9 Ways to Pimp Your Office

Most of us spend our days in a drab cubicle, with grey walls, grey chairs, grey walls outside those cubicle walls, grey lighting, grey computer, and you probably sit in grey building in your grey suit (or “business casual” derivative). Ahh, whoever thought up office design in the 1980s must have really been of fan of grey and consequently has been the staple of office design since then.

However, a few companies are breaking the trend, some of them are downright weird, some of them look awesome. Take for example this:

home, sweet, home

This insidious device is the standard office chair, probably the same chair that you’re sitting on right now, day after day, year after year. However, other companies are trying to change that and spice things up a little. From getting you to exercise to just plain weird, I bring you: “The Top Most amazing/weirdest chairs to help pimp out Your office”. (I’m one for short and concise titles)

1. V1 Flagship Workstation

oh... yes....

I will  beg my boss to get me one of these. This is an amazing  workstation/gaming station. According to V1s site:

“ The Vision One Computer Workstation is a revolutionary new product that is designed to greatly enhance anyone’s music, gaming, home theater, and working experience. “

Yes, I think it would greatly enhance my work experience also. Each desk is hand-made and produced as orders come in. So I wouldn’t hold out on your employer buying one of these soon, but imagine the productivity that would be gained!!

2. Steelcase Walkstation

I said work!! No sitting for you!

Not really a chair, but a complete workstation with a treadmill. An option for those that, I guess don’t want to join the ranks of the morbidly obese, and want to move around at work and not just sit at their desk

From Walkstation:

“The Walkstation is based on the proprietary NEAT™ (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) research of Dr. James Levine of the renowned Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. NEAT refers to the calories we burn in our every day lives, or simple movement. The study, with 150 million lines of downloaded data carried out over a 10 year period, focused on how calories are expended through all the activities of daily living.

He analyzed the feasibility of walking while working and the relationship of that activity to the potential of burning calories and losing weight. The effort culminated in the Walkstation: the first product in the entirely new FitWork™ category of desks.”

3. Ejection Seat Office Chair

Another bailout? Sure thing! Just pull yellow lever.

A chair for those currently employed in the financial sector (ha!). Actually, Motoart makes this one, and it’s a genuine B-52 bomber ejection seat. It may not be the most comfortable seat in the world, but it’s still full of gadgets and worthy of this list. For a mere $5300.00 this chair is customisable with any colour you specify. You should also check out the Motoart site, they have tons of cool office stuff made entirely of old airoplane parts.

4. Stokke Garden

The designer loved balls.

So this one had to be mentioned, this is the king of weird chairs in the blogging world (yes we aren’t the only ones to blog about chairs) and traditional media. People have been talking about this chair since it’s invention way back in the 1980s. Apparently the odd positioning of the balls enables you to sit in different comfortable positions. Unfortunately, no one actually bought the chair. Stokke stopped producing the model a while ago. Too bad, because if I ran a Fortune 500 company with 1000s of employees I would buy one of these and a really high desk for every employee, just because it would be complete win to walk through the office.

5. Nethrone

Kick back, it's time to work

This is another complete workstation area. The design is supposed to be more comfortable than the traditional upright position.

From Nethrone:

“ The Nethrone is perfect for those who envision the optimum

station for serious work & intense play. Incorporation of the

Nethrone into virtually any setting position is simple with the

unit’s five electric actuators. The unit nestles users in a multi-

positional cradle-like environment, complete with an adjustable

reclining vibrating seat, keyboard/joystick, dual mouse position

armrest, neck cushion and dual footrest position. Each unit is

equipped with an adjustable monitor lift and tilt support as well

as frame support for a VGA box, Apple’s Mac mini and Sony`s

PS2, users can insert their units into a slot behind their LCD

monitor. A frame support compatible with Xbox 360 is coming

soon. The Nethrone’s aluminum & chrome plated steel framing

was engineered to readily stand up to conventional daily use. “

Anything where I can recline and “work” at the same time is ok by me.

6. Fitball

Apparently, there is a big movement for integrating exercise and office chairs together. The fitball is no exception, designed by fitness experts it’s supposed to strengthen your “core”. I remember there used to be a guy in my legal department who used to sit on the ball alone (none of this frilly support frames and back support). The fitball is a step-up in the evolutionary ball sitting chain by providing some back support (cheaters!!).

From the manufacturer:

“The benefits of sitting on an exercise ball while working are the same incorporating it in exercise routines; it promotes flexibility, coordination, motor skills, core strengthening, and balance. “Active sitting” means that your body, when positioned on top of an exercise ball, is constantly making small adjustments, often imperceptible, to remain balanced and thus is constantly exercising a large group of muscles in doing so. By strengthening your body’s core muscle group you help improve your posture, have better balance and guard against back injuries.”

7. The S-2 Modulus Lounge/Office Chair

Now that's a "wheel" chair! Get it?? Ha!

Following the green/recycling trend S2 takes old bike parts and makes chairs with them. I’m not sure how comfortable they would be, but they look pretty good.

From the S2 Site:

“Bike Furniture Design is a design and manufacturing studio specializing in contemporary, modern furniture made primarily from recycled steel and aluminum bicycle rims, handlebars, and frames.

The S-2 Lounge / Office / Dining Chair is made from chromed steel rims.

The chair shown here is upholstered with padded vinyl cushions. It is also available with inner-tube upholstery.”

If you get the chance check out the S2 website, they have all kinds of great stuff on there.

8. 1960s Female Form Fibreglass Chair

hey, I'm a chair, with legs

9. FlexibleLove

This is a chair, couch, love-seat and modern art all rolled into one. Pictures just don’t do it justice. You have to watch the video:

According to FlexibleLove:

“FlexibleLove™ experimental furniture incorporates an ‘accordion-like, honeycomb’ structure to create durable furniture pieces produced from widely-available, low-cost recycled materials. FlexibleLove™ furniture pieces, such as FlexibleLove 16™, are made wholly from recycled paper and wood products, and are produced using pre-existing manufacturing processes in order to reduce their overall impact on the environment.”

There’s also another video on FlexibleLove.com which shows more info about the chair.

Anyway, that’s all for now, let us know if you find any other weird/amazing office chairs we should mention.