Though many people have a good sense of what is comfortable and what they enjoy sitting in, most people are not so well-informed about what they should look for when shopping for church chairs. There are many different seating options out there, and you want to make sure that the people in your community will sit comfortably during church and other events that will happen in your ministry.
There are some things you will have to decide about the chairs in your church, while there are other things that are definite must-haves. This article will help you decide what kind of chairs to look for in your church, and will also inform you about the necessary features:
1. Stackability or Permanence?
First, you must decide whether you want to put the chairs away or have them stay where they are. If your place for worship is used for other events, or if you want to be able to change the layout of the church on a dime, then you should invest in chairs that can be moved.
These moveable chairs should be:
- Lightweight: There is no point to having heavy chairs if you want them moved quickly and efficiently, and having heavier yet moveable chairs increases the chance that someone could injure themselves trying to move it.
- Stackable: You should be able to stack around eight chairs on top of each other. Usually cheaper chairs can stack higher, but also sacrifice a great deal of comfort and stability in doing so. Chairs should also be stacked neatly without causing damage to the chair over time.
- Stable: Find a chair that is light enough to move but solid enough to have structural integrity for many years of use.
Therefore, if your space is constantly shifting and changing, lightweight and easily stackable chairs are the way to go.
If you don’t plan on rearranging the space at all, then it may make most sense to invest in permanent chairs. This is a little more straightforward, as many churches will invest in pews that will withstand the test of time, or will install very heavy chairs in the space.
2. A Comfortable and Ergonomic Design
The chairs you invest in don’t have to be classified as high-end fashion to be considered ergonomic. You still want to maintain a certain look within your church, and, so, you should not have to sacrifice either comfort or design.
There are certain designs that are more comfortable and can provide more lumbar support to the user:
- A contoured back: When selecting chairs, you should avoid ones that just have a straight back that provides no contour or support. This design should gently hold the upper shoulders while supporting the lower back. The Ergo-V Support System provides just this kind of comfort, while not making the chair appear out of place in a church setting.
- A strong, stable seat: The seat should be made to withstand the test of time, and the test of heavy loads. This is also essential to comfort since unsupportive seats can be just as uncomfortable as unsupportive backs. The Flex-Fit seat is an example of a seat that delivers this kind of strength, endurance, and comfort to the user.
- A solid steel frame: Look for frames that are made with the mandrel bending technique, in which the steel rod is put inside the frame as its being bent into shape. Most other ways of building chairs tend to be a lot weaker and don’t offer as much support. This will give you a stronger chair that is less prone to wrinkles and bending over time.
3. Useful Foam Support and Attractive Fabrics and Finishes
The best chairs will feature firm foam cushioning that won’t wear and tear over time, and will ensure the user’s comfort. While there should not be so much cushion that the chair becomes too soft and unsupportive, there should still be a solid level of foam support that renders the chair comfortable to its user.
Many companies will give you a wide variety of choices in terms of fabric, which will enable you to more fully customize the look of your church. In our opinion, Sherpa & Shire provides some of the best quality fabrics in use by church chairs.
4. Affordable and With a Long Warranty
Having a long-standing warranty is one of the best ways a business can display faith in their product. When it has a long warranty, it means that the business is confident in the ability of their chairs to withstand the test of time and continue performing well throughout the years. Therefore, if you are unsure about the stability or longevity of a chair, this is one easy way to estimate how long a given chair may continue to be used.
There are many things to keep in mind as you shop around for suitable chairs for your worship space, and these are a few of the most important things to keep in mind. You will be surprised just how many options there are in this particular market, but it is often easy to narrow down what you are looking for based on the options on this list.
This information is courtesy of Bertolini, a MITY product collection, www.sanctuaryseating.com.
