In a Nutshell:
The Flash Furniture Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair is a capable, inexpensive little chair. Recommended for anyone up to about 6’2” if you’re lightly built enough to meet the chair’s modest 250-pound weight limit.
Value for the Money
Comfort
Brand Reliability*
Aesthetic Flexibility**
Overall Rating
3.6/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Recommended For: Anyone up to about 6’2” if you’re lightly built enough to meet the chair’s modest 250-pound weight limit.
Are you in the market for a new office chair? Are you on a tight budget without a ton of money to spend? If you answered yes to either of those questions and you’re looking for something basic and inexpensive that gets the job done, then you’re going to like what you see in this review.
Flash Furniture isn’t one of the Titans of the office furniture industry, but they make consistently good furniture and are often mentioned in our roundup reviews, where their products regularly steal the spotlight from much bigger, more established brands.
The Flash Furniture Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair is a good example of their work. It’s well designed, basic, doesn’t try to do too much, and even manages a pleasant surprise or two. What’s not to like about that?
In the sections that follow, we’ll tell you everything this little chair can do, and we’ll be quick to point out the things it’s not so good at. This isn’t a perfect chair, but it just might be the perfect chair for you, depending on your needs. Let’s jump right in and take a closer look!
An Overview of the Flash Furniture Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair
Let’s start by taking a closer look at the core statistics that define the Flash Furniture Mid-Back Vinyl Swivel Task Chair. Here they are:
A couple of things jump out at us right away when we look at these dimensions. First, the maximum supported weight paints this as being a chair for average-sized folk, or taller people with light builds. The seat height range supports this idea, as it strays partway into Big and Tall territory. It’s got the height to accommodate tall users but lacks the robust frame to support big ones.
Second, and another indication that this chair simply wasn’t designed for bigger folk, check out that tiny seat width! Before you purchase this one, you’ll want to make sure you take careful measurements to verify that you’ll fit properly into this one.
If your measurement reveals that this chair is a poor fit, not to worry, in this segment of the market for office furniture, there are lots of options to choose from.
The chair is designed along purely conventional lines, and you shouldn’t have any special problems blending it in seamlessly with whatever your home or office décor scheme might be. Even better, this model is offered in a variety of fun colors, which makes that task even easier. You can pick from:
We’re not huge fans of the quilted design, but if you like it, then you’ll have one more reason to love this little chair.
Adjustability and Comfort
Aesthetics aside, let’s get into the details and talk about what the Flash Furniture Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair can actually do. As you might expect, given its selling price, the answer is not much. It’s built on rolling casters, so you can move about in it while sitting in the chair. And of course, the presence of those casters, coupled with the chair’s light weight makes it easy to relocate from one room to another.
It also swivels, and you can adjust the height of the seat. That’s it. The armrests are fixed in their positions, and the chair does not rock or recline. This is a bare-bones task chair that offers basic functionality.
Having said that, the chair does offer one surprise. It has a single, well-implemented ergonomic feature in the form of a waterfall-edge style seat.
We love it and hadn’t expected to see any ergonomic features at all, honestly. What’s great about the company’s inclusion of that one, in particular, is that if you plan on spending several hours a day in the chair, the seat design will make it more comfortable to do so and you won’t have to worry as much about your legs falling asleep on you. It’s also a good fit if you suffer from poor circulation in your lower extremities anyway.
Comfort-wise, the chair is only modestly padded. As a task chair, it’s not really meant to be used for eight or more hours a day of constant sitting. If you only need a chair for shorter stints, or if you have an active job that sees you sitting for short periods of an hour or two, then up and moving around for a while before returning to your seat, this is ideal.
If you’re looking for something designed to stand up to the rigors of heavy daily use, this isn’t the chair you want, for the following reasons:
That’s not to say this is a bad chair! On the contrary – it’s a very good chair; for the right user.
Assembly is Required (But Help is Available!)
As with most office furniture, if you decide to order the Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair, it will arrive at your door in a large box, and you’ll have to put it together before using it. Interestingly, expert assembly service is available for this model!
Granted, if you order the service, you’ll wind up paying almost as much for it as you do for the chair itself, so it’s probably not worth it for this model, but it’s interesting that it’s offered. If you’d rather not be bothered with the assembly, you can outsource that if you like (and if you’re willing to pay the fee).
If you opt to put the chair together yourself though, you’ll find things pretty straightforward. The instructions fall short of being stellar, but they’re clear enough that you shouldn’t have any problems, and everything you need to complete the assembly comes with the chair itself.
If you’re doing it entirely on your own, expect the process to take about thirty minutes from start to finish. If you have someone on hand to assist when the chair arrives, the two of you can probably knock it out in twenty minutes or so.
Pros and Cons of the Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair
There’s really nothing bad to say about this chair. It is exactly what it looks like: A very basic, no-frills task chair. If that’s what you’re looking for, this is one of the better ones out there for the money. If you want something that offers a variety of advanced or cutting-edge features, then this isn’t the chair you’re looking for.
Final Thoughts – Flash Furniture Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair
It’s important to set expectations when shopping for furniture like this. This chair isn’t going to magically make your back feel better. It doesn’t feature bleeding-edge ergonomic technology, and it’s not loaded with features.
It’s a basic task chair. It’s reasonably well-padded, it rolls and swivels, and it moves up and down. The designers even managed to fit in one basic ergonomic feature in the form of a waterfall edge style seat, but that’s it.
In our view, the ideal user for the Flash Furniture Mid-Back Quilted Vinyl Swivel Task Chair is someone who:
The more of these that apply to you, the happier you’ll be with this model.
For what it is, it’s a tremendous value for the money, but it’s important not to expect too much out of a little chair like this. If you’re on a budget and looking for a decent seating solution, this model is solidly above average. We recommend it.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES:
- Flash Furniture, Official Brand Website.
- Seat Depth Adjustments for Your Office Chair, Verywell Health.
- Stroll Around the Office to Restore Blood Flow to the Legs, Health24.
- 50 Home Office Design Ideas That Will Inspire Productivity, Architectural Digest.
- Office Ergonomics: What it is, Why it Matters & What You Can Do About It!, Office Interiors.