The Kerbey Chair by UPLIFT Desk

I am about three months in with my nomadic lifestyle after departing the Catskill Mountains of New York in August. Considering that one of the focus areas of my practice is in workspace design and wellness for other online entrepreneurs and busy professionals who work from home, I am experiencing a new side to the work-from-home phenomenon. As a nomadic digital entrepreneur there is no longer one fixed home office space that will be the anchor of my work year, but rather a series of different home workspaces that will serve their purpose during the time spent in separate places throughout the year.

For the entire month of October, I was visiting with my parents in Southern Arizona in a lovely guest bedroom suite. The workspace in this scenario includes a small white desk within the bedroom space. The room is large enough to accommodate some separation between the desk zone and the sleeping zone, but placing a typical office chair in the same room would be too bulky and awkward. For some time, my mother would typically make use of a cherry wood dining room chair for the desk in the guest bedroom, but it did not match the other furniture in the room (which is primarily black stained wood). Overall, the guest space is of a neutral palette with light grey painted walls, grey ceramic flooring, and white painted trim and accents. All of the furnishing is black except for a grey wool fabric side chair and the white laminate desk.

I decided to try out the new Kerbey Chair by UPLIFT Desk for the guest room workspace because it has a nice light and airy feel and is just the right size for desk. When you order a product from UPLIFT Desk you get excellent delivery and service – you can read more about that in my past blog post on Unboxing Productivity. Just like my previous experience, the FedEx delivery occurred in a timely manner, and the product arrived well-packaged and undamaged. One thing to note with the Kerbey Chair is that the product comes in sets of two, but the items arrived in one box. There is also a Kerbey Barstool, which is similar in design but with the seat height appropriate for sitting at a countertop.

After opening the box and unpacking the contents, I decided to streamline my assembly process by conducting the same steps for both chairs as I put them together. The instructions are quite straightforward and easy to follow, but there are quite a few screws and some parts to keep track of. One thing that I realized during assembly is that you will want to have a horizontal surface, such as a table or bed, for attaching the aluminum frame to the seats since this creates an L-shape while you still need to keep the seats upside down and level (see the center image above). Overall, the assembly didn’t take more than 25-minutes.

The Kerbey Chair is designed with a blonde laminate wood for the seat, back, and legs. The seat and back also have a vegan black leather cushioned padding, which is super easy to keep clean and looks sleek. The seat and back are connected with a black aluminum frame component. The aesthetic is a Scandinavian style, which I love for the home office as it keeps with a minimalist language. In the guest bedroom workspace, the Kerbey Chair brings a perfect finish by integrating the neutral color palette of the cooler greys and whites and blacks in the room with the warmer neutral of the blonde wood in the chair. I decided that the warmth of the blonde wood also shares the tonality of my gold MacBook laptop – creating a somewhat seamless aesthetic for this temporary home office space of mine!

At the time of writing this blog post, I have used the Kerbey Chair for a little more than a week and am quite satisfied with its functionality. It is lightweight, so I can easily move it out from the desk during use and back in close to the desk when I am done. The padded seat cushion and backing are quite comfortable while not being bulky and the chair supports decent posture for the duration of my work sessions. I am not exactly working eight- and ten-hour days at the desk every day of the week, since some time is spent making site visits, doing collaborations, and creating content. But now and then I have long stretches of production at the desk and the Kerbey Chair is serving me well. I love the versatility of its design because it is made as a café style chair, but works perfectly well for the desk of a guest home office too!

One thing I love about a stationary desk chair (as opposed to an office chair on caster wheels) is that it keeps you a little more still during video calls or filming. I see this all the time on video calls and some video content where the speaker will be moving around, either swiveling side to side, or rolling back and forth or to the side, while they speak. It is actually quite distracting (and I’m definitely culprit to this unconscious behavior too), so having a stationary chair fixes your position to reduce this motion.

The Kerbey Chair is all around delightful and could also be used for a café table, multipurpose spaces, dressing rooms, and more. I really like the affordable price-point given the quality and durability of the materials and design. The craftsmanship of the laminated wood and vegan leather combination is exceptionally beautiful. I also know that UPLIFT Desk adheres to excellent supply chain and sourcing ethics as well as environmental standards for their products.

As I’ve been working remotely from southern Arizona this month, I’ve found that even temporary spaces can benefit from thoughtful design — and the right chair can make all the difference. The Kerbey Chair by UPLIFT Desk was a fantastic addition to the guest workspace, providing a cohesive visual touch that is also grounded and structured. You may be wondering – what did we do with the second chair? I’m accepting guesses (and suggestions) via email and social media – so share your thoughts!

If you are interested in optimizing the design of your home workspace, reach out to AIDA, LLC today for a complimentary clarity call. You can always find more information and healthy home resources at Aletheia Ida Design Atelier, LLC (AIDA, LLC) at  www.aletheiaida.com.