I'm sure many people have been working from home in Malaysia and beyond in the last year or so due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus. I'm one of those people and you probably share the same problem as me — suffering from bad posture and backaches because there's no proper WFH setup or essentials such as ergonomic chairs, sit stand desk and accessories.
I've been meaning to get a good chair for myself and I finally got to work last month and spent about four weeks of researching and visiting some office furniture showrooms in the Klang Valley before I decided on this: WILLY 2 HIGH BACK MESH CHAIR.
It's been a mix of fun and frustrating journey before I finally settled on getting this chair so I thought I would document and share it here.
TL;DR:
- I got the Willy 2 High Back Mesh Chair after weeks of researching.
- Most businesses don't put their prices up front. You have to reach out to them to get a quote.
- If you can, go and test out the chair you want before buying (height and weight considerations, plus other preferences).
- If you're given a model name/code, try searching for it online. You might be able to get a cheaper option for the same chair.
- Some popular office furniture showrooms are located in Sungai Buloh area and Puchong.
What makes a good work chair (if you're on a budget)?
I started by doing some research on what I should look for in a good chair by reading recommendations from Lowyat Forum, Reddit, and lists by some portals (but their choices are limited to those they can earn from affiliate listing), among others. There were some standout recommendations from the community - IKEA's Markus office chair which many people say is great but I had some reservations because I read that one of the biggest cons of the chair was that it lacked some adjustability. A friend (about the same height as me) who uses the same chair in her office doesn't recommend it either. At this point, I decided to set a list of criteria about the features I wanted in this chair that I was about to get:
My ideal work-from-home chair with the best value should be/have:
- Mesh chair so I don't have to worry about chair peeling if it's made of leather (or PU leather most times)
- Adjustable lumbar support
- Adjustable armrest
- With a high-density foam - for a more solid, firm seat
- Within the budget range of RM400
Where to buy good ergonomic chairs in Klang Valley?
With these criteria in mind, I deepen my search. Here comes one of the most frustrating process: A lot of these businesses do not put their prices upfront and you would have to send them a message over Messenger/Email/WhatsApp to get a quote. Granted, they probably do more B2B than B2C but still, it required extra effort on my end to just know the price. Based on the products that I had seen on their website or social media pages, I've reached out to more than a dozen businesses including Alterseat, Ambient Concept, Keno Design, Furniture Direct, OfficeEquipment2u (Sykt. Kichong Office Equipment Sdn. Bhd), SIF South Island Furniture Malaysia, Supreme Office Furniture System, WYSEN, Chesters Collection, Benithem, Gozzo Direction, Shelton Mart (Shelton Office), Asiastar Furniture Trading Sdn Bhd, TCT Office System Sdn Bhd, AM Office, iGreen Office Furniture, SAM SM FURNITURE, MYND Furniture... and a few others. I kid you not. Some were quick to respond, some passed me another contact, some didn't even reply. Also, I noticed there are a few popular ones with showrooms located in Sungai Buloh and Puchong.
It was after this phase that I roughly knew what was the price range I was looking at. For the features that I was looking for, I was looking to fork out at least RM380 to RM600 on average - depending on what kind of features I wanted and could give up.
At the year-end, I had a break from work and so I thought I would be more productive in my hunt for the office chair I needed so I decided to pay a visit to the APEX Office Furniture Exporter Sdn Bhd at their Jalan Ipoh showroom. There was construction going on in the area and it was difficult to find parking on a Friday morning. But at least the showroom was huge and there were at least one dozen mesh office chairs available for viewing. So it was worth the trip.
After my visit to the APEX showroom, I decided it's a must-have to have a high back office chair as it's just more comfortable. At the showroom, I took some photos and made some mental notes of which models I could consider but wasn't that keen to proceed with an order yet as it was slightly out of what I had budgeted for and I wanted to explore my options.
1 Comments
This is such a great blog post Ruxyn. Thank you for sharing! Also, it's been so many years since I've commented on a blog that I am triggered to see my old blogspot account as a commenter hahahaha.
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