In the world of swivel chairs adjustability is king, because every human being is unique it would be impossible to design a chair that suited everybody. Therefore you want to be able to adjust as many setting as possible on a chair to suit it to your body shape and requirements. Having the most adjustable features on your swivel chair will allow you to regularly change your seating position which is very good for your posture. Sitting in a fixed position all day is not how we are intended to work, this is why swivel chairs are such an important piece of furniture – they allow unrestricted movement – but support any movement you do.
A good swivel chair should have the following adjustments:
- Seat height
- Seat depth
- Backrest angle
- Chair recline/tilt
- Seat angle
- Armrests
- Height-adjustable armrests
- Width-adjustable armrests
- Lumbar support
- Backrest height
- Lumbar depth
Each of these features can be discussed at length, in terms of their benefits and what they actually mean to you and are therefore discussed further in the Adjustable Swivel Chair Features article.
Adjustable Swivel Chairs are the Best
Swivel chairs definitely exist that have all of those adjustable factors on them but you will pay dearly for them. If you’re looking for a chair and you’re on budget I would suggest that the minimum adjusting features your should look for would be the height and backrest angle, all of the other features you will be able to survive without. Chairs with features like lumber adjustment your really won’t find easily anyway. It is not always true though that you have to pay a lot for a chair with significant features – commercial grade office chairs seem to have a premium price on them, more often than not you will be able to find a home office chair with the same features for a fraction of the price but still the same build quality.
Spend the most you can on a Swivel Chair
Of course, how much you choose to spend on a chair is entirely up to you, but personally if I was working from home I would spend a lot more money on the chair than if I was just using it to surf the net on in the evenings. Spending hours sat on a poorly designed non adjusting chair can wreak havoc with your back, shoulders and even elbows and wrists. So if you anticipated sitting at your chair for more than four hours a day I would really advise investing in a decent high quality chair with multiple points of adjustment – you will then be able to tweak it to perfection.
Not only do you have to be concerned with what adjustable features a swivel chair has, what about the design features? What about the materials? Or what about how you actually interact with those adjustability features? These are all important points to be considered when buying a new chair so you should consider them carefully. The features found on a good office chair are discussed in the Swivel Chair Features article.
