The chair doesn't need lore

I like a chair left in a stupid place.

Game rooms often make furniture work too hard. A chair points toward the bloodstain or blocks the secret panel. Put a diary page on the seat and the poor thing is practically a quest log. I understand why. A developer had to spend time making it, so it may as well be useful.

I still want a few objects that are just awkward. Put a chair by the stove because the imaginary person who lived there got cold, even if it makes a cupboard annoying to open. Nobody needs to explain this in a collectible note.

When everything has been arranged for the player, I start seeing the level designer behind the room. Even the mess can look carefully spaced. A badly parked chair suggests that this place had minor problems before I arrived, and that nobody expected me to investigate them.