chairs for novelists

As you may or may not know, November is National Novel Writing Month. Some of us crazy enough to say goodbye to our sleep and our sanity for 30 days have gleefully taken up this popular annual challenge of trying to pound out a 50,000 word novel over the course of a mere month. That’s about how many words The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald runs (though it probably took him longer than a month to write).

Sitting in the right chair is crucial to anyone with writerly aspirations, as I’m sure F. Scott knew. (He must have – there he is, sitting in one!) Do you have a perfect novel-writing chair? Write in to areia at seatingzone dot com and tell us all about it! I’ve already asked one NaNoWriMo participant which SeatingZone chair she’d like to do her writing in, and she chose this classic and very affordable Basyx leather mid-back office chair with wood frame, proving that you don’t need a throne to start writing your masterpiece.

coming soon: lifeform chairs!

Doing a Google image search for the generic term “lifeform” comes up with some pretty scary pictures (mainly of hideous alien artefacts, both “real” and imagined), so I’m afraid I won’t be including them to liven up this post at all. Fortunately for me, the Lifeform relevant to SeatingZone’s interest is a little less creepy: Lifeform Chairs!

Customers have been asking us about Lifeform for awhile, and with good reason. The company has a manufacturing history going back generations and maintains their high standards to this day. I like how their Mission Statement puts it:

…Sit back, close your eyes and experience the excellence of five generations of furniture manufacturing; taking the craft back to a small town in Europe. To a time when a shopkeeper was just as proud of keeping the sidewalk out front of his shop clean as the quality and workmanship of his product. At LIFEFORM, we believe that the right furniture is essential to your well being whether at work or at leisure. Our mission is to bring to the marketplace the best quality products, using our generations of knowledge and craftsmanship. We hope you enjoy your furniture as much as our family has enjoyed making it.

Through our past, we manufacture the quality to take us into the future…

So other than high standards and a great history, what makes Lifeform special? Their chairs are all completely customizable! Beginning with one of four models, you can then go on to choose cover type (including genuine leather), additional upgrades such as head rests, and even a color that can be based on a specific photo that you provide. The end result is highly personalized, awesome quality, ergonomically correct seating!

Stay tuned to SeatingZone.com for Lifeform chairs! Between these and Humanscale, we’re really going all out with the options lately. Perfect chairs, here we come…

Executive seating with style

The Alphabet of Seating:

D is for…Dignified

Yessir, nothing like going from the mail room to the board room in a few easy steps. Maybe you have a new idea for a product – you know, for kids! Well, a guy’s gotta keep his dignity intact, so why not do so from one of our beautiful executive chairs?

This beauty’s the Marlan Seating Traditional Leather Executive Swivel. Good enough for any fat cat executive, and certainly good enough for you and your idealistic, upbeat attitude! You’ll be making circles into hula hoops in no time.

(Inspired by the Coen Brothers’ 1994 film The Hudsucker Proxy)

White Desk Chairs

Here at seatingzone.com headquarters we frequently field requests from shoppers looking for unusual office chairs or hard to find office chairs but we also get inquiries that call for specific colors. Sometimes shoppers are more vested in the color than the actual functionality of the chair but of course we try to guide them to a product best suited for the tasks they are performing. But, that’s what we do here. We find products that people ask us for.

Frequently  at the top of the list are white desk chairs. White you ask? Yes, for they add life to most any space and they are true departures from the over indulgent black office chairs that just seem to be everywhere! These classic designs are in an easy to clean leatherette or leather surface so no worries about keeping them looking fresh and vibrant. Check them out! Most ship within 24-48 hours. They also work great in conference rooms.

BTW, the illustrated MDZ-1025 chairs sells for $238.99 delivered anywhere within the lower 48 states free. A deal indeed. This chair is also available in black, brick or mocha leatherette.

peel and peel club

Oh, Variér, will there ever be a day you design furniture that doesn’t make my heart skip a beat?

