What Defines a Luxury Office Chair? Four Must-Have Features

The way that a luxury office chair looks has completely changed over the years. There are certain elements that remain; for example, it’s usually going to be a chair that allows the person to sit up straight and have their full back up against the backrest. Thanks to this, the person sitting in the chair will look like they belong at that spot. 

You can’t necessarily call one of those small chairs with a backrest that goes up to only the middle of your back a luxury chair. People who sit in those are slouching all the time and are soon going to develop back issues if they don’t have them already. A true luxury chair for office use should not only look the part but allow the person sitting in it to feel “grand” in a sense. 

In the modern office furniture landscape, a luxury chair isn’t necessarily one with wide armrests wrapped in the puffiest leather that looks comfortable but isn’t all that much. Comfort has now surpassed style as the main element that people look for in their seating options. That doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t find an option that also looks the part.     

How do you ensure that a chair is comfortable and that you look good while sitting in it? Here are a couple of elements that define a luxury executive office chair.

The Features That Define a Luxury Office Chair

Since the options on the market today are so diverse, it’s hard to pick one chair out of the crowd and say that it has all of the elements needed to qualify as a luxury office desk chair. That’s the main reason why the first point that we’re going to look at is the one that determines virtually everything else. 

Style

The term “luxury” has always been synonymous with style. As mentioned, though, the current trends in the style department are certainly not the same as they were even ten years ago. Large luxury leather office chairs that were popular in the offices of companies across virtually all industries have now been relegated to only a few offices.

Law firms, for example, that still design the workplace in a very traditional style with large wooden desks will want to have these wide leather chairs that we recently referenced. They match the style and the sense of luxury that the company aims to portray. 

In fairness, this law firm example is a bit cliché. The parts of even those offices where attorneys meet with clients or other lawyers may feature this type of style. Most of the time, though, the people working behind the scenes glued to a desk reading through mountains of paperwork will benefit greatly from sitting in a modern and ergonomic office chair. 

Speaking of a modern look, many companies that work in the media, architecture, and design sectors have all gone for a fully minimalist style within their office spaces. You’re bound to find sit/stand desks in an all-white color pattern with an Apple computer or a massive gaming-like setup on the desktop. 

Minimalist-style office spaces make it easier to add one of the best ergonomic chairs on the market that has a futuristic-looking backrest. This chair may look completely out of place in a more traditionally styled environment. In spite of this, it’s going to seem luxurious and perfectly on-brand in a modern office space. 

The style or design of the room will heavily influence what looks luxurious in that particular place. This means that a luxury office desk chair has to match the look of the office itself.

Quality

You can find “luxury” elements in different styles; however, quality is something that all luxury items must feature to be able to wear the label. Quality has been known as the Achilles’ heel of the modern office furniture trends. It’s usually easier to create low-quality minimalist furniture than it is to do the same with other designs.

Rustic or what people now call vintage chairs and desks are typically thicker structures. While you certainly can make these out of cheap wood, for example, the thickness of the structure will help it be more durable. When you have a minimalist desk with a poor quality, hard plastic frame, durability is not something you can expect at all. 

Luxury office chairs need to be made from quality materials. When you want to purchase the best reclining office chair with a minimalist design, it should feature some type of certified steel or high metal frame. In a more traditional style chair, you may want those wide chair armrests to be made from real wood, not some disposable synthetic material.

Functionality

Why would anyone want a great-looking chair that they just can’t use as advertised? It’s one thing to buy an option that has no wheels. You know what you’re getting into when you make the purchase. What you don’t want is a chair that has wheels but still feels like you’re passing through dry sand when you want to move through the office carpet. 

Wheels or movement, in general, are not the only key element towards proper functionality. Many people currently look for chairs with lumbar support; if the chair is advertising that it has a feature that helps your lower back, that mechanism has to function properly. When that’s not the case, then you’re probably not looking at a luxury chair. 

Proper functionality also equals comfort. Any luxury item, particularly one that has an active use, needs to not only look the part but provide a sense of comfort in that use. 

This is similar to the definition that most car manufacturers provide of the term “luxury.” You expect a luxury vehicle to be comfortable. A Ferrari can be a bit uncomfortable because it’s a sports car, not a luxury option in most cases. Any Rolls-Royce model, though, has to be comfortable; that’s a luxury vehicle brand.

