Conference rooms, especially the main conference room or boardroom types have
always been designed to have the look and feel of elegance, with wood finishes
being a major part of the room's design. While the conference table may be
protected using glass or desk pads, the conference room chairs may pose a
durability problem. Wood chairs are more subject to damage, especially if the
chair has wood or wood cap arms. Over time, the arms may become damaged be
hitting the edge of the conference table as well as the adjacent chairs. The
chair's wood arms will also damage the edge of the table. We have found the best
solution is to select a chair with a polyurethane arm, which is soft and more
forgiving than wood when the arm is hit. Fabric arms will show soiling over time
from the hands of people using the chairs. Examples of well designed conference
chairs are

Via Bergan Chair or the

Global Venture Chair . Selecting the correct conference chair will add year
to the look of your conference room.

#Posted by Jill N

This is great information since we ran into the problem with our conference table and chairs. One additional word of advise regarding conference room furniture durability, we wanted the look of wood for the table and other furniture components and we were considering an all wood conference table. We ended up selecting a conference table that was a wood grain laminate top with a real wood edge. This gave us the durability we needed, but the look of wood. Cleanup is a breeze, using a spray cleaner to clean the top if needed.

#Posted by Halle B

We have the same problem with our office chairs and having wood arms, but in the offices rather than the conference rooms. The office chairs are damaging the front of the desks not to mention the desk chair's arms. We put a vinyl strip on the edge of the desk, but it looks terrible. We had the same problem with desk chairs with fabric covered arms, with them wearing over time, but it did not damage the desk as much as the wood. The suggestion to use vinyl arms is a good idea for both private offices and conference rooms.

#Posted by Jan Kane

The is great information of the wood armed chairs. We are finding the same with our company in the offices. We ended up replacing the office chairs with ones that are soft plastic covered and the chairs work great. We have wood side chairs that work well since the chairs do not touch the desk. By the way, we replaced th office chairs with mesh back and fabric chairs from Office Star Seating and the chairs are loved by all.

#Posted by Hank W

I suggest that in conference rooms that you keep the chairs as simple as possible as it relates the the chairs mechanisms and arms. Stay away from computer chairs with adjustable arms and alot of adjustments on the controls. Adjustable arms are not good because people play around with the heights. The best conference room chairs have been ones with seat height adjustments, lock the chair's seat in an upright position and pneumatic seat height adjustment. The comments on soft poly arms is correct and wears well.