Back in Houston

in my house. 2 car garage, room to work, need to buy everything (tools, parts, work table, odds n ends) because I sold everything when i moved into an apartment in Memphis. I still believe these chairs serve a need and are a viable product. I do not have my old prototype Chunky Chair, had to leave it in Memphis.

If big & tall, fat & cuddly, large & wide people have a need for a strong, stable, comfortable and frankly pretty ugly out door, patio chair I am going to start on a new one. Definitely have some issues that became apparent from the last version that need to be addressed, going to start today. If you come to this blog/site and have any interest what so ever in this product leave a comment, shoot me a line at tbc.

Nuttin' Honey

No news, Chunky Chairs on hold.

Update

No, a new model was not built, job promotion, new city, new abode. I will not be building a new Chunky Chair for a while. In fact the last prototype sitting on my back deck in Memphis will be sold before I move in a couple of months.
Chunky Chair is on my mind, new one will be built, not right now.

Chunky Chair Outdoor Patio Furniture For Big and Tall

Above is the blog post title that gets all the hits despite being 18 months old, so I am using it again. I am designing and will sell a heavy duty strong, solid, safe and ugly patio chair to comfortably seat fat & happy, heavy & tall, big & beautiful people safely and comfortably. I realized no one builds a sold strong out door, patio, garden chair for big guys and girls. Butt height seat, solid and secure no frills safe chair. Stay tuned.

Alive and Kicking

However I cannot get the new design right. The first Chunky Chair in the photos is as solid and strong as the day I built it. It has been sitting on my patio for over 2 years, looks exactly the same as when it was built.

I sit on my Chunky Chair most days either with a cup of tea, to throw milk bones for my dog to chase, to read outside or all three.

The chair still has a cheap lawn chair cushion I bought from Target(it's in the top set of photos), is comfortable and more important feels as solid as a rock. Because of it's weight and strong construction when I sit down it does not flex, shake, tremor or show any signs of weakness whatsoever.


Short & Fat, Big & Tall, Chunky or Obese this garden, patio, outdoor chair supports everyone. My goal is to make a smaller version with less length and mass. Reduce the leg area and find a better back support method.

It will always be built on wheels, be very heavy, very strong and I am sure ugly as hell. It is designed to support big, fat & heavy people to allow us to sit outside on a safe strong comfortable year round patio chair without lowering ourselves onto close-to-the-ground chairs that are difficult to get up from or sit on inside furniture brought outside for us.

Built at butt height, you lower yourself an inch or two to sit, you swing your body put your feet on the ground and stand up easily to get off. Nothing fancy.

I'll get back to you on my design drought.

Pants on fire

Is it still a lie if I really intended to start the chair? Never mind temps are dropping yesterday we hit lowest temp since February 22 this year. Believe that was 62. Chunky Chair is up and running.

Sirius XM did not even fight me for the 5 months for $25 deal for the radio in the garage so I have commercial free music. Must be inflating the subscriber numbers for year end. Works for me. I renewed my just expired 3 month free new car trial for the same amount.

Time Flies When you have a real job

Still doing the drawings for the new Chunky Chair.
If I don't have drawing w/dimensions and measurements I will not be able to duplicate the chair and if I get it right I will need to build more.

Plan is to build in September and start showing it at Cook Offs, Dog Shows, Houston LS and Rodeo in March and anywhere fat people may roam. My son will build a web site, I just need to get the design right. The chunky chair in the photos above is too much for most people although I love it.

An oversize patio, deck, back yard piece of furniture built for Big & Tall, Short & Fat, Overweight, heavyweight, obese, tall and wide or anyone who wants a very solid very strong patio chair.

Building a new Chunky Chair to sell

My teenage son expressed support and confirmation he thinks people will buy this chair. He has a number of friends with big Dads who grill in the yard and always return inside their homes after they have tended the meat.

We both feel (it applies to me) if there was somewhere comfortable and easy to sit big guys & gals would stay outside check the grill and talk with friends & family.

Every time I have friends over there are a couple of people who take over the Chunky Chair on my deck (the one in the photos). It is very comfortable the user is seated higher than all other patio and deck furniture on a very solid structure. This chair does not move when you sit on it. It is rock (wood) solid there is no swaying or moving as the person's weight descends and settles on the Chunky Chair. We estimate it weighs around 200 lbs built of bolted and screwed solid wood sitting on industrial strength wheels and solid steel axles.

The Chunky Chair is built to be occupied every day and all day. It is designed to sit outside in all weathers and be used with or without a cushion. It is painted with elastomeric paint that repels water (the white color actually stays cool to the touch even in direct sunlight in Houston).

The chair is designed to be the correct height to allow the owner to sit on it without dropping down far to meet the seat and to get off by standing from the seated position without needing hand grips or assistance to stand. You can sit side saddle with your feet on the chair side support or ground or sit on it properly using the adjustable back rest that adjusts from lying nearly horizontal to seat back nearly straight, your feet on the front foot rest for reading or socializing.

Plan for the new Chunky Chair is to shorten the length by cutting back on the foot rest side bars and shorten the back support. If you look at the top set of photos on the right you can see this chair is too big. It was designed for very big people the new one will be designed for less than 6footers, it will have the strength and size to easily support people weighing well over 300lbs. I expect max payload to be around 450lbs we will calculate the maximum once it is completed.

Even the new slightly smaller version will be big. The seat width on the Chunky Chair in the photos and the new one to be built is 32 inches. Get a tape measure and measure your own chairs, 32" is huge. A 32" seat allows for the maximum width of the entire chair to be slightly less than 36 inches which means it will fit through most yard side gates which are usually 36 inches.

