Furniture: Finding Function in Style

If you are setting up a new office, then a glass chair mat is essential for the desks. 

Glass chair mats are made from scratch-resistant, tempered glass. Tempering is the process where glass is strengthened with heat. This makes it so even thin chair mats can hold a lot of weight.

While often an afterthought, chair mats are essential for every desk because they serve a multitude of functions, including:

• protecting hardwood and carpet floors from wear damage
• assisting with ergonomic movement in the chair
• preventing unnecessary wear on the chair's casters

In addition, chair mats are great for reducing static electricity. This makes them ideal for use in computer rooms and places with a lot of electronics.

When buying glass chair mats for your office, consider the following buying tips.

Tip: Use Your Current Chair Movement Footprint for Mat Sizing

Everyone moves around differently in their office chair. If you like to roll around a lot, then you should purchase a larger mat. This ensures you aren't constantly rolling off the edge. If you spend most of your day close to the desk and don't move around a lot, then a smaller mat will work just fine.

To determine the best mat size for how you naturally move, simply put a piece of tape or a sticky note on the floor near your chair as you move throughout the day. By quitting time you can clearly see how big your chair mat needs to be.

Tip: Choose a Glass Chair Mat with a Beveled Edge

Even after you take the step of determining the correct size glass mat, you will still occasionally roll your chair too far off to one side or another.

When this happens, you want a beveled edge to gently transition your chair from the mat to the carpet. Without the beveled edge, your chair could abruptly fall off the mat's edge and lose stability. And, moving back onto the chair mat would require you to stand up from your chair.

When choosing a glass chair mat, always make sure it has a beveled edge for those times your chair moves off of the mat.

Tip: Choose a Chair Mat Appropriate for the Carpet Pile

The longer the carpet in your office is the thicker the chair mat needs to be. A low-pile commercial carpet requires a much thinner glass chair mat than the high-pile carpet found in home offices. This is because a mat placed on hardwood floors or a low pile carpet won't flex very much as your chair moves over it. In contrast, if you put a thin mat over a carpet with a long pile, then it will flex and be prone to cracking or breaking.