Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair Review 2024

Are you a taller person who’s in the market for a new office chair? 

If money’s tight, the search can be frustrating because while there are tons of companies offering low-priced office furniture for sale, the quality varies markedly from one company to the next and with so many options available, many people wind up with a kind of analysis paralysis.

If that describes your current situation, we can help, and the Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair is an excellent option to consider. Although offered by an off-brand, which you can read more about in our Modern Luxe office chair reviews, we were pleasantly surprised by the chair’s production quality and found it to be surprisingly full-featured, given its almost shockingly low price.

Even better, it’s offered in a creamy off-white color, which, while not for everyone, is a nod in its favor in our book and certainly sets it apart. We’ll be quick to say that it’s not a perfect chair, but for the money, we were impressed.

In the sections that follow, we’ll review everything this chair can do, what it does well, and its limitations. Even if you ultimately decide this chair isn’t for you, we think you’ll agree that it’s an interesting model and well worth taking a closer look at.

Key Features of the Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair

We almost have to start by talking about the color of the Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office chair. Most office furniture is either slate gray for mesh or black. A few models are upholstered in brown bonded leather, but you very seldom see an office chair offered in cream/off-white. 

We like that and count it among the chair’s positive attributes. It’s still a neutral color, and the chair itself is designed along reasonably conventional lines, making it reasonably attractive and able to blend in seamlessly with various home or office styles.

Chair Specifications

Color aside, let’s take a look at the basic stats that drive and define the model:

There are a couple of interesting things to discuss here. First, the seat height, depth, and height adjustment range all make this chair suitable for big and tall people. 

Unfortunately, the model’s modest weight limit of 225 pounds doesn’t support that. This, then, is a chair that’s great for taller people but not so great for big-boned taller people. 

If you’re short, the Luxe High Back is probably not going to work for you. Even at the lowest setting, the seat is 20” off the ground. That, combined with its impressive seat depth, will make it hard for a short person to use it effectively.

If you sit back, your legs won’t touch the floor. If you sit forward far enough so that your feet touch the floor, you’ll lose out (mostly or entirely, depending on how long your legs are) on the back support. Ultimately, that makes the chair a niche product aimed at taller users with slim or medium builds. If that doesn’t describe you, you still might be able to use the chair, but you’ll need to take careful measurements.

A good office chair is more than a collection of basic stats, however, so in the next section, we’ll take a more in-depth look at what it offers in terms of features you’ll find useful.

The Luxe features a trio of surprisingly well-implemented ergonomic features. We’ll talk about them from the weakest to the strongest.

Ergonomic Headrest

The first feature to mention is the ergonomic headrest. While we’d rate it as the weakest of the three features, this model offers better head and neck support than many other chairs in its price range, so overall, we’d still rate it above average. That matters because the Luxe has a great maximum recline angle of 150 degrees.

Recline Angle

Many low-end office chairs either don’t recline at all or recline to a maximum of 120 degrees. The industry average is about 135 degrees. This model reclines to a maximum angle of 150 degrees, which we find fantastic.

Footrest Option

Modern Luxe sells an optional footrest that matches the chair if you’re interested, or if you’re a bit of a do-it-yourselfer, it’s easy enough to engineer a makeshift ottoman. Whichever way you decide to go, that addition makes this chair even more versatile. It’s not a true recliner, but it is comfortable enough to stretch out and relax after work.

Waterfall Edge Seat

Then, there’s the waterfall-style edge seat. We’re impressed at how well the company implemented this feature because the chair has tremendous padding. That can make it tricky to get the waterfall-edge seat to work how it’s supposed to, but the company did a superb job. 

Even if you spend several hours in the chair, you won’t find that you lose circulation in your legs. In our view, this is one of the clearest points of evidence proving Luxe Modern knows what they’re doing when building quality office furniture. Kudos to Luxe on this feature! A job very well done.

Lumbar Support

However, the real star of the show in this chair is the lumbar support. Luxe has taken an innovative approach here. Not only is the support excellent, but it’s also adjustable. You’ll find a loop of leather that tucks into the seam between the seat and the seat back.

Pulling in this will allow the bottom of the lumbar support to pop out, allowing you to adjust its position to support your lower back, even when you’re leaning forward in your chair and would otherwise have none.

