What makes a good office chair?

This is not as easy as it sounds to answer as there are many variables to take into account such as how long will the chair be used for each day, the size of the user, the size of the room and many other questions.

The quality of the chair is a good place to start.

If the chair is really cheap then there’s a good chance it won’t be good quality and will not last long.

If you’re spending £39 on a ‘leather’ office chair from a large store you get what you pay for.

A decent office chair should have a good amount of padding and it should be good quality padding. Push your fist down on the seat and you should not be able to feel the bolts etc.

The front edge of the seat should have a shaped or ‘waterfall’ front edge. A seat with a straight front will cut off circulation. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to slide your fingers between the inside of legs and the front edge of the seat.

On a higher quality chair the seat may have an individual tilt function and/or seat slide. These are useful for finding that comfortable seating position.

The back of the chair is also very important. The back should be shaped to compliment the natural posture of your spine and should offer good support.

The back should be adjustable for tilt and ideally should be adjustable for height to accommodate different users.

The shape of the back will promote good posture.

The chair should of course be height adjustable to accommodate different users.

Posture and how you use your chair is another issue. I have covered this briefly in another post here; http://theofficechairshop.blogspot.com/2011/11/posture-chair-whats-that-all-about.html

The width of the chair should be adequate for you. More generous sized chairs are available if you have a larger frame so don’t squeeze into a chair that is too small.

Many better quality chairs have adjustable arms. Height adjustment is common and many have width adjustment and more to help find a good position.

If you are spending long periods in your chair then an executive type chair is not a great chaice as they tend to have very limited adjustability.

You are better off looking at task type chairs with lots of adjustment built in as we have mentioned above.

We have a wide range of office chairs at www.theofficechairshop.co.uk. We welcome the opportunity to talk to our customers so please feel free to call us and discuss any questions you may have.