Livable Later

Practical home changes for staying safely at home

Kitchen and daily living

Chairs, sofas, and getting up without a shove

Feet on the floor, arms that do not wobble, and a seat about as high as a toilet. Soft, low sofas are a transfer problem, not a comfort.

Livable Later editorial team · Updated November 1, 2026 · About 6 minutes

Getting up from a chair is a strength and balance task, and it is also a furniture task. A seat that is too low, too soft, or armless asks the person to haul themselves off the cushion or to accept a hand from someone who then gets pulled down too. The toilet benchmark in ADA section 604.4, 17 to 19 inches to the top of the seat, is a useful trial height for a chair as well. Many people who struggle on a deep sofa stand up easily from a firm dining chair at that height, with arms. Try it before you buy a motor.

Dizziness on standing, weak legs, and pain are clinical topics. Take them to a clinician. Changing the chair does not treat them. It removes an extra disadvantage. The CDC's STEADI materials pair home hazards with strength and balance, including exercise programs a clinician recommends. This page will not assign exercises.

What makes a chair usable

The feet reach the floor with the thighs supported, not dangling and not pitched back. The seat is firm enough that the person does not sink and then climb out of a hole. Both arms are solid, come forward far enough to push on, and are part of the frame. A chair with one arm, or with arms screwed to a thin panel, will not take a push. Stand beside it and load the arm the way the person will. If it racks, it is not the chair.

Seat depth matters. A seat so deep that the person cannot get their heels under them forces a slide forward before the stand. A shallower seat, or a firm cushion placed to shorten the depth, can help. The cushion has to be stable. A loose pillow that shoots forward is a fall. The bedroom and the kitchen should use the same rules, so the person is not practicing three different stands.

A chair that rocks or swivels is a moving target. Lock it or replace it. Casters on a chair someone pushes on will roll away. The nightstand rule and the chair rule are one rule: what you lean on does not move.

Placement is the living-room problem. Leave space in front for the feet to pull back and for a walker to park within reach, already opened. A walker across the room is a walk without support. The path in front of the chair stays clear of the ottoman except at the moment it is being used, and the ottoman has a home that is not the path.

Sofas and the low, soft problem

A sofa you sink into is a sofa you may not leave without help. If that is the household's main seat, change it or add a chair that meets the rules and make that chair the place the person actually sits. Pride about "not needing the special chair" produces a stuck person on the sofa at 9 p.m. The special chair can look like a normal chair. It just has arms and a decent height.

Do not stack cushions to fake height. The stack slides. If you are testing height, use one firm cushion and have the person stand a few times. If 18 inches works and 15 does not, shop at 18, measured to the top of the compressed seat, not the catalog height of the frame. Sit in the store, then stand, more than once. A chair that feels plush for ten seconds can be a trap at minute twenty.

Recliners that tip the person back and then launch them with a footrest are a mixed tool. Some people do well. Some end up with the footrest in the path and a low start position. Try the full cycle, including standing from the reclined position, which should not be the normal way they rise. The footrest belongs in the layout drawing.

Lift chairs and what Medicare might pay

A seat-lift chair raises the seat and tips it to help someone stand. Original Medicare may cover the lift mechanism as durable medical equipment only under narrow medical-necessity rules, and it generally does not pay for the chair as furniture. The details live in Medicare's coverage rules and change with policy and with the person's condition. The supplier has to be enrolled in Medicare. This page will not tell you that you qualify. Read Medicare's durable medical equipment page, ask the doctor who would write the order, and ask the supplier what is covered and what you would pay before the chair is delivered. Medicare Advantage plans can differ. Call the plan.

A lift chair that is too big for the room, or that sits in the walking path, has created a new hazard. Measure the footprint. A lift chair is not a grab bar and not a reason to skip strength questions with a clinician. It is a mechanical assist with a motor, a cord, and a backup plan when the power fails. Know how it behaves in an outage. Cords go along the wall, not across the rug.

Beware the porch or stair version of this idea, which is a different machine covered with stairlifts. A lift chair does not move between floors.

Helping someone stand, without a tug-of-war

If a person still needs a hand, the helper should not bend and pull on the person's arms, which injures shoulders. A therapist can teach a stand that uses the chair arms and a gait belt if one has been recommended. This page is not that lesson. The housing part is to stop buying furniture that requires the tug. When every chair has arms and a fair height, the helper's job gets smaller, which is the actual goal.

Guests will sit in the low sofa. The resident should have a chair that is theirs, in the conversation, not exiled to a corner as medical equipment. Place it where the television and the family are. Isolation is not a safety feature.

Test every seat the person uses daily

  • Measure seat height with the person sitting, feet flat. Use 17 to 19 inches as the trial band, then keep what they stand from.
  • Push on both arms. Reject arms that wobble or chairs that roll.
  • Reject cushions the person sinks into or stacks of pillows used as a lift.
  • Clear the floor in front for feet and for the walker, already opened.
  • If you are considering a lift chair, ask Medicare or the plan about the mechanism versus the furniture, in writing, before delivery.
  • Route the cord to the wall. Sit the chair out of the path, inside the conversation.

Try the stand at the time of day it usually fails. A chair that is fine at 9 a.m. can be a trap at 8 p.m. when the person is tired and the only light is the television. Turn the television off, turn the room light on, and stand once more. If that second stand is the hard one, the fix may be the light in the living-room guide as much as the chair. Change the one that failed, then test again the next evening. A single successful stand in a showroom is not a test.

Do this before you renovate a bathroom to "make transfers easier" and leave the person stuck in the living room for the other fifteen hours of the day. The toilet and the chair are the same movement. The toilet guide and this page should agree.

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