I love my stupid new chair

My old office chair broke a year or so ago, but I resisted replacing it because I hate office chairs. I work from home and my desk is in my living room, so why should I spend a ruinous amount of money to buy a piece of office furniture that is ultimately less comfortable or appealing than the armchair or couch already in the same space. I'm tired of falling for the lies of Big Lumbar and then, in the evenings when I want to play PC games for fun, having to continue to sit in something with all the panache of my local Currys PC World.

I have spent a lot of evenings Googling things like "armchair but for a desk", "office chairs as comfortable as a couch", until I'm twenty tabs deep and my searches become ever more specific ("queen anne wingback chair with wheels for desk", "executive high back reclining office chair padding") and Reddit threads and useless AI summaries start spraying out of my uncomfortable butt. Then I found the HOMRELEXA.

It's got a stupid, all-caps brand name. It's listed on Amazon but sold and shipped by a company called "NaiSa". Its store page displays several, at least partially-fake photos, including what may be an AI-generated cat. It was on sale and so I bought it anyway.

To my slight surprise, it arrived at my home two days later, and to my great surprise, it looks and functions like it does in those photos. There's a footrest that extends from underneath the chair. The back tilts up and down to an almost vertical angle. The armrests fold down flat and did not immediately fall off when my modestly scaled, not-AI dog stood on them.

Best of all, it's soft and wide.

You're supposed to buy an expensive, fancy office chair, because that office chair is designed to support you as you sit at your busy desk job. That only really makes sense if you're sitting normally in your chair, upright and at attention, ready to field questions from your boss or customers while efficiently completing requisition forms and spreadsheets. I sit like a gremlin and talk to no one most days. I alternate from near-vertical with feet on my desk, to one leg tucked under my butt, then the other, to fully cross-legged, then back again. No lumbar support is realistically barring my lum in any of these positions.

The HOMRELEXA Cross Legged Office Chair, Comfy Desk Chair with Footrest, Black, is the chair for the person I am rather than the person I want the NHS physio app to think I am. It's an armchair on casters, as equally comfortable during daytime futzing as evening putzing. It looks at home in my living room. My niece and nephew couldn't get enough of it when they visited recently.

It also makes playing games in the evening feel like a more relaxed experience, and less like a continuation of my work day (which also, to be clear, often involves PC games). It's just a piece of furniture so obviously designed for comfort and fun rather than work. Maybe the world doesn't need a Steam Machine so they can play PC in their living room, maybe it just needs more comfortable office furniture to place in front of their desks.

Will it last? Will its padding wilt over a couple of months of use, its fabric stain and tear, its arms fall off or become immobile under assault from my perma-moulting dog? Possibly. Possibly even probably. There are already signs that the seat cushion is slipping forward within its cover, sloping over the front edge of the chair like a tummy over a belt. I would not recommend anyone buy this. No one should shop at Amazon, which I am not even linking to. Correct your posture and repent, gamer.

But I love my stupid new chair.