I feel like I need to preface this post with a disclaimer: I only use one chair daily, and it’s more like a swiveling stool with a backrest. I usually sit on it cross-legged, and ~80% of the time I’m standing at my desk or sitting on the couch with my feet up instead. But, in the spirit of “chairs are anywhere I sit for any reason”, here is each “chair” in my life, ranked from most to least frequently used.
(I’ve used the manufacturer’s photographs for all except #1, #6, and #13 because my house is an embarrassing mess.)
This is, by far, my favorite place to work. When I’m not working at my desk, I’m usually on the window seat breathing in some fresh air. After living in cities for ten years, I’m enjoying the novel experience of having a backyard, complete with very chatty hummingbirds. It’s essentially a wooden bench with wide cushions below and several pillows that can be rearranged for any posture. Because I have a very clingy cat who follows me around wherever I go, he’s happiest when I decide to work from the window seat and keep him company while he chirps at birds.
When my laptop battery gets low, I move to the couch just a few feet away. (I could move my power cord from the couch to the window seat, but it somehow feels easier to just switch locations.) I grab my lap desk, put my feet up, and let the cat curl under my arm. Working from home has its perks! My only complaint is all the cat hair, which is not the couch’s fault. This couch is the one we use to watch shows and movies in the evening, and it’s situated opposite a projector screen.
This couch is pretty much interchangeable with the red one, except it’s in a different room. If it gets too hot or bright in one room, I move to the other. Both couches have a chaise portion on one side that lets me stretch my legs out and change positions throughout the day. In case you haven’t noticed by now, I am all about having comfortable places to lounge around my house. We inherited this couch from the previous tenants and it fit the room so well that we kept it. Note: I never use either of our couches or the window seat with my feet on the ground. My legs are always either stretched out, crossed, or knees up.
Upon revisiting my Amazon order history, it seems that this chair is technically a drafting stool. I was going to call it “rolling desk stool”, but “drafting stool” sounds so much more professional, don’t you think? I try to do as much standing work as possible and my desk is elevated for this purpose, but when I get tired it’s easy to hop onto this stool, cross my legs, and continue. I love feeling tall, swiveling around, and adjusting my location by pulling myself along the desk. The seat and seat back are very cushioned, so my posture is pretty well supported in this chair. Something about the height and distance from the ground makes me feel more focused, like all my distractions are far away.
I’m interpreting this assignment literally, so apologies in advance. Technically the toilet is a place I sit for a reason. We did not choose the toilets in our house, but they are satisfactory and function as expected, without any frills. They do not sing to us or perform fancy types of cleaning, but we did add a color changing LED to our bedroom toilet bowl so we can find it in the dark. I often spend longer on the toilet than expected because I get distracted by email or Instagram, and I can personally vouch that it’s ergonomic enough that my thighs only start to go to sleep after fifteen minutes or so.
When I’m not at my desk, on the window seat, or on the couch, I’m usually sitting on the floor. Our floor is a wood laminate, so it’s smooth and splinter-free. (Our previous apartment had late 19th century hardwood floors that splintered easily, as well as nails that occasionally needed to be hammered back in. Splinter-free still feels like a luxury.) Sometimes I will sit on the floor because I get too hot, sometimes I sit on the floor to take a break and think, and sometimes I sit on the floor to appease my demanding cat.
I bought my first car last year, so the autonomy and comfort of car ownership still feel weird to me. I don’t really have much to compare it to. I’m short, so the seat is almost as far forward as it can go, and I’ve raised it enough that I can see over the dashboard, which seems to be a pretty important part of driving. I don’t usually notice the seat at all, which is a good thing, because it’s not distracting me while I drive. It’s soft, padded, and probably pretty standard-issue as far as fabric car seats go. Even though I’m positioned very far forward, I still can’t reach past the wheel to retrieve objects sliding across my dashboard, even with my seatbelt unbuckled. Maybe the solution is longer arms.
I bought this for my wife, who likes to sit down while lacing up her shoes. It also has built in shelves, where we tuck our shoes away neatly when not in use. Because it’s positioned next to the cat’s food dish, my primary use for the bench is to sit and coax the cat into finishing his meal. Isn’t it cool how a single piece of furniture can serve multiple purposes? Shoe storage, shoe lacing, cat coaxing.
Back when we were furnishing our previous apartment, my wife and I decided there was no point buying fancy dining chairs when we rarely eat at the table. (We usually sit on the couch and watch a movie or TV show while eating, like children do. Have you found the common theme across my furniture use?) So we bought the absolute cheapest dining chairs we could find that matched our table. They’re pretty much just unfinished wood chairs. We slapped some cushions on them and called it a day, and we probably use them once every couple of weeks or when we have more traditionally-minded guests.
When the weather is nice (and let’s be real, the weather is always nice in California) I sometimes take a mini break from work to lie in the hammock outside. The fabric is thin enough to allow some air flow on a hot day, and the shape of the stand promotes a relaxing posture and soothing swinging movement. If it’s really hot, I wrap myself up in it like a cocoon and enjoy the shade. It’s nice to have a change of scenery, air, texture, and motion when I’m stressed out or hyper-focused on a task, and I’ve found that the hammock is meditative and re-energizing for me. I usually spot some wildlife, or close my eyes and feel the sun on my face while the breeze blows over me.
If I want to eat food in the backyard, chances are I’m too lazy to drag the outdoor table & chairs out of the shed. So I just spread out a picnic blanket instead. I also use it in place of the hammock when I have guests, so nobody feels like the other person has unfair hammock privilege. It’s great for eating, reading, sprawling, and examining nearby plants and animals. The grass underneath provides natural cushioning, and my bug-hating wife is safe from ants. This blanket folds up and velcros to itself, with a convenient carry handle, and the underside is waterproof to protect us from soggy grass.
These chairs are pretty similar to our bare-bones dining chairs, except that they fold (and pinch my hands). I only bring them out when we have guests who want to sit in the backyard but prefer not to sit on the ground. They have cushions and they usually do not fall over. They match our folding table.
This might be the only chair I’ve bought based on aesthetics rather than practicality. I got a little carried away covering our front porch in plants (see above) and decided the final touch should be a chair that made visitors feel like they were part of that little garden. The chair is a weird shape but–to my surprise–pretty comfortable and usable for people of all sizes. The individual “strings” conform to your shape when you sit in it. It’s fairly weather-proof and I added a pillow with a plant pattern for on-brand ergonomic customization. I sometimes sit in it for a few seconds while I wait for the mailman to come pick up my outgoing shipments.
Hi Serena,
Appreciate this array of chairs – including the hammock and picnic mat/blanket, the shoe-bench, the floor and so on. Yes – the throne post that some of your cohort members posted too, 🙂 Thanks for your post!