We’ve never seen any other chair do it like that, and we have to say, we like it. Again, kudos to Luxe for going in their direction. You do not often see genuine innovation coming from an off-brand, and we’d love to see more of this type of thing.

Comfortable Padding

The Modern Luxe Inno Series Executive Office Chair doesn’t disappoint in terms of comfort. While the padding is conventional block foam, there’s much of it. You’ll find more than five inches of padding in the seat alone! The padding in the seatback isn’t quite as plush, but it never is, and there’s more than enough to provide a delightful seating experience.

Upholstery

Unfortunately, there’s a drawback. The chair is upholstered in faux leather. It’s not as durable as we’d like to see, and it will start showing its age after about a year of heavy use. You can stretch that to two years if you only use the chair lightly or moderately.

We believe this chair would have been even better if the company had covered it in fabric. It would have been more breathable, more resistant to wear, and better able to withstand the rigors of heavy daily use.

As it stands, the faux leather will make you sweat if you spend more than a few hours at a stretch, which is rather disappointing because it’s got enough padding that if it were upholstered with something more breathable, you’d want to.

Padded Armrests

Moving on to the armrests, they’re well-padded and comfortable but not adjustable and not ergonomically designed. There’s not much to say here except that they are generously padded, and we were pleased to see that the double stitching used elsewhere in the chair also appeared here.

Rocking Feature

The only other thing to mention in our Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair review is that even when you lock the tilt control mechanism, the Luxe still allows you to rock back and forth slightly in the chair. It’s a small touch, but one we like.

Assembly Required

It probably comes as no surprise that if you order this chair, it will be in a large box with several pieces when it arrives at your door. The assembly instructions aren’t great, but they’re not awful, and the production quality is good enough that the assembly process won’t leave you howling in frustration.

Although you will probably encounter at least one screw hole that won’t line up perfectly or has rough edges, so watch your hands and be prepared to do a bit of wrestling where getting the parts to fit neatly together is concerned.

If you’re assembling the chair unassisted, you can expect it to take more than an hour. If you have a trusty assistant, it probably won’t take longer than thirty minutes. Once it’s done, the only thing you’ll have to do is periodically re-tighten the chair arms, which will tend to loosen every six months.

Pros & Cons of the Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair

So where does that leave us?

The Luxe High Back isn’t for everyone, but it does have many features that make it an above-average chair.

We love the overall dimensions, but those are self-selecting features. As we said before, this won’t be the chair for you if you’re a shorter person. Similarly, if you prefer a more traditional color for your next office chair, you’ll almost certainly give this one a pass.

On the other hand, it is delightfully comfortable and surprisingly adjustable. The maximum recline angle is awesome, making it useful for relaxing and working.

We were also impressed with the double stitching everywhere and its well-implemented ergonomic features. Modern Luxe knows how to make good furniture; assuming the chair’s dimensions are right for you, you’ll be pleased by them.

In our view, the model has two negative aspects, one minor and one significant. The minor issue is with the chair arms. Although well-padded and comfortable, they’re not adjustable in any way.

It’s certainly not a deal breaker, but given how well the company implemented the ergonomic features on this chair, we feel that adding ergonomic (and adjustable arms) would strengthen the overall design.

The second issue is with the upholstery. Although the double stitching is an unmistakable sign of quality, at the end of the day, the chair’s covered with an attractive but low-quality material that will show its age quickly and make you sweat if you spend extended periods in the chair.

Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair Review Conclusion

Overall then, we regard the Modern Luxe High Back Executive Office Chair as being well above average but falling short of greatness. That, combined with the fact that it’s definitely a niche product makes it impossible for us to give it a strong recommendation.

However, we do provisionally recommend it for taller users of slim to medium build who are looking for a modestly priced office chair with well-implemented ergonomic features. It’s a great choice for the right user.

References & Resources

• 5 Ways to Make Your Office Desk More Ergonomic, CNET.
• Features to Look f​​or in Ergonomic Office Chairs, Sit Healthier.
• The Biggest Wins (and Mistakes) You Can Make In Your Office Design, Inc.
• How to Make Your Office More Ergonomically Correct, The New York Times.
• Office Layo​​ut Dos and Don’ts for a Productive, Happy Workplace, HR Technologist.