Brand Reputation

Is brand reputation something that you should still consider to be able to label anything as a “luxury” item? While brand reputation can be a bit deceiving in some cases, consumers typically feel more confident when purchasing an item from a well-known company. However, that sparks a couple more questions that we need to address.

Does this mean that a brand like Ikea cannot produce a luxury item? Should you be willing to pay more money for an item just because you know the brand that’s selling it? The importance of brand reputation is, ironically, a very personal matter, especially for people who have had items from that brand before.   

It’s not that a brand name should allow an item to access the luxury label without merit. If you, as a buyer, are confident that a particular brand makes quality products, then that’s something worth taking into account.

How Much Should a Luxury Office Chair Cost?

This is one of the toughest questions that anyone could try to answer about luxury items in general. Could you consider a chair that costs under 1000 dollars a luxury item? That’s going to depend on what features are actually more important to you. 

Let’s say that you’re looking for the best big and tall office chair option. You find a chair that has the ergonomic features that you need as a tall person to relieve some of the strain off your back. On top of that, it’s comfortable and easy to move around, and its style matches what you already have in your office.  

When you go to check out, you realize that you don’t know the brand name, and the price tag on it is around 500 dollars. The brand name issue scares you away, and so you keep looking and find another chair. 

This time, the chair is a bit stiffer; it doesn’t allow you to move as easily, but it has all of the other features that you need. You know this brand, and when you look at the price tag, you realize this option costs around 1000 dollars. Which of the two options is more of a luxury item? 

You could argue that you need to look into the quality of the materials and even the product warranty that each brand provides. That’s a fair argument, but it doesn’t change the fact that you can potentially find decent options for less than 500 dollars, at 1000 dollars, and beyond that.

How to Choose the Perfect Luxury Office Chair for Your Needs?

The first step is to recognize what your needs are. Some people have a very simple path to understanding what they might need. They could be looking for an office chair for tailbone pain. In that case, you’ll want a chair that can provide support in the lower back and a cushioned seat.

Sometimes, the main focus is not related to any type of pain, but it’s to find a chair that matches the look and feel of the other elements within the office. It’s very important to find the one element that you value the most when picking these chairs, especially if it is some type of ergonomic feature or a size requirement.

When you have that key element identified, you can potentially discard a ton of chairs that won’t be worth your time to look at. It may seem like a small victory to be able to not look into a couple of chairs. The thing is, there are just so many options available on the market today that a thorough search can seem endless.

Unfortunately, what tends to happen to a lot of people is that they end up choosing a chair out of desperation. They become so fed up with having to look at these different options that they pick the one they dislike the least instead of the one they might like the most. Picking key elements that you want to look for in a chair can make the buying process much smoother.      

Making an Office Space Match the Furniture

To this point, we’ve talked about finding a seating option that matches the existing furniture within an office space. Could you potentially look at things the other way around and still get good results? We may be able to answer that with another question. 

What’s more important to feeling comfortable within an office, having a comfortable place to sit or the desk that will be in front of that chair? While many people are now reporting that wrist pain is a growing issue amongst office workers, back pain still leads the way as the main concern. 

Knowing this, it may be easier to find the right luxury home office chair with specific ergonomic features that can cover your personal needs. Then, you can go out and get a sit/stand desk just so that you can adjust the height of it and make sure you put yourself in a comfortable position. In that scenario, since you’re buying a modern chair, it makes sense to purchase a minimalist desk. 

If you want to take things even further, you could look into upgrading your computer screens or maybe buying extra support for your wrists. There are new items available that can help you avoid the vaunted wrist pain that we know takes a back seat to back pain sometimes. You could definitely create a comfortable workspace by choosing where you’re going to sit first and then building the rest of the setup around that element.

Final Thoughts

Despite our best efforts to define what the concept of luxury in office chairs should represent, we understand that other people can have different ideas. Out of all of the features that we highlighted as important to brand a chair as a luxury item, quality may be the most universal. Regardless of the style of furniture that you want to have in your office, you’re always going to be well served if you buy quality products. 

The best way to know that you’re buying quality furniture is to understand what materials are used to make it. Look for steel frames, thicker wood, and other elements that you at least know are going to help the chairs last long. Durable items are always a luxury, even if their current design or style goes out of fashion before they break down.