Need advice on PC chairs

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dennisresevfan

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Feb 26, 2010
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Hi, I'm looking for a replacement computer chair. My current one is too low, as my desk is unusually high.

I need a chair which can raise the actual seat up to around 25 inches or higher.

It needs to be cushioned, and to have cushioned arm rests.
It must not have a gap between seat and backrest.

The closer it is to being an "armchair" or "recliner", the better, since actual PC chairs tend to be uncomfortable.

It needs to have a foot rest because it'll be too high to rest my feet on the ground.
I do NOT mean a foot stool or something to lie on with legs out straight.

I found that Barber's chairs actually have the right kind of shape and features, so I'm after something similar, only closer to a soft living room chair.

Any ideas?

Here's a picture to show you what I mean about the Barber chair.

http://www.dirgroup.co.uk/images/news_pic/2115.jpg

I don't know how high one of these would raise, and it looks too hard.

Can you find anything more suitable?

 
Nah, seats like that don't raise high enough. It seems to be at least 4 inches too short. I've actually found a barber chair on sale on ebay. The question is whether or not they're soft enough. It's £350... worth it if it's comfortable, but would it be?
 
Okay, but with the barber chair, if you've ever sat in one before, think of what they're like. They're pretty soft at first, but if you're going to be on the computer for a long time, it'll probably get uncomfortable. Considering I'm sitting in a wooden chair though, it can't be much worse, because I sit on here for hours and don't seem to have any back problems.
 
I think the one you picked out would be comfortable because it's leather. I have leather seats in my car and I've been on vacation sitting in those seats for a long time and they're comfortable.

On the actual seat, if you look closely, I'd say it was about four or five inches thick.
 
Actually, it seems it's fake leather. Polyurethane is what I was told by the seller. Or maybe they meant fake leather/leather filled with polyurethane foam... either way, you agree it looks fairly soft? I was thinking it would be a lot like a car seat.

What I still can't work out is how that footrest works. The seat is height adjustable but they told me the footrest is not... Could be it just hangs down until it touches the floor, no matter the height, but you'd think that would cause a problem.

Shouldn't be a major issue though.
 
One thing remains that I'm paranoid about though.

I can't really judge how long the arm rests are. I need to work out if they're long enough to rest some kind of a keyboard shelf on (a plank or an actual wooden shelf or something like that).
 
that is some very extensive requirements list, why don't you check at a local woodshop how much it would cost to have custom made?

let me give you a basic physics run down at what you are looking to get:
- you want a large seat, with extra thick cushioning, extra long arm rests so you can add a keyboard shelf to it and also a foot rest as part of the chair
- you want to lift all of that fairly high

the problem with that is it will be very top heavy, probably won't be able to operate by a typical compressed air cylinder that is typical for most office chairs. on top of that, as you mentioned a barber chair, I don't know if you noticed, but a lot of those, especially bigger ones are actually BOLTED down to the floor so they don't tip over.

another solution for you, unless otherwise required is to just get a desk that is not as high, so some of those lower height chairs will work for you.
 
Well, let me start from the beginning.

The problem is that the "desk" is a piece of kitchen surface material. Chipboard with "marbled" outside. It's mounted on wall brackets and cannot be lowered.

A normal PC chair is too low to use at this "desk", and results in the arms being at an upwards angle to use the mouse and keyboard.

I could get a desk, but that would lead to two new problems.
1. Where to put the writing desk which is under this "desk" surface. (It's far too low to use for a computer).
2. Said new desk would need to be able to support the weight of my monitor, and/or the PC tower.

The monitor alone is about 40KG. Most of the desks on offer these days look really flimsy and are obviously designed for LCD screens.


If anyone has a suggestion of a suitable desk type (available in the UK) then I'd be grateful!

It needs to support a huge CRT monitor which is about 40cm deep and 50cm across, and either support, or have space under it for a large PC tower about 47cm deep, 23cm wide, and 43cm high.

Preferably it should provide enough space to simultaneously use two joysticks, a mouse/mousepad, and keyboard.

Anything else is optional. Those are my definite requirements.

Obviously the monitor and keyboard heights should be as suggested by health and safety recommendations.

Space for a second monitor wouldn't hurt, but it's far from neccessary. (It would be a small LCD monitor)
 
Well, this is just typical. My parents have banned me from getting a desk. For some reason they seem to want the current "desk" surface left where it is, even though it's completely useless to them...

So I'm back to chairs...
 
I predict that the previously mentioned parents will forbid that too. IDIOTS. They keep moaning that whatever I get has to look nice and match the decor.

Match what!? It's in a bloody stairwell!

Otherwise this is indeed what I would have done.

Looks like I need to go shopping for above average chairs and get a separate footrest. Maybe, just maybe, I can find one which isn't made of useless plastic that'll instantly shatter when used...
 
hmm, by that definition I guess the barber/dentist chair is out of the question too?

but i mean if you can find a chair that suits your needs, but just doesn't go tall enough, can you find some sort of platform to get it a few inches higher off the floor so it can then match the height you need?

I think if the height difference isn't too great you could do something like a sheet of wood with vinyl covering on top to match the floor in the room (even to construct that shouldn't be that expensive maybe 50 pounds at most). Put a chair on top of that and make sure people know that it's there, so nobody breaks their toes walking by. I think if you can do that, you then can get a decent chair without having to overpay for ridiculous price of some custom high end chair.
 
Looks like the barber chair has armrests that are too low anyway, but yes, I imagine they'd forbid it.

The problem with a platform is that the chair needs to go in a stairwell. There's only limited space behind/around it, and if the platform was small then the chair would probably end up falling off it and throwing me into a wall.

An actual living room armchair on a platform would have been awesome, but there's definitely no space for that.
 
dang, well, I'm out of ideas for now. I guess you can try to browse the internet for now for possible solution chair you could find. I'll see if I can think of something sooner or later...

Edit: wait so you said if platform was small it wouldn't work, I'm guessing your "desk" surface is in the mid-stairs platform that connects 2 flights of stairs? Would getting a platform that covers the whole stair landing work? I mean if you're missing only about 8" worth of height in the chair department, that would eliminate a stair step on one side and add an extra one on the other.

But I'm still not too enthusiastic about a chair that will be sitting 2.5' in the air

Does the chair need to be movable?

I'm thinking bar chairs, those do go up in hight a fair bit, but they most likely won't offer very long arm rests.
 
Let's see how to describe this. It's like a room which opens off a corridor. It has some cupboards behind me, the corridor on my left, and the stairs to the right. The stairs go up one flight, then there's a landing that turns to the left, then turns to the left again, then another set of stairs. The PC is on a makeshift desk surface which is UNDER the second flight of stairs. As in there's an angled ceiling above my PC. The "desk" is sitting on wooden bracks between two walls, in a kind of alcove.

So the chair is effectively sitting in the middle of a corridor. It's far from ideal and means I can't really put more stuff in the middle of said corridor.

The chair doesn't have to be moveable, but it does need to have a backrest, be cushioned and suitable for sitting on for long periods, etc.
 
Well, I've solved this problem now. Not in quite the intended way...

I got an incredibly comfortable chair from Staples, and also a foot rest, a 120cm x 30cm Melamine shelf, and a set of keyboard shelf/tray runners.

Basically I mounted the shelf under the original "desk" as a very long keyboard tray that can take a keyboard, mouse, and joysticks at once. The chair at maximum height is at just the right level for using the keyboard and mouse now.
 
Only problem is that some douche didn't think to put a proper tilt control on the chair so it tilts back slightly before the lock stops it.

Oh well, it's a lot better than my old setup, anyway.
 
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