| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Recommend office chairs in UK Thread poster: Paul Harrison MITI
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Lisa Simpson, MCIL MITI wrote:
FWIW, mine was the "Ergo Mesh Chair" - you're right, the website's down.
I'll keep an eye out for it
| | | | | Thanks for your input | Apr 25, 2014 |
texjax DDS PhD wrote:
I've been actively looking for options for a while. I tried different types of chairs and so far the Aeron seems the most comfortable to me.
I'm in the same situation as you: just moved so upgrading my office including my computer (which is another expense, for another thread).
I'm coming round to your way of thinking on the price. Even based on a conservative estimate of hours worked, and lasting only a year, it comes in at 47p an hour for a superlative seating experience. It's really just the initial layout that puts me off.
texjax DDS PhD wrote:
Ciao!
Thanks for your input. I'll report back after I've tried a few seats.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| I have one of these.. | Apr 25, 2014 |
Slightly over your budget, but a first-class working chair is worth investing in.
The Maui chair is delightfully elegant and very functional- fully adjustable- designed by the great Vico Magistretti, not only to be beautiful but also as a serious working tool. In the UK you can order it... See more Slightly over your budget, but a first-class working chair is worth investing in.
The Maui chair is delightfully elegant and very functional- fully adjustable- designed by the great Vico Magistretti, not only to be beautiful but also as a serious working tool. In the UK you can order it from here:
http://www.awhiteroom.com/kartell/kartell-maui-swivel-chair-adjustable-height-arms.asp
Get the swivel version with arm-rests, pump, and (of course) wheels. I'm sitting on it now! Comes in various attractive colours.
This is a great sit-up-straight, adjust to the correct height, and focus-on-work office chair. But when you're not working and just looking at the chair, the intelligence and aesthetics that have gone into its design (rethinking afresh all the clichés about the components of a simple work chair) will constantly charm you.
Although Maui is designed to be comfortable without a cushion, I sometimes also put a cushion on mine, because there are times when I work constantly, day and night, for 2 weeks or more !
I've been through 4 work chairs in the past 10 years and destroyed them all. If you work intensively as I (we!) do, you can't expect any chair to last too long. But this one is going strong.
The ones I hated the most, and which failed soonest, were the big, leather, "Look at me, I'm a big time tycoon" monumental throne-sized chairs that took up half of the room, with high backs and fancy mechanisms that always broke down.
P.S. and as Texjax says, this is a business expense so you can write it off your taxable income.
http://www.vicomagistretti.it/en/
[Edited at 2014-04-25 19:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Get two different ones | Apr 25, 2014 |
Paul, I have a kneeling chair you mention, and it's not the kind of thing you'd want to spend your entire day on, but a very nice alternative when you are tired of sitting in your "main" chair, so I'd definitely recommend to have one. I got mine for next to nothing on a flea market.
As to a "conventional" office chair, my checklist when looking for one was:
- mesh fabric rather than leather or regular fabric, it provides good ventilation and it's fairly cat-proof
- adjus... See more Paul, I have a kneeling chair you mention, and it's not the kind of thing you'd want to spend your entire day on, but a very nice alternative when you are tired of sitting in your "main" chair, so I'd definitely recommend to have one. I got mine for next to nothing on a flea market.
As to a "conventional" office chair, my checklist when looking for one was:
- mesh fabric rather than leather or regular fabric, it provides good ventilation and it's fairly cat-proof
- adjustable back
- wide enough to sit cross-legged
- armrest height adjustable independently of seat height, and with a sufficient range to set them at the desk level at any seat position you may use
Of the precious few models that met all these requirements, by far the best deal was at Tesco.
[Edited at 2014-04-25 23:44 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| The saga continues... | Apr 28, 2014 |
Tom in London wrote:
Slightly over your budget, but a first-class working chair is worth investing in.
It's ok. I have accepted the idea that money is no object when it comes to my buttocks, and that the cost over time is minimal (and tax deductible).
Tom in London wrote:
This is a great sit-up-straight...
It does look nice very nice, and I appreciate the comfortable get-on-with-it construction that you describe, especially having sat in some chairs with enough levers and knobs to be labelled contraptions. The simplicity was actually what I liked about the £20 Ikea chairs: you know that it serves its purpose without trying to do any more than offer a surface for sitting on, so you can't complain when you get a sore bum!
I think we keep the same hours, so it's good to have an idea of how many chairs you go through.
I'm going to see if I can find a stockist in Edinburgh, although even if I can't you've opened my eyes to the designer chair options out there.
Anton Konashenok wrote:
Paul, I have a kneeling chair you mention, and it's not the kind of thing you'd want to spend your entire day on, but a very nice alternative when you are tired of sitting in your "main" chair, so I'd definitely recommend to have one. I got mine for next to nothing on a flea market.
This is good to know, thanks, Anton. If it's not the sort of chair you can spend a whole day (or two weeks day and night) in, then I think I'll pass on it, especially as it's on sale for £150 in the shop around the corner. I'll maybe just get a Swiss ball to sit on when I fancy a change.
Anton Konashenok wrote:
As to a "conventional" office chair, my checklist when looking for one was:
- mesh fabric rather than leather or regular fabric, it provides good ventilation and it's fairly cat-proof
- armrest height adjustable independently of seat height, and with a sufficient range to set them at the desk level at any seat position you may use
I hadn't considered these points, thanks.
Lisa Simpson, MCIL MITI wrote:
FWIW, mine was the "Ergo Mesh Chair" - you're right, the website's down.