We will offer the chair for sale at cook offs, home shows, maybe dog shows, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo next year and anywhere else big, heavy, tall, short, overweight, obese, chunky and cuddly people may roam.

I have one more wine club meeting to host after that the dining room table goes back into the garage and we start building.

Quoting the Chair beats working on the Chair

Another friend asked for a quote to build him a Chunky Chair just like mine except he is not too tall and does not need the extra length. FYI the chair in the pics to the right was built for a 6ft 6inch or more very big guy, I'm only 6ft and my friend is 6 1 or so.

My materials cost seems to change every time I go to Home Depot, I'm going to re price all and see what quantity discounts might get me.

My friend was sober when he asked me and sober when I asked if he was really interested so I will spend the time to run through the materials cost and check if some of my parts are still available. I know the guy who did the back board no longer has a web site, I need to track him down. Wish me luck.

Chunky Chair Outdoor Patio Furniture for Big and Tall

Designed and hand built for big and tall, short and fat people. I realized there is very little outdoor, deck or patio furniture sold for big and/or tall heavy and fat people. After a couple of attempts I have designed and built an ugly, heavy mostly wood chair for the tall and / or heavy man or woman to sit and lie on.
Patio furniture for the big guy or gal. Nothing fancy, very strong, stable and easy to sit on or stand from. Higher off the ground and solid.

A good idea is still a good idea

even if you have done nothing with it for a year or two. I have decided to make another Chunky Chair. Not as long, just as strong, not as tall as the one in the slideshows but just as strong.
Instead of marketing to fat giants I will market to normal sized fatties. Well built, very strong and heavy outdoor patio furniture for fat people.

Everyman has a price

As I secretly suspected my friend wants a Chunky Chair if it costs $200. After running the numbers for materials bought at Home Depot and my time at $10 per hour my best price is still $1000. Maybe I will make another chair and sell it on Craig's List.
For now the thrill of an order is gone.

Novelty value aside I believe this is a great outdoor / patio chair for very heavy tall or big people, I don't have the time to market it and make new versions. An integral part of the manufacturing process is using my dining room table to assemble the Chunky Chair and I need it to eat and entertain on.

I am still thinking and working on it in my head.

Can you put a price on wood & metal

& wheels & bolts & nails & paint & drawing and my time?

Best price I can come up with is $12-1500 for the chair I sit on every day, drink my morning tea, read my magazines and watch the birds fly by. The materials cost are higher than I thought but the biggest cost is labour. Isn't it always.

Creating a new Chunky Chair from scratch will take time. I work full time and do not look forward to building another one. When I built the first chair I moved my dining room table into the garage and built much of the chunky chair on top of it. It was a brilliant idea, 'made lining up and securing everything easier.

That really is not an option today. I am hosting my friends wine club meeting one day in April and want to hold a birthday party for me in May. Both need a dining room table.

Hopefully when I quote the price to my friend who wants a Chunky Chair he will crap at the cost and decline. It's funny, I thought I wanted to build these chairs full time and sell them to athletes, big and tall and just big people, now I am not so sure.

It's all in the Details

Proving a little more work than I thought. Friend of mine wants me to build him a Chunky Chair just like mine. Pricing all the bits and pieces is taking longer than I thought.

This patio, outdoor, all weather chair is damned ugly, heavy, red and very strong. It will support very big and tall people, short and fat, tall and thin or just gigantic.
Because I built the first one for my own use I kinda overbuilt. Solid steel axles, very heavy duty wheels that were doubled up at the rear, half inch steel bolts, all weather deck nails, two by eight and two by ten inch wood, all painted with a high tech elastomeric paint used by the US military and other reputable organizations to seal the wood for years of all weather service. Makes great copy but pricing quantity and quality is really tedious.

I'm getting there.

Pricing a Labour of Wood

As I mentioned in my last post a friend of mine wants me to build him a Chunky Chair "just like mine". In fact he wanted to buy mine, I declined. He actually fits better in my chair than I do. I'm 6ft and half an inch he is 6ft 3 inches, I weigh a cheeseburger under 300lbs he is really fat. I have no doubt the chair would safely support both of us however his wife would be jealous and I don't want to share.

3 years of designing, building, redesigning and rebuilding means I have no idea what it costs to build one. This weekend I start to add up the material cost and estimate the labour.

Bloody Hell, wish me luck.

Never Finished

As you can see from the 2 slide shows on the right of this post the Chunky Chair is constantly changing. The lower set of pics was taken when the chair was being built last year. I was unable to come up with a simple, strong, safe way to support the back of the chair to allow me to adjust it from nearly upright to lounging back for napping.
To get the thing outside and allow me to use it I opted for a simple solution that I thought would be temporary but now suspect simple is best. Details of the Chunky Chair back will follow.
As you have probably guessed i am very proud of this chair. It is very strong and stable. Sitting on it is like sitting on a rock. The version you see in the slide shows is actually big enough for a 7 foot tall person and will support at least 400 lbs if not more.
A friend of mine has asked me to build one for him. My biggest problem is when do I stop redesigning it and settle on a final version. I suspect I never will.

Wood and Steel

Mostly wood was needed to create The Chunky Chair. Built by me for the tallest, widest and heaviest people we know.
Short story is: Couple of years ago I was weighing close to 300lbs (actually I still am but that is none of your business), I searched for a long time for a comfortable, safe, long lasting outdoor, patio chair I could sit in to read, talk or snooze without fear of collapse, discomfort or pain getting in and out of the chair.

The result is a extraordinarily well built, very heavy, very solid outdoor / patio chair / lounger. Ugly as hell, heavier than me and mostly red it is a beautiful piece of furniture. As you can tell I am very proud.