Shappa: Creating Ergonomic Workspaces That Support the Way You Work

Back pain. Stiff shoulders. Tired eyes. That 3pm energy drop that has nothing to do with coffee, and everything to do with the chair you have been sitting in for six hours. These are not inevitable parts of working. They are the predictable result of workspaces that were designed around cost and appearance, not around how bodies actually work.

Shappa was founded in Melbourne in 2020 on a single belief: your workspace should not make it harder to do your work. It should support you — and through that, help you focus, feel better, and keep going.

What We Mean by an Ergonomic Workspace

An ergonomic workspace is not a single product. It is a setup where your chair, your desk, your monitor and your environment work together — so your body is supported in the way it needs to be across the full working day, not just for the first half hour.

The three elements that matter most:

• An ergonomic work chair — supports your lumbar curve, positions your hips correctly, and reduces the pressure that builds up on your spine and hips across long sitting hours
• A height-adjustable desk — lets you match the desk surface to your elbows whether sitting or standing, rather than forcing your shoulders and wrists to adapt to a fixed height
• The right environment — monitor at eye level, good lighting, enough room to shift position naturally through the day

When these elements are dialled in together, the physical effort of maintaining posture fades into the background. You stop noticing your workspace. That is exactly the point.

Why Shappa Exists

The founders of Shappa experienced the problem directly: spending long hours at desks that were never built for long hours. Back pain, shoulder tension, difficulty concentrating, that familiar low energy that arrives by mid-afternoon — not from the work itself, but from the environment it was being done in.

Shappa is not just about making office furniture. We set out to rethink the relationship between people and their workspaces — to bring the lumbar support, desk height flexibility and adjustability range that used to belong only to premium corporate fit-outs into everyday home offices and workspaces at a price that makes sense.

Based in Dandenong South, Melbourne, Shappa now ships across Australia. The range has grown from chairs to a complete ergonomic workspace lineup: seating, electric standing desks, and workspace accessories that tie the setup together. Read more about Shappa →

Ergonomic Chairs

Shappa's chairs cover the full range of sitting needs — from everyday home office use to long-hour professional environments:

• A19 and A7 — everyday ergonomic work chairs with breathable mesh backs, adjustable lumbar support and memory foam cushions, built for daily home office and desk use
• Smile and Spencer — mesh ergonomic chairs with higher adjustability: four-level lumbar systems, multi-axis armrests and built-in footrests for longer sessions
• S5 — Shappa's premium chair, with a waist-and-back linkage lumbar system that adapts to your lower spine as you move and high-resilience molded foam at 60+ kg/m³ for all-day support

Browse the full ergonomic chair range →

Not sure where to start? Read our A19 vs A7 comparison, the Smile vs Spencer mesh review, or why the S5 is built the way it is.

Electric Standing Desks

The standing desk benefits people notice most are not just about standing up — they are about having the option to switch positions throughout the day. Staying in any single posture for hours, whether sitting or standing, builds tension. A fixed-height desk removes the option to change, which means if the height is wrong, your shoulders, wrists and neck absorb the difference all day.

Getting standing desk ergonomics right comes down to one measurement: your elbow height. Whether sitting or standing, the desk surface should meet your elbows with your shoulders relaxed — not the other way around. Shappa's electric standing desks adjust at the touch of a button, with memory presets that lock in your sitting and standing heights so you can switch without stopping what you are doing.

• MS1 — single motor, 72–110 cm height range, 120 kg load capacity. A practical starting point for sit-stand working
• MS2 — dual motor, 63–125 cm, 160 kg load capacity, square tube frame. The widest height range in the lineup, suited to users from 150 to 200 cm
• MO2 — dual motor, 63–125 cm, 160 kg load capacity, oval tube frame for a cleaner finish. Same capability as the MS2

Browse the full standing desk range →

A Workspace That Works With You

Everything Shappa builds points at the same outcome: a workspace that takes care of your body so you can focus on the work. Not one that requires you to adapt to it, compensate for it, or simply get used to it.

We know work can already be demanding. Your workspace should not make it harder.

If you are building a setup or working out where to start:

• How to adjust your ergonomic chair — seat height, lumbar, armrests and headrest, step by step
• Ergonomic chair cushion materials explained — molded foam vs memory foam and what the density difference means
• What to look for in an ergonomic chair — the features that actually matter and which Shappa model covers each