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Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/26/a-yearish-with-the-eames-chair/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60847

Roughly a year ago (actually closer to thirteen months), a chair arrived at the house: an Eames Lounge Chair, that classic piece of midcentury furniture, beloved of tweedy intellectuals and pretentious jazz aficionados everywhere. I had wanted one for years but couldn’t rationalize buying the thing, because they were (and are) stupidly expensive; I could and have furnished two entire rooms with couches and televisions for what this one chair costs. I finally rationalized purchasing one because it was on sale, I had come into some unexpected money, and the world was on fire, so might as well be comfortable amidst the flames. It arrived and has been ensconced in the corner of my office since then. I sit my ass into it on a daily basis when I am home.

Some thoughts on the Eames chair, a year on:

1. I spent extra to have the chair made bespoke, with an oiled santos palisander shell and prone leather in “vine” (aka a deep, slate-y green), but I also have cats who honed in on the chair like the furry clawed missiles they are. So, basically, from the first day the chair arrived it’s been covered in plush blankets, both the chair and included ottoman. This has not detracted from the comfort of the chair (and indeed may have added to it), but I suppose there is something undignified in having a piece of celebrated modern industrial art draped in a fuzzy Ohio State poly-blend throw, with a “tortilla” blanket of the same material on hand to drape over me when I sit in it. Sorry, Eames chair. You deserve better. But, cats.

(edit to add: the “honed in” was a pun that some overenthusiastic grammar correctors missed and tried to correct in the comments. Cats, claws, etc.)

2. Because I didn’t regularly sit in the previous chair that was in the spot the Eames chair now occupies, it actually took me a few months to use it on a frequent basis. Which is not to say the Eames did not get use; the aforementioned cats took to it immediately. It was not unusual to have one cat in the Eames and another in the cat tree next to it, and after a couple of hours they’d swap positions. At some point I decided that if I had spent that much damn money on the thing, I was going to use it, so I basically trained myself to get into the chair. After a certain point the training took.

3. One big reason the training took: Oh my God, this thing really is as comfortable as advertised. It is not overly soft, like so many recliners are; you don’t feel like your ass is sinking into marshmallow or anything like that. It’s soft enough, but it’s also supportive. I don’t get an ache in my lower back when I sit in it for extended periods of time. The ottoman is (naturally) the perfect height for your legs when you’re sitting in the chair. It just. Feels. Good.

Is it several thousand dollars worth of feeling good? That’s going to be a judgment call. I suspect there are many less expensive chairs (including some Eames knockoffs, probably) that are as supportive and good feeling. But I don’t have those chairs in my house, I have this one. And this one is pretty great.

4. Here is what I think is the real acid test for me, regarding the comfort of this chair: I fall asleep in it pretty much every day, a nice 15-minute nap or whatever, usually in the mid-to-late afternoon. And you say, big ideal, lots of people fall asleep in chairs, old man. And you’re not wrong, except for this: I don’t fall asleep in any other chairs, in our house or out of it. I’m not a chair sleeper and never have been. Sleeping sitting up is just not a thing I do.

Except in this chair. This chair knocks me right the fuck out. That’s gotta mean something.

5. Now my daily schedule is something like this: Morning and early afternoon, I’m at my desk, using the full-size keyboard and monitor (I have an ergonomic chair there, never you worry). Sometime between 3 and 4, I’ll go that’s enough of that and I’ll get up, walk six feet and plop my ass into the Eames chair. I’ll place a can of soda on the handy window sill, crack open my MacBook Air, fire up a 15-to-20-minute YouTube video, conk out to (usually) someone talking about food or environmental tech, wake up when the video is done and then answer email or fart about on social media or (like right now) write on the blog. I don’t do a lot of long-form writing in the chair because laptops are not ergonomic wonders, especially when, as I so often do, I have a cat colonizing my lower half. But for short stuff it’s fine.

Sometimes I’ll take video calls from my chair since my desktop computer doesn’t have a webcam, but my laptop does. If I’m watching something longer than a YouTube video, I might hook up my AR glasses to my Air and project the thing to a virtual 120-inch screen that goes wherever my head goes, thus avoiding the dreaded laptop neck crick. Yes, I look like a dork. But no one else is usually in my office for this indignity, and anyway, I’m comfortable. All told, my Eames chair time is pretty good.

6. Do I have complaints about the Eames chair? A couple. Like a sports car, it’s a little low, so there’s a some maneuvering to get in and out of it, including negotiating the ottoman. If you want to have your Eames chair have a different angle of recline, you’re out of luck (although I know at least one knock-off version offers that). And in my case, I have to constantly reposition the blankets as they tend to bunch up when I’m sitting in the chair.

Also, shit, it’s a lot of money for a damn chair. One of the nice things about these chairs is that they retain their value extremely well; it’s entirely possible one day I (or more likely Athena) can sell the chair for more than what I paid for it. eBay currently has vintage Eames chairs going for ten to fifteen thousand dollars, which is an argument for me keeping the blankets on this thing. Design Within Reach, the store I bought this chair from, keeps sending me emails with other really expensive furniture on offer, on the idea that if I bought one ridiculously expensive piece of furniture, I might buy others, too. Sorry, guys. One’s enough. Our other furniture isn’t cheap. But it’s not this expensive.

7. The Eames chair is expensive as hell, but a year in I think I’ve been getting value out of it, and am likely to continue to get value out of it for a good long time. On balance it’s been worth the initial sticker shock, and will become even more so as we go along. I don’t think a chair like this is necessary, or even advisable, for most folks. You can buy a lot of other really excellent chairs for a hell of a lot cheaper than this, and probably should.

But you know what? If you can splurge, there are a bunch of worse things you could blow this sort of money on. If you take care of this chair, it is likely to outlive you, and while you live, you will be extremely comfortable in it. I’m glad I bought one. I’m not going to get two.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/26/a-yearish-with-the-eames-chair/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60847

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/26/new-cover-high-fidelity/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60841

It was a holiday weekend and when I wasn’t de-skunkifying a dog, I had some free time, so I went ahead and did another cover song, this one from Alisa Xayalith, who is probably best known as the lead singer of The Naked and Famous, but who has put out a solo album while that band as been on a break. This song was one she put out in the run-up to that album. It’s simple but lovely.

My version probably isn’t quite as lovely as hers (she has a rather better voice, for one thing), but it was fun to do and my falsetto got a bit of a workout, so there is that. Enjoy.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/05/26/new-cover-high-fidelity/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=60841