So Cyber Monday I found a deal for a Steelcase Series 1 chair. It took over a week to arrive, but honestly that still is pretty impressive to me to get furniture shipped that fast. I try not to let Amazon’s ludicrous delivery expectations to cloud my mind with unreasonable expectations of everyone else. Plaid speed isn’t actually healthy expectations.
And it has now been…. a little more than 2 months? And I am still happy. The seat of the chair is neither too soft nor too hard. The back has decent support.
I have 2 complaints. The first is the arms. They wiggle. It’s supposed to be a feature “4-way adjustable arm rest” – it’s kind of annoying. I want to lock it in place. It isn’t a feature I need. Or understand. I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be solving and all it does is distract me all day as I adjust and re-adjust.
The other is something I might be able to fix which is the height. My standing desk only goes down to 74 centimeters. This is basically 30 inches, but the bottom of my desk sits at 33″ off the floor. What does this have to do with my chair? My chair maxes out at 21″ tall. So to get my wrists ergonomic (you know that whole “keep your elbows at 90°”) I have to sit on several pillows.
My chair is not tall enough. Now, if you look at standard chairs, 21″ is very normal. This really is a complaint with my desk, since it’s just “too tall” for me when I’m sitting down. My feet are in near-perfect position (again according to ergonomics) at 21″, but my hands aren’t.
And I’ve looked at under-desk keyboard trays. I’m not excited. In my experience, keyboard trays wibble and wobble and that will drive me a bit batty.
But at least (so far) the chair is comfortable and my back isn’t hurting. I can sit cross-legged when I want. I may end up doing the same level of work to find a worthy under-desk tray. Watch me get my work-from-home setup perfect and find myself with a job where I go to the office all the time… that would be my luck.
Dream by Day 