I sat on it. They have a sale on and it's reduced from £279 to £206, but I'm not sure it's the right one for me (the lumbar support was a bit low), although the friend I was with really liked it.
Staples, Herman, and Me
Made the trip out to Staples on Sunday. They had a decent selection of chairs, including some very imposing leather numbers that were comfortable relax in but didn't offer the kind of support I'd need for working all day. If I decide to get a chair from Staples, I'll get one of the cheaper ones for around £100: comfortable enough for sitting on, cheap enough not to become embittered by any discomfort.
Today, I went along to the Herman Miller stockist: so exclusive that you have to buzz to get in and they come down and open the door for you!
I tried three chairs: the Aeron, Mirra, and Embody.
There's a bit of a learning curve to these chairs as just about everything is adjustable. The sales assistant assured me, though, that once you have it calibrated you need never twiddle another knob as long as you live. They come with a 3 year guarantee for the gas pump adjusts the height, and a 10 year guarantee for the rest of the chair. She said that in the whole time she's worked there she's never had to replace a gas pump, so they must be pretty hardwearing. The chairs are also designed to be sat in for 24 hours (Tom!).
I tried the Aeron size B, but it was a touch too small for me. They didn't have a C in the store so couldn't try out the bigger size.
The Embody is the newest model, and in addition to the lumbar support it also has adjustable thorassic support. Very comfortable, but too big for my taste (mesh back and room to cross your legs, Anton).
I tried a low spec and high spec version of the Mirra, which was by far my favourite HM chair. The difference was the tiltable seat and adjustable lumbar support, although to be honest the low spec version seemed to have the lumbar support in the sweet spot for me.
So, a very comfortable chair, but was there enough buttocular and lumbastic comfort to warrant the price tag?
I'm still on the fence, but they can let you try a chair for up to 6 weeks, and you need only pay for delivery and collection (£20 each way). I think I'll give the Mirra a shot, I'm just waiting on the sales rep to send me a price sheet. Unfortunately there's no payment plan.
In the meantime, I'll have a look around designer furniture shops to see what's what. I was in John Lewis today but the selection wasn't that great.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:37
Portuguese to English
+ ...
As suggested previously, it may be worth taking a look if you don't mind second hand. A neighbour of mine picked up a Mirra on there for about £200, although I think he had a 3 hour round trip to pick it up.
| | | | | Just had a look... | Apr 29, 2014 |
Lisa Simpson, MCIL MITI wrote:
As suggested previously, it may be worth taking a look if you don't mind second hand. A neighbour of mine picked up a Mirra on there for about £200, although I think he had a 3 hour round trip to pick it up.
...and there's a fair few on there for around £250-300. At that price I think I'd rather stump up the extra £££ to get a new one, depending on what the price sheet looks like. The Mirra is available on Amazon for £612.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I don't know why so many people think that "designer" chairs just means "they look pretty"; it means that the designer has seriously studied the movements of the human posture in a sitting position, working over extended periods.
The most important design consideration for a work chair is that it must offer very good lumbar support (i.e. to the small of the back) so that your spine is always close to the vertical whilst you work but also leaves you free to move from side to side and... See more I don't know why so many people think that "designer" chairs just means "they look pretty"; it means that the designer has seriously studied the movements of the human posture in a sitting position, working over extended periods.
The most important design consideration for a work chair is that it must offer very good lumbar support (i.e. to the small of the back) so that your spine is always close to the vertical whilst you work but also leaves you free to move from side to side and to bend back occasionally.
The base of your spine, in the area where it joins the pelvis, is the point where you need to be constantly supported, no matter how you're moving. A chair with a back that goes higher than that may *look* comfortable but will offer no extra benefit. In fact a high back will prevent you from exercising as you sit - occasionally bending your spine right back, which I find is very beneficial and relieves the stress that builds up from constantly typing and leaning slightly forward for much of the time.
Trying a chair in a showroom (egged on by the salesperson) may seem comfortable if you sit on it for a few minutes, but what you really need is to try working on that chair, for hours at a stretch, and (very importantly) with your keyboard and monitor in the correct positions in front of you. I've tried about 4 chairs in 10 years, and this one I've got now passes the "four hour test". Unfortunately you can't do this kind of testing in a showroom; I only learned by trial and error over that long period of years.
However what I've really learned is that whilst some chairs are definitely better than others, the perfect chair doesn't exist.
[Edited at 2014-04-29 08:11 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London wrote:
I don't know why so many people think that "designer" chairs just means "they look pretty"; it means that the designer has seriously studied the movements of the human posture in a sitting position, working over extended periods.
Even more worthy of consideration if the price is comparable to run of the mill office chairs.
The most important design consideration for a work chair is that it must offer very good lumbar support (i.e. to the small of the back) so that your spine is always close to the vertical whilst you work but also leaves you free to move from side to side and to bend back occasionally.
I have to say, the HM chairs offered the best, snuggest lumbar support I've ever experienced, even if it was just for a few minutes. They really did fit perfectly to the contours of my back. The low spec Mirra seemed to already hit the sweet spot, while the higher spec one had a lumbar support that you could not only adjust in terms of height, but also how far the lumbar support "dug" into your back.
I'm leaning towards giving one a trial for a few weeks.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Paul Harrison wrote:
I'm leaning towards giving one a trial for a few weeks.
Was that a deliberate pun?
| | | | | I wish it was... | Apr 29, 2014 |
Tom in London wrote: Paul Harrison wrote:
I'm leaning towards giving one a trial for a few weeks. Was that a deliberate pun?
...still too early for deliberate puns, I'm afraid
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