Life: Chair Woes

I have been working from home pretty regularly since 2018. During the pandemic, like many other white-collar professionals, I became 100% work-from-home (WFH). I have since moved to “only required one day a week, but I usually go into the office 2 days.” I’ve found it’s actually good for my mental health to get out of the house regularly.

However, the days I work from home…. I have a chair. My last chair was worse, it literally began sinking in the front so I always felt like I was sliding off. There was probably a 15-20° slope. It got bad.

So we “upgraded” me to a ~$500 “gaming” chair. You know, the kind of chair designed to be sat in for 8 hour gaming sessions or something. It isn’t much better than the “office” chair I had before.

So I’ve been looking online and reading reviews. I’ve even watched someone on YouTube talk about a chair. And I’m frustrated.

You see, I kind of hate arms on a chair. I like to sit cross legged and armrests get in the way. I never use them to rest my arms. In my world, they are in the way. And….. most chairs require you to attach the arm rests. They exist.

I have a standing desk, and it’s minimum height means I sit with my chair at 20″ – and it still feels a touch low. And of course unless you go for like a drafting chair, most chairs max at about 20-21″ tall. So… FML.

My home office has carpet. Not super thick, but more shaggy than those might-as-well-not-be-carpet squares they install in offices. Wheels on carpet suck. Those plastic things you can put under the chair – SUCK. They crack, they fail. They HURT on bare feet when they do. ARG. We re-carpeted the upstairs before we moved in in 2016 – 2 years before I had ever been able to even begin working from home. If I knew then what I know now, my office would have had wooden/fakewood/solid floor. I didn’t know and I won’t say sorry for making what was the best choice at the time I made it. Do you know how obnoxious it is to find a chair without wheels these days? UGH.

All of this post to say that I don’t love my office chair and I have been excessively frustrated finding an alterative. The dining/lounge area of the main office for my company (not the office I report to) has these great chairs. One day I needed to take my laptop over to the IT team there and so I had to wait, and then I only had like an hour before I could go home, so I worked in the lounge. I almost turned over the chair to see if I could find a brand and next time I’m there I think I will. I sat in that chair ~3 hours (IT took forever installing on my pc).

It was NOT an office chair. It was an “accent” chair (which covers way too may styles). It was a bit taller than normal. It was comfortable.

So right now I think I’m hunting for something like the below. The hardest part is the anxiety of buying online (buy without trying?!?!). I like legs which I can add risers to. I like no-arms. I want comfy, cushy seat. I don’t want white, but this was the first picture similar to what I want on Google Images.