If you live near a university you can check their surplus store, often they have things beyond just the standard upholstered Steelcase chair, although those are also functional.

Find a used office supply and get a chair made for filling out excel spreadsheets for a living for like $50. It’ll be way more comfortable and last a lot longer than a cheap brand.

I have a Sihoo chair and its brilliant for the price. Its not perfect sometimes the screws losen and need tightening again but otherwise feels like a quality chair for the price. I wouldn’t really call it cheap tho but its not a Herman Miller either but anything that isn’t a gaming chair is infinitely better. The sihoo chairs come in a few colours mine is orange and actually looks quite nice visually but please for the love of all things in the universe don’t get any kind of gamer chair

Keyboard - can’t go wrong with keychron tbh

Mouse - i quite like the logitech mx master myself but it ain’t cheap, entirely personal preference

Monitor - I’m really liking my gigabyte monitor with built in KVM which is super useful for switching between work laptop and desktop (for playing games during work hours) but in the case of your laptop it means the usb in the monitor is passed through to the usbc cable to the laptop and it also does charging (not very high wattage) so its like a usbc dock. Very very useful for just plug and go with my work laptop

good

cheap

buddy this is america, here you can’t buy literally anything that’s good OR cheap, let alone both

Death to America

If you DO play video games at your computer, or DO fill out excel sheets for a living, an actual office task chair is completely indispensable, and I highly recommend choosing a functional seat over an appealing one.

If not, you’ll have better luck searching for “poker chair”, for the listed set of requirements. Actually, given the hexbearian nature, “mahjong chair”. Can’t say if anything isn’t shitty, I haven’t sat in one, but those are other tasks where someone sits for hours on end. “Sewing chair” applies too, but sewing station height is less likely to match normal desk height, and not many of the non-excel/gamer chairs will be height adjustable (and getting the height wrong will kill your wrists).

I was on the same hunt years ago and I ended up picking a vintage chair that I found locally, it looks a lot like this one.

Wood with wool upholstering, looks nice in my office which is mostly all wood furniture, and one of the comfiest chairs I’ve ever used for how I sit. I tend to sit cross legged in my chairs and since this is a flat cushioned bottom that works well.

It was free even, my one regret is not grabbing both of them

Edit: I looked up a city similar to my own and found a couple like what I have. https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/fuo/d/glen-ellyn-green-executive-high-back/7788738718.html

I’m pretty fond of the Ikea Markus chair.

The only issue really is the arms on the side. If you are someone who leans to one side, or leans on your elbow while sitting, you’ll be very uncomfortable. But you could probably just leave the arms off if you wanted. I eventually broke myself of the habit. It leans back pretty far, and as someone kind of tall, it’s nice having a very high back.

I would also recommend, regardless of what you get, that you invest in some Roller Blade style replacement caster wheels. They make a huge difference when it comes to how well the chair rolls.

haha i had the same kind of question, unfortunately… those dont really exist, unless youre willing to go the custome made route, which is horribly expensive. I decided to give my ocd a big fuck you and ordered a german office chair, looks dumb, but my back needs it :/ Good luck on finding something to your taste! (and keep us posted on your progress im curious to see what you find)

piano bench

Get an IKEA MARKUS, best decision I ever made. Cheap and my back remains unfucked.

i am personally a fan of the ergochair pro by autonomous. probably the best chair i’ve ever owned. it is a bit pricey though.

Had the same question few months ago. I just had to give up and buy a gaming chair instead

impossible

I got a Serta chair that looks like this:

Don’t remember what the chair was called, but the same basic shape is used in dozens of Serta chairs. I like it because it’s the most comfortable office chair I’ve ever had.

Synthesis: Paradox gaming chair