We were once given a great piece of advice from someone far wiser than us. That advice was to not be afraid of investing good money in anything that separates you from the ground. In the context of that conversation it meant shoes, car tyres and beds, but the same also rings true in a studio environment. And that’s why we’ve created this guide to the best studio chairs.
If, like us, you spend many hours every day located in your studio, then proper seating isn’t just nice to have, it’s almost as essential a purchase as your audio interface or studio headphones. For your health, your posture and for your overall comfort, a proper studio chair is among the best investments you can make.
In this guide we’ll look at what makes a great chair for the recording studio and offer some recommendations for some of the best studio chairs you can buy today. Trust us, your back and behind will thank you for it.
We've included some in-depth buying advice at the end of this guide, so if you'd like to read more about the best studio chairs, then click the link. If you'd rather get to the products, then keep scrolling.
Best studio chairs: Our top picks
The best studio chair is the one that provides the right balance of comfort, support and practicality for you. For us, the Ikea Jarvfjallet fulfills that brief perfectly, at a price we found more than reasonable. It features plenty of adjustable settings, from basic adjustments like height and incline, through to more macro changes like the height of the lumbar support and headrest, and the position of the seat itself. Personally we’d opt for the version without the arm rests, purely so you don’t bash your guitar while jamming or recording a take, but overall the Ikea Jarvfjallet is a pretty compelling package at a very agreeable price.
If you're looking for a compact but comfortable option for a great price, the Hbada Office Task would make an excellent addition to any home studio.
Best studio chairs: Product guide
As purveyors of affordable, stylish furniture, we’re all familiar with Ikea. Yet with the Ikea Jarvfjallet office chair, we believe we’ve found the ideal studio chair for most people. Equipped with or without arms, this chair offers the perfect blend of comfort and practicality. With individual control over height, incline, lumbar support and headrest height, the Jarvfjallet can be made to fit any user.
The choices of fabrics and materials are well considered to balance price and longevity, and we believe it’s a great choice for the studio environment.
If your studio is on the smaller side, you perhaps want a studio chair which doesn’t dominate the room in the same way some of the others on this list would. If that sounds familiar, the Hbada Office Task chair may be just the ticket.
It features foldable arms, so it can be tucked under a desk neatly, while the inclusion of a breathable mesh back is a great choice, and we found the Nylon wheels to be relatively quiet buzzing all over a wooden floor. All told, a great value chair for any home studio.
For a shade over $50, the AmazonBasics Low-Back office chair ticks a lot of boxes. It’s height adjustable, and moves freely on castors so is ideal for portability in larger studios.
We especially liked the mesh back, which aided breathability over padded foam, while the included one-year warranty gives additional peace of mind. The AmazonBasics range, which has grown hugely in popularity, has some great products and we’re happy to say the Low-Back office chair meets the needs of a small home studio perfectly.
We mentioned above about the importance of having somewhere to put your feet. Often, when we’re sat in one place, the temptation is to tuck our feet under the chair, which isn’t always good news for our backs. The Office Star Deluxe Mesh drafting chair solves this by including an adjustable footrest, which serves the dual purpose of raising our leg high enough to rest a guitar on it.
This is a taller chair than the others on the list, and as such won’t suit every studio arrangement, but for anyone with a raised or standing desk it is a great choice.
Working in a studio, you do a lot of leaning: leaning to the desk to fiddle with faders; leaning to your amps to fiddle with the EQ; leaning to the coffee machine to collect your tenth double espresso. It’d help to have a chair that leaned with you, offering support to your back and neck. The Crown Seating Stealth Standard may just be the perfect studio chair for those of us who love to lean.
It is certainly not a cheap chair, let’s address that straight away, but as a solid, well-made tool that will support you – literally – for years to come, it’s certainly worth considering.
Whatever you think of video gamers, one thing is for certain; they know how to set up a desk environment. This extends to chairs, where you can find some of the most padded, adjustable seating arrangements on the market. A quick look online will reveal there to be near-infinite options, but we were particularly drawn to the Respawn Omega-Xi. It is relatively restrained in the aesthetic department, but we loved the retractable leg rest, and separate cushions for lower back and head, which we found to be ideal for those long listening sessions.
If comfort is your priority over posture, or if your studio doubles up as a gaming hub, then you could do a lot worse than consider the Respawn Omega-Xi.
If you’re one of the many who’ve made the investment in dedicated sit/stand desks, then you’ll know there exists a middle ground between sitting and standing. Sometimes, we don’t want to resign ourselves to the chair but would appreciate a little bit of support. The Ikea Nilserik offers exactly this, providing a comfortable, elevated position to rest on momentarily.
We liked the way the base, particularly, is concave, meaning it has a healthy amount of wobble to it. That may sound strange, but in practice you’ll be surprised how much you get used to having the ability to lean and adjust your posture. The Nilserik isn’t for everyone, but as a well-made halfway house between sitting and standing, we’re happy to recommend it.
If those garish gaming chairs don’t appeal, but you do like the idea of being able to recline back and listen to your latest mixes, then the Bonzy Home Reclining office chair could be the right choice for you. It features a sturdy Nylon base, with a full mesh back and headrest, both of which are adjustable.
It’s the leg rest which appealed to us though. Particularly for the taller among us, having the ability to prop up your legs on occasion is a rare treat and we are not going to turn our noses up at that.
Best studio chairs: Buying advice
A quick online search will show you’re not short of options if you’re looking to buy a chair for your studio. Everything from classy-looking executive chairs you’d see in the offices of Forbes Top 100 companies, through to flashy looking chairs designed with gamers in mind. With that amount of choice, it helps to narrow things down slightly. What makes a good chair for a recording studio then?
The pandemic did create a significant strain on the availability of office and studio furniture as everyone geared up to work from home in 2020, but you needn’t worry now with stock levels back on the rise.
What makes a great studio chair?
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Essentially, you’re looking for a mixture of comfort and practicality. Comfort is important because of the amount of time you are likely to be spending in the chair over the coming years. That doesn’t necessarily mean buying the most plush, well-padded option you can find though. Why’s that? Well, a lot of studio work is done sat bolt upright in front of a computer monitor or laptop screen and, while the temptation to lounge backwards for long periods is high, it isn’t always the best move for your spine.
So instead, comfort means a chair that offers a range of options to fine-tune the seat to the specific ways in which you’ll use it. We’re talking lumbar support, headrests, armrests and multiple seating positions. Think of a good studio chair as a tool that works with you, rather than an impassive piece of furniture.
For practicality, you need to think about how you use the chair. Yes, a lot of the time you are sat in a reasonably static position, but at other times you may be spinning around to plug and unplug cables, or prop up a guitar on your legs, or any other type of action that requires a degree of freedom from the chair. Also, think about your feet; you naturally tend to make many small movements without even realising. Do you prefer having your feet flat on the ground, or raised up on a platform attached to the chair? Before making a purchase, focus in on how you move and interact with your current chair during a session, and that will help guide you to the right option for your needs.
The best advice we can give is to think carefully about your preferred way of working. It’s easy to be suckered in by a well-padded, luxurious option but in the medium to longer term it could end up causing serious problems to your posture. And, if you’ve ever had that dull, recurring back pain caused through slumping at a desk, you’ll know it’s something worth avoiding.
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Related buying guides
- Best PC for music production: desktop computers for your home studio
- Best studio desks: organise your recording studio gear
- Best studio monitor stands to help you optimise your home studio
- The best studio monitors: affordable to high-end
- The best studio headphones: wired and wireless
