A few weeks ago, the top arm coverings of my office chair basically crumbled and fell off.
[Picture of a chair with arms, but the arms are missing a cover.] Black always makes things slimmer. Only in this case, it is slimmer without the rubber covering. [1]
The old coverings were some combination of rubber and plastic and I guess over time, they just became brittle or dried out, and fell apart. This exposed the underlying hard plastic frame underneath. It wouldn't be that bad actually, except for all the square holes, used to both lessen the amount of hard plastic required, and to give the old covers something to grip onto.
[Closeup of an uncovered arm on the office chair showing a surface with cutouts to save material, but makes it uncomfortable to use as an arm rest.] It's a combination arm rest and cheese grater! [2]
Resting my arms on the bare arm rests is uncomfortable—it's not exactly cutting into my skin, but I can feel the square holes which is unpleasant, and left a square pattern on my arms. My idea was to take some foam and wrap some cloth type material around it and the plastic frame. But it was Bunny who made the new covers from material lying about Chez Boca.
[Picture of a new arm cover for an office chair.] Grab a strobe black light, turn up the techo, and we can have a rave! [3]
It's basically a tube of cloth wrapping the foam, with some extra material folded back onto itself to form some flaps to go around the ends of the arm rests. Here I am demonstrating how it works with my fingers.
[Picture demonstrating the flap on the new arm covers to hold it onto the chair.] Makes for a lousy puppet. Maybe with some googly eyes? [4]
The material has some stretch ability, which helps to keep it on the arm rests.
[Picture of a chair with arms, now with the new arm covers.] Is it not nifty? [5]
It adds a nice bit of color to the chair, and it's a lot more confortable than the old covering. Nice job indeed!
[1] /boston/2023/02/16/naked-chair.jpg
[2] /boston/2023/02/16/naked-arm.jpg
[3] /boston/2023/02/16/new-sleeve.jpg
[4] /boston/2023/02/16/flap.jpg
![[1] /boston/2023/02/16/naked-chair.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/02/16/naked-chair.jpg){kind=link}
![[2] /boston/2023/02/16/naked-arm.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/02/16/naked-arm.jpg){kind=link}
![[3] /boston/2023/02/16/new-sleeve.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/02/16/new-sleeve.jpg){kind=link}
![[4] /boston/2023/02/16/flap.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/02/16/flap.jpg){kind=link}
![[5] /boston/2023/02/16/clothed-chair.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2023/02/16/clothed-chair.jpg){kind=link}