Once upon a time, wood was the main material of office chairs. In fact, combined with padded leather and the odd bit of metal here and there, it was the king of office seating materials. It has since been supplanted by cheap, durable and lightweight plastics, often in combination with aluminium (which has become much more economical to work with over the years). However, there is still a place for wood in the world of workplace seating.
The Heyday of Wooden Office Chairs
There is something undeniably beautiful about a chair made of polished wood, complete with padded leather seat and perhaps some brass or chrome accents. However, their heyday was born not of beauty but necessity. Wood was the main material for a lot of things. As certain metals were more difficult or expensive to work with and high-quality plastics could not yet be produced. Wood dominated the office seating industry because it was far and away the most practical material. Looking at those office chairs through modern eyes they seem beautiful and even luxurious, but not always contemporary.
Wooden office chairs may have fallen out of favour entirely when sufficiently good-quality plastics started to be cheaply mass-produced if the reasons for using wood had only been the lack of other suitable materials. However, wood is also a practical, high-quality and aesthetically pleasing material. Even with competition from new, more modern seating solutions, wood has managed to stay in fashion and, now we've had a few decades to get over the novelty of plastic, even regain some of the popularity it lost.
Contemporary Office Chairs
Wooden office seating solutions have not only failed to drop out of fashion, but also continued moving with the times. The classic wooden chairs that we were talking about before are still being produced, but there are also some very different, much more modern options to choose from as well.
Today, employees might sit at their desks with the support of a wooden chair that is entirely contemporary in design and could never be mistaken for an antique. As well as a wooden construction, these borrow the comfort of leather or faux leather padded seats from their ancestors. However, they boast curved, modern designs that use the latest fashions as well as up-to-date principles of ergonomics. The result is a chair that uses classic materials but could only truly be at home in a modern office.
Classic Wooden Office Seating
Even the wooden office chair designs of yesteryear still have a place in the fashions of today. These chairs are still being produced, little-changed from the pre-plastic days simply because the design was never broken and doesn't need any fixing. In an age when people don't just obsess about the latest fashions but appreciate the best bits of "retro" and "vintage," they have once again come into their own.
These are the ideal office chairs for more classic, retro-styled offices. However, this isn't their only natural habitat. Wood-and-leather chairs have a much more luxurious, premium feel than many of their plastic counterparts, and this makes them truly ideal as executive seating.
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