5 must-have office chair accessories under $100

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

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Lumbar support
Chair mats
Heating pads
Footrests
Rollerblade casters

Office chairs, like any other home furniture, can be fun to personalize. Nothing makes your home office feel like home more than a few personal touches for added comfort.

Unfortunately, If you've ever tried to accessorize something in your home with third-party products, you may know that it can be a minefield. There are plenty of single-use "gadgets" on the internet that are far more effective at burning through your cash than they are at their advertised function. A cupholder for your swivel chair? Flimsy armrest pads that roll off the moment you shift your weight? No thank you.

Lumbar support pads

Plenty of modern office chairs have lumbar support structure built into their backrests, but that's still not a universal feature — especially on lightweight mesh-lined chairs.

Lumbar support is critical for a happy spine. It keeps your spine in its natural S shape by filling the gap between your forward-curved lower back and your backrest. Without it, you're putting your spine in an unnatural position in which the spine is hyperextended.

You don't have to buy a brand-new chair to get more support, though. There are plenty of third-party lumbar support pads available online that can strap around your backrest. They aren't the perfect fix, as they can slide around if you shift your weight a lot, but they're plenty comfortable and incredibly easy to install.

Chair mats

An office chair on an office chair mat — (Image credit: Branch Furniture)

This isn't necessarily an accessory that goes on your chair, but it pairs perfectly with it. If you have hardwood floors and a concern about scuffing them up, a mat is a great way to add a barrier between that won't get you caught in a snag like a fuzzy rug.

Alternatively, if you're like me and your floor isn't perfectly level, a soft desk mat can add a little bit of resistance to your wheels so you don't slide around uncontrollably. Alternatively, you can upgrade your casters to locking casters to keep your chair firmly in place, but that does ultimately limit your mobility.

Heating pads

One of the best features of modern office chairs is their breathable materials that keep you from feeling too stuffy in your seat. Unfortunately, that breathability can have an adverse effect on your comfort when it starts to get chilly. Enter the trusty heating pad as a remedy.

While this accessory does require a power source, which can make a hurdle out of positioning your chair near an outlet, they can be pretty sleek overall. They're easy to lay out on your seat cushion, and they can get your rump cooking in a matter of minutes. You might not need to keep yours running once your home's heat kicks in, but it's a great way to make the start of your winter workdays a bit more pleasant.

Footrests

A person using a footrest at their desk — (Image credit: Steelcase)

Ideally, you should be able to adjust your office chair so your feet are flat and your upper legs are parallel with the floor. That said, with a footrest, you can give yourself a slightly more elevated perch, and this can also give you a slightly grippier contact point with the ground so you can shift your chair around throughout the day. The best options are also height-adjustable for an even better fit.

This accessory is also great if you aren't particularly tall and you struggle to touch the ground while also reaching your desk. If you try too hard to make contact with the floor, you could find that your seat cushion hits a pressure point behind your knees and cuts off your circulation. That's not a problem with a quality footrest.

Rollerblade casters

A side by side shot of a traditional dual-wheel caster and rollerblade wheels for an office chair — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

We've experimented with caster wheel upgrades in the past, and we were impressed with how smoothly the chair we upgraded could roll around on hardwood floors. This upgrade is a great remedy to the issue of having too much resistance between your chair's wheels and the floor. If your rug is especially fluffy or your hardwood has lots of gaps, this is an affordable way to make your office far more navigable while seated.

Rollerblade wheels are also quieter, they cause less damage on your floors, and they're astronomically more durable. Almost all office chair casters are removable, so it's a worthwhile swap for long-term performance.

Making a great chair even better

There's no denying that plenty of new office chairs don't need to be upgraded out of the box, but that doesn't mean you need to fork over hundreds or thousands of dollars to solve a single issue you may have with your current chair.

There are accessories you can check out beyond this list, for sure. Just be wary of their actual benefit. The internet is rife with opportunities to burn a couple bucks, but the upgrades compiled here are some surefire ways to noticeably improve the performance of your chair.

More from Tom's Guide

Adam Schram was a staff writer covering home office gear for Tom's Guide, writing about everything from standing desks to comfy chairs to the occasional walking treadmill. Prior to his tenure with the team, he reviewed running gear for Runner's World, cycling gear for Bicycling, and the occasional Lego set for Popular Mechanics. Before he became a journalist, he was a bike mechanic in his home town of State College, Pennsylvania for almost seven years. Now, he's based in Philadelphia. He spends his free time ripping his bike around local trails, perusing the local music scene, and trying in vain to do the Sunday crossword without cheating.

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