problems, since altering these controls may make a chair a lot more pleasant.

While the Leap has a more classic office chair look than the Herman Miller Aeron, we appreciated the Leap’s firmer back support. The Leap is also available in a variety of colors.

The Steelcase Leap Chair isn’t cheap, either; it’s one of the most costly chairs we looked at, costing roughly $1,000. If you use it frequently and want something that can be modified to suit your mood, that may be a good purchase.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Colors: Black
• Material: Fabric and aluminum
• Seat width: 20 inches
• Weight Limit: 250 pounds

REASONS TO BUY

• Adjustable arms and height
• Lumbar support
• Mesh back keeps cool

REASONS TO AVOID

• A little boring to look at.
• Seat somewhat hard.
• The Hon Exposure is the Honda Civic of office chairs: it’s sturdy, inexpensive, and functional, but it’s not very flashy. The Hon Exposure, which costs roughly $200, features adjustable arms and height, as well as lumbar support that can be moved in and out to give lower back support.
• The Hon Exposure was comfortable, but a little stiffer than the Branch Ergonomic Chair, which had a little more style but was also around $90 more expensive. Overall, the Hon Exposure is a wrong choice, but there are more intriguing options available.

SPECIFICATIONS

• Colors: Black, gray, purple, red, white
• Material: Nylon and aluminum
• Seat width: 20 inches
• Weight Limit: 265 pounds

REASONS TO BUY

• Inexpensive
• Breathable mesh back
• Lumbar support

REASONS TO AVOID

• Narrow seat
• Non Adjustable arms

The Furmax might be a good alternative if you don’t want to spend your whole stimulus check on a chair but yet want a comfy seat for your back.

It includes a deep, cushioned seat and a mesh back with lumbar support, so your back doesn’t become overheated while still getting the support it requires. The seat height may be modified from 19 inches to around 24 inches, according to online consumers.

The Furmax is supported by five casters, allowing you to move it around your home office. The slope and overall height of this chair may both be adjusted, however, the armrests are not.

However, you can’t have everything at this price. This chair, on the other hand, comes in a variety of colors: There’s black, but it’s also available in grey, purple, red, and white.

There are many inexpensive office chairs available, but which one is the finest under $100? I compared the Furmax to another top-rated mesh-back chair with lumbar support on Amazon, the Best Office chair. In terms of comfort, the Furmax came out on top.

So there you have it, the 5 best office chairs to upgrade your work from home space! Need help designing a home office with new, ergonomic furniture? Check out our Virtual Design services HERE!