(Peel)

(Peel Club)

Inimitable Norway-based makers of the stunning Gravity balans chair and  classic Variable balans kneeling chair, Variér holds nothing back when it comes to these Peel and Peel Club chairs.  They feature  eco-friendly and lush leathers, cradle-shapes that make the shift from cuddle to upright a cinch, and that delicate, sought-after blend of modernity and nostalgia that makes these chairs perfect for hotels, lounges, or the comfort-loving aesthete.

If you’re not seduced yet, take note:  SeatingZone.com is offering not one, but two deals for the Peel family through March 31, 2010.  Buy two Peel chairs, receive 20% off the second chair; buy one Peel chair, receive a free footrest.  Buy two Peel Club chairs , receive 20% off the second chair.  Très magnifique!

Fast Chair

Here’s a new twist on the old office chair: Race Chairs promises to give you the experience of racing around a track in a Ferrari or Porsche, even as you’re actually busy entering data into a spread sheet.

Yup, they’ve created office chairs out of the bucket seats of real race cars! It’s definitely a cool concept, and I have to admit that their chairs do look very comfortable — you can tell they were designed with the user’s body in mind. I’m not sure the experience had quite the same adrenaline rush as competitive racing, but at least it’s a lot safer!

Is it just me, or does the Corvette C5 look a lot like our Azeo High Back Leather by Global?

Is Leather Better?

There’s nothing better than settling into a executive chair made with soft, supple, genuine leather… or is there?

If you think you love leather, I urge you to give Caressoft a try. Caressoft is a synthetic fabric, specially designed to feel as buttery-soft as the highest quality leather, and to look just as sleek and smooth as the real thing, too. What’s more, it’s durable and stain resistant — and anyone who has ever tried to get stink or stain our of real leather knows what a relief that can be.

Interested? Take the Caressoft challenge! Check out the elegant Elektra High Back in black or tan Caressoft and tell me if leather is better.

Warm Leatherette

Just when I think I’ve gotten familiar with every piece on our site, a customer calls in to ask about some snazzy chair I’ve never even noticed before.

Today, it’s the 6015 from Modz, a sleek black leather executive chair with a stylish, futuristic kick.  The aerodynamic lumbar support roll is a perfect example of style and function working together, and the ultra-high back and chrome arms give it a certain sense of presence.

The 6015 also features washable leatherette mesh, steel frame construction,  one touch pneumatic seat height adjustment, and an adjustable tilt tension with lock.

Leather Luxury

Got a call from a certain very snazzy hotel yesterday… They told me they were looking for something elegant, with “old world style”. I gave them quite a few options to look at, but I kind of hope they go with this full leather swivel chair by Marlan.

This is a great chair, and I just love the look of it — lots of warm leather and elegant curves. I could see really see it in some hotel lounge, next to a big bookshelf full of leatherbound classic and maybe a tiffany lamp on the side table.

In Treatment

Speaking of couches and the kind of professionals who might need them… Have you seen the HBO show, In Treatment? It features Gabriel Byrne as a psychiatrist who spends each show helping his patients deal with their issues in one on one therapeutic sessions. It’s a great show (just starting its second season!), but it’s of particular interest to me, since it involves an awful lot of sitting.

Gabriel Byrne spoke to Salon recently about this particular issue, believe it or not:

So when you’re doing a role where 99 percent of the time you’re sitting down, how does that change things?

That changes things a lot. A huge amount. Your body language is constricted. All that’s left is your eyes, your physical body language. It’s like being in a wheelchair. Part of the character is his stillness. In order to really listen, you have to be still. The danger there is that it becomes dramatically uninteresting. To make that interesting, you really have to be listening so that when the camera goes back to you, the audience has to say, “Oh, he’s thinking.” So what on paper seems like a pretty simple role — you get to sit in a chair, you ask a bunch of questions — it’s much more difficult than that.

By the way, I have a different chair this season, which changed my body language. I know a lot about buying chairs now. Don’t buy a cheap chair. It may look good, but it will be uncomfortable after a couple of weeks. Buy a chair that allows you comfort and flexibility, that you don’t sink too much into it, that supports your spine.

Looks like Mr. Byrne has been paying attention to the tips on this blog!

If you want to emulate this great character and actor, you might try the Fasttrack leather club chair — stylish and comfortable enough for a tv star, priced for the rest of us.