H&M will custom make a lumbar pillow for you on request, or can actually customize the chair and add padding in the lower back. But you really do want to try out a stock one first, before customizing one. I ordered mine sight unseen (the first one) and thought it good enough to get a second one for home, but your husband may be looking for a particular fit.

There was a store that carried them in a neighboring, larger city so I did have the opportunity to try it out. I ended up ordering it online. I believe that Herman Miller only has an annual sale on their products, which expired on the 11th. By ordering online I was able to save on another trip, get free shipping and saved on sales tax as well. I'm eager to get it as I'm really ready to get rid of the chair I currently use. I think it is likely that you will have to find a place in a larger city that carry the more expensive chairs mentioned. I have never seen them in a place like Office Depot or Staples.

I got around to reading the JSF Online link for rubberwood and I need to correct their ignorance on the subject trees and wood. First, rubberwood (aka rubbertree, parawood, etc.) is not "a member of the maple family". The Maple family is Aceraceae and it is mostly a temperate group of trees or woody plants which includes the highly valued sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Rubbertree is a member of the Spurge family (Euphoriaceae) which is mostly tropical in occurrence. Sugar Maple is a significantly harder or denser wood than rubberwood. Sugar maple has an average specific gravity of .56 (weight overdry, volume green). Rubberwood is at .49 using the same specific gravity standard (source: USDA Forest Products Laboratory). So rubberwood is the same as a soft maple species (red, Acer Rubrum) in wood density and not hard maple. Rubberwood lumber is cut from very young trees ("26-30 years"). The problem with young trees is the presence of juvenile wood in the core or center of the tree. Juvenile wood has very poor wood strength and stability characteristics compared to older non-juvenile wood. This may not be important for a kid's toy car, but is very important with load bearing chair legs, as an example. Most sugar maple trees are 60-80 years old when cut.The heart of the tree goes into low grade products like ties, pallet cants, or low grade flooring, while the clearer non-juvenile wood becomes grade lumber for things like chair legs. There is very little waste in any wood manufacturing industry today. Slabs from a sugar maple log are chipped for making paper. The bark and sawdust are used as a hog fuel or for animal bedding or for mulch around homes. Some plants even produce their own electricity from wood waste. The JSF online statement of "so unlike other woods that are cut down for the sole purpose of producing furniture," is really ignorant considering the variety of end products made from N. American woods and the complete utilization of the tree. Manufacturer or retailer websites often use false information to help sell their products. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!

We ran into a bit of a snag last night when trying to hook up our components--somehow the installers must have blasted our outlets as now none of them are working. Arguh!!!! We had our regular contractor out last week to move the plug for the charging station and he had to add a junction box. The wires were all pushed back in the wall so we have a sick feeling the installers must've nicked one with a screw. Luckily we've not made the second payment yet for the cabinets (odd they've not asked yet) so we do have some leverage to get a resolution. Who do you think would be responsible for the electrical fee to get it fixed? I'm just hoping they don't have to pull any cabinets off the wall to fix it. As for the rug/floor protector as much as I like this rug when I tried to scoot on and off a rug with my desk chair it was a PITA. I looked at the floor protectors and don't like them. I'd need two and I just don't see it working with the angled seating--unless I were to have one custom made and then there would be plastic over 1/2 the floor and first thing I see when I enter the room. Now I am thinking of using two wooden desk chairs with upholstered seats with no casters and just the felt bumpers on the bottom of the legs. I was originally thinking I'd need the wheeled chairs since we'd need to scoot out of the way to access the center drawers, but it's really not that bad and the felt bottoms allow for some slide without the scratching. So if I go that route, anyone have some suggestions for chairs? Should I look for an unfinished maple chair and see if the custom folks will stain them to match? I'm completely open to other ideas. saraschlos: Yes, I am shameless about copying good ideas and that shredder idea is a good one!