If you are strapped for cash or if you are feeling creative, you can make your own ergonomic chair.
With a DIY ergonomic office chair, you don’t have to spend time looking for the right ergonomic chair, because you have the freedom to customize your chair to your desired support and comfort needs.
You can make use of the things lying around in your house to make a DIY office chair for your home office.
Or, you can also repurpose a car seat and have a good cheap office chair made out of it!
What to Look for In an Ergonomic Office Chair
First things first.
Before you make your own ergonomic office chair, you should understand what support and comfort factors an ergonomic chair should have.
According to Chiropractor Rodney Lefler, DC, there are seven factors to consider before buying—or creating—an ergonomic office chair:
- Seat height
- Seat width and depth
- Lumbar support
- Backrest
- Seat material
- Armrests
- Swivel
The important thing is that each of the factors above fits your needs.
For example, the average range for a seat height is one that starts approximately 16 inches off the floor, but if you are small, your ideal ergonomic office chair should have a seat height that can start as low as 14 inches.
If you are looking for a another type of ergonomic chair, check out a kneeling chair and see the kneeling chair vs regular chair comparison.
Recreating the Aeron Ergonomic Office Chair
The Aeron chair is very popular because of its comfort and adjustability features.
The blogger Jonathan Aquino has been able to create an Aeron copycat chair at zero cost, and although his version do not have all the features of an Aeron chair, the copycat Aeron chair’s height and lower back can be adjusted.
To make Jonathan’s version of Aeron chair, you need a regular chair, a cutting board, a telephone book, a rolled up towel, and a bungee cord.
First, you need to attach the rolled up towel to the cardboard with a bungee cord, so you can pull the towel up or down for the back support you prefer.
Next, let the cardboard lean on the surface of the backrest of the chair.
Then, just place the telephone book in the seat and you have an ergonomic chair ala Aeron. You can also look into making an office chair more ergonomic.
Creating an Ergonomic Chair Using a Car Seat
If you want your DIY ergonomic office chair to emulate the look of a racing car seat, which is a popular design preference among gamers, you can start looking for an old car seat.
The user SharadScience, a fan of Top Gear, has shared on Instructibles.com how to turn a junker car seat into an office chair, and you can customise it according to your comfort and support preferences.
Aside from an old car seat, you also need the following:
- Foam or padding
- Synthetic leather seat cover
- Spray adhesive, such as 3M and Loctite
- Silicone caulking (optional)
- Spray paint and rust remover
- Old office chair stand
- Plywood
- Bolts and nuts
The car seat you would be getting possibly has soggy padding, so you need to dismantle the seat to remove the padding or foam inside.
You can either put silicone caulking on the foam to bring back its firmness, or you can use new foam to pad the inside of the seat.
When adding new foam to the seat, get a piece of parchment paper and trace the outline of the parts of the seat.
Keep in mind that foam compresses, so the new foam should be bigger than the trace by 1/4 or 1/2 inches.
Use spray adhesive so the foam adheres to the contact surface.
For the foam to attach tightly to the contact surface, you can fine-tune the foam prior to the application of adhesive and apply strong pressure when gluing the foam.
Reassemble the seat and wrap it with leather seat cover.
Cut a piece of plywood with a size appropriate to support the size of the seat.
Drill four holes on the middle part in a way that the holes also form a square outline.
The plywood will connect the seat to the stand with the use of nuts and bolts.
Apply spray paint on the plywood, clean the nuts and bolts and the stand to make sure they are dirt- and rust-free.
After the final assembly, you can test the strength of your DIY ergonomic office chair.