Wooden chairs have been used for centuries. We are still using it now. Probably we all have a few wooden chairs lying around in our house. Most of the wooden chairs are currently used as dining room chairs.
If you use a wooden chair or dining chair as your computer desk chair, you know it doesn’t feel comfortable after using it for a long time, and making a wooden chair ergonomic would make it more comfortable. So, How would you make it more comfortable?
You can make wooden chairs more comfortable by:
- Using cushion on the sitting area
- Using lumbar support
- Using a footrest
- Practicing correct posture
- Makeing sure the chair properly fits with you
This collection of tips will ensure the comfortability of your chair. However, wooden chairs are fixed and can not adjust like other ergonomic chairs and offer a lot less support to your posture. Therefore, I suggest you add the lumbar support and cushion in the sitting area to provide you with much-needed support for your posture.
Keep reading for more information. Then, I will explain how you can use each way to make your chair comfortable and add some products to ensure ergonomics and proper posture support.
5 Must-Know Tips to Make Wooden Chair More Comfortable
Add Adequate Cushioning on Your Sitting Area
Adding an adequate amount of cushioning can enhance the comfort of your wooden chair. In my case, I can not sit for long in a wooden chair because it’s not built ergonomically to offer enough support to my posture.
While I sit in my wooden chair, I tend to slouch, which is not a good sign when sitting for prolonged hours. And I started to change my sitting position quite a lot while working. According to studies, people tend to change their sitting posture to reduce discomfort, which suggests that you can minimize discomfort by making postural changes.
So, adequate cushioning will enhance your sitting experience and reduce postural issues if you have any. As a result, you would be able to work more productively for a long time without breaking your posture.
I am listing a seat cushion from Amazon that I recommend. It’s a comfortable seat cushion from “Everlasting Comfort” that can be used with office chairs, car seats, or other seats. It’s using memory foam that will help you reduce tailbone or coccyx pain.Â
You will feel immediate relief when you sit on this cushion. In addition, as it’s designed ergonomically to fit with your bottom, you will get an enhanced sitting experience.  Check the seat Everlasting Comfort cushion here on Amazon.
Use Appropriate Lumbar Support
Lumbar support is essential while you are using a wooden chair. As it’s not ergonomically built, that allows you to slouch over time and develop postural issues like back pain, shoulder pain and you end up having a bad posture.
To reduce these issues, you can use a rolled-up towel on the back of your lumbar spine. This lumbar support offers excellent support to the vertebrae that keep the balance of your body weight.
Also, suppose you don’t find the rolled-up towel useful for your lumbar back. In that case, you can use a lumbar support pillow that will support your back extensively.
However, a rolled-up towel might offer good support to your back, but I am not a big fan of rolled-up towels. Some excellent lumbar support pillows made of memory foam should support your lower back more extensively than a rolled-up towel.
So, I am listing a lumbar support pillow that I recommend to everyone with back pain issues. This Vertteo lumbar support pillow uses soft memory foam and will support your whole back.
I like this pillow because most of the lumbar support pillows are just limited to supporting your lumbar spine, which I don’t think is optimal support.
On the other hand, this pillow will support your whole back much more efficiently than a standard small lumbar support pillow. Check the Vertteo Lumbar Support pillow on Amazon.
Consider a Footrest
Generally, you should use a footrest if you sit for prolonged hours at work. Today, the average worker who has a desk job sits for about 10 hours a day. So, using a footrest can help you improve blood circulation to your legs, reduce postural issues like back pain, tailbone, coccyx. And more importantly, it will improve your sitting experience.
As wooden chairs are static where you can not adjust anything you can on a dynamic chair so; having a footrest makes more sense to a wooden chair. Proper sitting posture suggests you keep your feet flat on the floor so, if your feet are dangling due to the height of your chair, you should consider the footrest.
There are many different types of footrest you will find in stores or online. However, I like the “Everlasting Foot Rest” that comes with a soft memory.
In my opinion, it’s more ergonomically built that will offer more support while you are resting your feet. Check the Everlasting Foot Rest on Amazon.
Practice Correct Posture
Practicing correct posture is essential while you are sitting for long hours. The wrong sitting position can increase postural issues, as I talked about earlier. So, here are some tips for practicing the correct sitting position.
- Sit in an upright position, your back straight, and your lumbar support pillow should touch your lumbar spine.
- Put your feet flat on the floor or the footrest. There should be a 2-3 inches gap between the edge of the seat and your knees.
- It would be best if you keep your elbows on the armrest without your shoulders being hunched. And your hand should rest on your working desk.
- Try walking within a 20-30 minutes period during work.
Make-Sure Chair Fits with You
As wooden chairs are static, they might not always fit with your height. So, make sure the wooden chair fits your height. If it’s too high, you can just cut the legs of the chair to fit with you correctly or if it’s low, you can add chair raisers, casters to increase the height of your chair.
Related Contents
How do you put padding on a wooden chair?
You can add padding to your wooden chair by using a piece of wood, some cotton, high-density medium foam, and fabric clothing to wrap everything to the chair. It’s not as easy a job as you might think. But if you want, you can try it out for your chair. I would recommend you to watch the video of Kevin Kennedy, who explains everything properly.
Is a wooden chair good for the back?
Wooden chairs are not good for the back for many reasons. They are not ergonomically built, they lack lumbar support, hold you in a static position, and decrease the blood flow in your lower body due to it not being dynamic.
I’ve written an article regarding wooden chairs’ comfortability where I outlined if it’s good for your back, you can check out this article.
Are wooden chairs uncomfortable?
Wooden chairs are not uncomfortable if you sit for dining or just often. But it will feel uncomfortable if you use it for prolonged hours as it has less ergonomic support and adjustability that you need to support your posture correctly.
I’ve explained everything above how you can make your wooden chair more comfortable.
How to make a dining chair more ergonomic?
Traditionally wooden chairs are used as dining chairs. However, you can make the dining chair more ergonomic by adding a proper seat cushion, lumbar support, and footrest.
It’s a common query to ask if wooden dining chairs are comfortable or not. So, I’ve written an article regarding the comfortability of wooden dining chairs where I outlined the issues of wooden dining chairs and how to make them more comfortable, you can read the article here.
