Extensions for Recliners, Zero Gravity, and Lift Chairs for Tall People 6

A reclined position is great for taking a load off at the end of the day. It’s also helpful for recovering from musckuloskeltal injuries, which we tall people tend to have more than our fair share of. The question though is where can you find decent recliners and other similar chairs for tall people?

I needed an answer to this question last year as I had hip surgery (for FAI) and my recovery had to be done mostly in a reclined position. So I decided to go looking for some kind of recliner for tall people. Sounds simple, right? But at 6’7″, this is a tall order. I visited half a dozen furniture stores and no chairs were nearly tall enough for me. And after searching online, all I could find was a bunch of big and tall reclining chairs I doubt would have had high enough backs to support my head and are huge. So I decided to take a DIY approach.

Update: I’m hearing from numerous tall people that they get by pretty good with big and tall recliners. One’s called The Beast and another falls into the category of “texas size recliners”. Kind of reminds of Texas King beds.

The chair I adapted is a Pride Infinity Lift Chair size large. I’ll explain my criteria for picking this chair at the end of the post. They’re fairly common and I found mine used.

Like most recliners, the frame for the back has two long wooden struts. I found I was able to screw a couple 1″x4″ pieces of wood to them quite easily. To these I screwed a piece of plywood, creating an extended section. All that was needed then was to cover a block of foam with some cloth, staple it to the plywood, and voila, an extra long recliner for tall people!

Okay, so it isn’t the prettiest thing in the world. But with some paint, better matching cloth and a perfectly sized foam block, you could make it pretty snazzy. Also, if you wanted to make it an even better chair for tall people, you could build a platform to raise it off the ground, and extend the footrest similarly. But I didn’t feel this was necessary as most of my unusual height comes from my torso and mine already has a lift mechanism to help me get up and down. The one aspect you can’t easily adapt to make it an ideal chair for tall people is the seat pan. But I didn’t find the seat pan to be too short at all, particularly in a reclined position.

Below are my criteria for choosing the Inifinity Pride chair.

In retrospect, I’m also grateful for the extra weight that comes with the heavy duty lift mechanism. Without it, the chair would have been very tippy. As it is, when my toddler comes climbing up on me I tip backwards!

I know DIY isn’t for everyone. The vast majority of us would rather just spend whatever it costs to get something off the shelf. But I just couldn’t find any recliners and similar chairs that are designed for extremely tall people like myself. But perhaps I missed something you know of. If so, please tell in the comments!

If you liked this DIY tall chair, you might also check out the patio zero gravity chair for tall people I built a while back.