There is no Indian seller listing the Big Apple styling chair. It is imported to order, and at the international price of $1,377 to $1,530 it works out to roughly ₹1.15 lakh to ₹1.3 lakh at current rates, before shipping and customs duty are added on top. That is the first thing to know, because the same search on India market turns up hydraulic chairs made in India from ₹6,500 to ₹16,000, and the gap between those two numbers is most of the decision.
The wait is the second thing. A made to order import lands 2 to 3 months after payment, with customs clearance on top, so the chair goes on order before the rest of the room and the room gets sorted while it is on its way.
The Room While You Wait
The chair is 75 cm wide and 71 cm deep, about the size of a small armchair, but it spins a full circle on its base and the arms sweep through everything inside that circle. A square about a meter each way is enough floor. Less than that and the armrest hits the dressing table on every turn.
- Width 75 cm, about 29.5 inches.
- Depth 71 cm, about 28 inches.
- Seat height 45 to 64 cm, about 18 to 25 inches.
The Floor
Hard floor is what it wants, and in most Indian bedrooms that is already the case. On marble, vitrified tile or wood the steel base sits flat and turns cleanly. The problem comes from rugs rather than carpet. A rug with any pile under the chair means the base finds the edge every time you swivel, and a 5 arm base sitting half on a rug rocks on 3 arms with the other 2 off the ground.
A thin flat weave rug is the only kind that works under it, and the chair turns better with no rug at all.
Where a room is carpeted wall to wall, a rigid chair mat under the base, cut wide enough that the full turn stays on it, stops the base sinking into the pile. A few of the home decor ideas here keep rugs away from anything that turns for exactly this reason, and I think that is right.
The Base
The base is chosen at the time of the order. The standard is a chromed 5 arm star, and a polished stainless steel disc is offered as an upgrade. Both carry the same pump, so the choice does not change the height range or the lock.
The disc looks better, and that is probably the honest reason most people choose it. It is a flat polished circle with nothing sticking out from under the seat. Some of the furniture ideas on this site build a room outward from one piece, and if the chair is that piece, the disc is the version that reads as furniture rather than as equipment sitting in a bedroom.
The Height Range
A dressing table sits at desk height, and a desk wants a seat about 18 inches off the floor. The chair bottoms out at 45 cm, which is 18 inches, so at its lowest it is a dressing table chair. The foot pump takes it up another 19 cm to 64 cm, which is the height for somebody standing behind you doing your hair or bridal makeup, and it locks anywhere in between.
An ordinary bedroom chair gives you 1 height. This one gives you a range, and I think the range is the only real reason a room would have one of these instead of any other chair.
Colors And The Indian Made Alternative
Black and brown are the stock colors. Anything else is made to order and adds to the wait, so a room planned around a green or a cream chair is a room planned further ahead.
The Indian made hydraulic chairs on IndiaMART run from ₹6,500 at the bottom to about ₹16,000 for a stainless frame with a reclining back, and most of them do the same 2 things this chair does, a pump that lifts the seat and a base that turns. The difference is in the molded foam shape and the finish, and whether that is worth a lakh more is a question about the room and not about the mechanism.
The Day It Arrives
The lowest setting is where it lives. It only goes up when somebody is standing behind you, and it comes back down when they leave.
The pump locks, and locking it low on the first day matters more than it sounds, because a child leaning on the arm of an unlocked chair drops it a foot. After that has happened a couple of times the chair tends to end up in the store room.