Literary Chairs

then we came to the end

So I just finished reading Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris’s comic novel on the absurdities of office life.  And it occurred to me that, while other readers might think the book is about interpersonal relationships, or the daily irritations of the capitalist system, or the helpless anxiety caused by massive lay-offs, to me the book was most obviously about one thing: office chairs.

No, seriously.  There’s a running gag threaded through the entire novel about how the office drones scavenge chairs from each others’ offices each time someone gets fired.  Then they discover the office manager has been fixing serial numbers to each of the chairs, so she can tell which office they belong in.  Now everyone is panicked that they’ll be laid-off themselves if they’re discovered with a contraband chair.

One character takes his paranoia so far, he takes apart his chair and throws it in Lake Michigan.

It really goes to show how important the right chair is to making people feel comfortable and secure in their working environment.  But I don’t recommend stealing a mesh, leather, or ergonomic from the office down the hall!

Just order yourself a new one and you’ll never have to toss the evidence into a lake.

Orange You Glad…

Someone just called in to check on an order, and when I surfed around our site to find the chair she was seeking, I was blown away. Check out this sexy item:

Wow! Okay, so I admit I’m a bit partial because I love bright colors, and my very favorite color is orange. But you don’t see bright orange office chairs every day, so I’m always excited when I run across one.

Still, even in black, it’s a pretty striking design for a non-designer price. If you’re looking for a way to dress up your office with a touch of sophistication (without breaking the bank), I definitely recommend this item.

Furniture Funnies

Not about chairs per se, but as an official “furniture store chick”, this Get Fuzzy totally made me laugh:

We do have stools, and we do take phone orders, so… that could be me some day.

Bungee Chairs

Can an ugly office chair bring about major depression? Probably not, but a snappy design in a bright color can definitely perk you up on an otherwise dreary day on the cube farm. I know whenever I see an ordinary chair upholstered in beige or gray or some drab, nausea-inducing pattern, I just want to turn around and head back to bed. But imagine having something like this to greet you in the morning.

Now that’s a whole different story! These bungee cord chairs are the new hotness in office seating these days… The elastic bands conform to your body, providing ergonomic support beyond what you get with ordinary cushioning, and they come in cheerful colors like this bright cobalt blue. Plus it just sounds cool — you probably won’t have to jump off any tall buildings soon, but if you did, this chair could help!

Check out the “Escape” here, or maybe the “Elite” — that one’s also available in red, teal green, and brown! And you can see a few similar styles here.

Sad Chairs

I wanted to start off by sharing this beautiful book about the sadder side of chairs.

To create 50 Sad Chairs, Bill Keaggy photographed chairs he found junked in the back alleys of St. Louis. What at first glance seems like pictures of discarded trash becomes, on closer inspection, a somber meditation on the transience of objects in our lives. This approach appeals to me particularly, because I’ve always had a sentimental habit of anthropomorphizing inanimate objects, from cars to shoes to, yes, chairs. I hate throwing out even the rattiest, most beat-up chairs, because I remember how fresh and new they once seemed.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably tear up at this melancholy video that accompanies the book:

Welcome! Pull up a…

Hello Blogosphere!

Let me introduce myself — my name’s Amy and my boss here at seatingzone.com just asked me to create a blog to promote our site.  A blog about chairs?  Yup, that’s right.  Believe it or not, there’s lots of cool stuff to share about chairs, from hot new designs to ergonomic advances to random, wacky surprises I’ve dug up from the far corners of the web.

I’ll be sharing all this and more whenever I get a chance to work on this blog.  I’m pretty excited about it, to be honest, and I hope I can infect you with some of my enthusiasm!