Orthopedic chairs - Sofa (Settee)

Although the sofa has very little in the way of orthopedics going into its design, it remains one of the most popular chairs in stores and showrooms.

The sofa is of course an easy chair or living room chair used primarily for relaxation, watching TV and other sedentary activities. Despite this it is a chair that, over the course of a typical week, can spend many hours supporting the back, limbs and head and therefore its selection is important.

So what should you look for in a good sofa and what should you try to avoid?

Buying a sofa

When it comes to buying a sofa most people have two primary considerations. The first is how it looks and the second is how it feels. Unfortunately the priority that they place on these two factors is normally balanced in the aesthetics direction rather than the comfort and support direction. Trying to reverse this balance and focus on comfort and support rather than style is the first way to ensure that you buy a good sofa.

Because a sofa is a seat used for relaxation it cannot be evaluated in the same way as a task chair or even a dining room chair (which is a form of task chair anyway). Instead a sofa is a chair that people use when they want to feel relax and adopt a body and limb posture that encourages relaxation. For this reason sofas have low deep seating with very inclined backrests and equally soft padding and cushioning. What this does do is enable a sofa to transform or shape itself to the curves of the person who is sitting on it, much in the way that a bed or mattress tries to do when someone lies on it.

As with all chairs, orthopedic or otherwise, the best was to find out if you like a sofa chair is to try it out. When you do this you need to try out different positions and try to get a feel for firstly, the most upright sitting posture that you can attain and secondly, the most reclined, laid back or stretched out position that you can relax into. By doing this you establish the range of comfortable sitting positions that the sofa in question can support you in and this should give you an idea of whether or not the sofa will be comfortable in the long run.

The other important thing to do is to sit on the sofa for as long as possible. In the world of orthopedic beds, buyers are encouraged to take their normal sleeping position on a showroom bed and remain there for as long as possible. This is important because you do not sit down to watch TV for periods of 30 seconds at a time. You may sit down and stay there for three or four hours, so you need to know that your chosen sofa will feel comfortable for long periods of time.

One other thing that you can always do with a sofa or settee is to use scatter cushions to add extra cushioning and extra support. These cushions can be place at strategic positions, e.g. at the small (base) of the back, behind the head or neck, or under the legs. They can change the feel and support structure of any sofa and they allow you to personalise how your body is supported and maintained in a comfortable posture.

Sofas come in a number of styles and designs from those intended to accommodate two people to those that can comfortably seat three, four or more people. One of the more interesting and modern sofa designs is the corner sofa that is "L" shaped in plan and which comes in a number of different styles. Sofas with this shape can seat several people in a small space, or divide a room into different activity areas. They are one of the living room fashion statements of the moment.