Robb Recommends: A comfortable, customizable desk chair that makes sharing your home office easy.

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rob Report may receive an affiliate commission.

Around this time about four years ago, my family faced a dilemma. We were at the height of the CoVID-19 lockdown, working from home, and trying to make the best of a situation that wasn’t ideal.

This meant that my partner and I finally gave up working from our couches, hunched over our laptops and twisted our spines to send emails. We turned our guest bedroom into a functional, decent-looking home office. Out went the bed on which the guests slept. (Will we ever have guests again?) A wall of Witsu 606 shelving, a white standing desk from the now-defunct company Philly, and an office chair from HON, which we mounted on nimble rollerblading-style wheels that zipped along. It used to be. A fun distraction from the outside world from one end of the room to the other.

But while the table and shelves were built to last, the chair was not. As the hardest-working component of a home office, chairs are difficult to maintain in the long term. So when it came time to replace it a few months ago—one of the arms had fallen off, and the cushions were starting to wear out—we went with a much more durable chair that was packed with features that allowed us to keep it. will make long journey

X-Chair X-Tech Ultimate Executive Office Chair — with its leather cushions, back and headrest, is as customizable as a made-to-measure suit. My partner and I are different heights and weights, and we share an office, so that’s important. When I work from home, I only need to make some adjustments to the armrests, seat height, and back angle of the chair to achieve a comfortable sitting experience. And you have a gentle learning curve to make all these changes, it’s easy to know where all the buttons and levers of the chair are. One element we both love is the cooling memory gel seat cushion, which feels supportive and luscious at the same time.

But I think what I love most about the X-chair is its upgradeability. You can opt for a lumbar massage and a separate heating and cooling unit, which keeps your lower back comfortable. There’s a choice between standard wheels or the now popular rollerblading style we’ve added to our last chair. And while we chose black leather, the chair is available in five other fabric and color combinations, so there’s likely something that will work with your home office decor.

If I could change anything about it, it would be the user manual. The X-Chair has multiple models, many of which feature similar features and elements, and the instruction sheet reflects this by combining the instructions for the different SKUs into a single document. Putting the chair together can be confusing — I wish I had known that when we placed our order. Comfort and customization are worth the hassle in the long run, but if you get one for yourself, be prepared for a bit of head scratching when you take it out of the box.