First of all, let’s get the legal stuff out of the way. Technically, this is a sponsored post, as it is written in exchange for a free product. However, as my regular followers may have noticed, my blog is no longer being monetised. No clicks are being recorded, no hits on the site are being counted. I only write to be of service to my readers, and to the tall community as a whole.

Those of you who are tall, or whose kids are, I am sure will agree: the struggle is real when it comes to long beds. Ever tried to find a cheap 7 ft bed? I have. While being happy that I didn’t have to break the bank to pay for it, I cannot help recognise that yes, the divan itself is decent enough, but the quality of the mattress I got cheaply leaves a lot to be desired. This is a story for another post, perhaps. Today, I am going to talk about the length of our beds.

Having managed to source a bed long enough for my teenager, I do secretly pray every so often that he doesn’t get much taller than he is. For an obvious reason: any product that is out of the ordinary comes with the relevant price tag – proven by the compromised quality of my teen’s cheap mattress. The good news is that at least as far as bed length is concerned, there is now an more flexible – and cheaper – solution. I honestly had no idea about this invention, having ignorantly been away from blogging for the past year, so was very pleasantly surprised by a contact I made through the Tall Person’s Club for GB & Ireland.

The guys from TPC put me in touch with a company called Bedstretch who have come up with an interesting solution to the bed length issue and, hat off to them, have gone all the way: not just investing in it and making it work, but patenting their product and putting it on the web for sale. Some of you may remember having seen this on TV a couple of years ago. If you haven’t, you can watch the video about it on YouTube. This product is now available freely and its creators are aiming at a larger audience for it, but also plan to reach out to the hospitality industry and try to get them on board in making hotel beds longer for their taller guests by introducing The Longer Bed Option.

So, in exchange for the kind offer of a free product, I am giving them my honest review and helping them spread the word. I am happy to take any questions in the comments below this post, so will happily answer anything you want to ask if this makes you more confident you can trust these guys with your money.

I, personally, have never slept in a bed that is long enough for my 6’4″ body. Admittedly, I haven’t really been too bothered by this either, as I sleep on my side and tend to curl up in bed anyway, but you know what, it actually makes a difference. I am guessing it comes down to the proportional weight distribution onto your mattress, or something clever like this, but having your bed just those few inches longer does give you a more comfortable sleep.

This is all this is:

It is, basically, a free standing supported shelf that gets attached to the head end of your bed. It comes in a variety of colours to match the colour of your bed base, but also with its own sheet, so you don’t have to worry about having to source yet bigger and longer bedsheets.

Whether you have a headboard or not, it will still work. I would say, though, that it might work better if you do have a headboard, as the attachment will become a proper extension to your bed. In my case, I only had a divan base, no headboard, so it looks like this (with and without sheets):

It is only six inches, apparently, but, yes, admittedly, six inch is actually plenty!

You can choose to attach it to your bed base (there is a special bracket that makes it suitable for different height fixtures, so yes, they have thought of it all), or to leave it separate, in case you need to roll your bed out every so often. I prefer it free standing, as I regularly roll my bed out of the way, to make floor room for my yoga practice. If you hardly move your bed around, just fix the pillow shelf/bed extender to your base, and voila: you have a longer bed.

If you are anything like me, as in totally incapable of assembling anything coming with instructions, bear in mind that it comes with a serious warning: do not attempt assembly until you have read the instructions fully. And there was me, not daring to get the thing out of the box for over a week – dreading the thought of having to put together a dreaded adult equivalent of Lego.

Well, I should have been more adventurous: it is so easy that even I could do it myself without any trouble! And, trust me, I have never put any furniture together myself. (Why should I, having got a fully capable partner and son to do this for me).

The Pillow Shelf is available in different varieties. The type I received is foldable and comes with a handy custom travel bag which makes it easy to carry with you if you travel nationally. If you don’t plan to use it elsewhere and only want it for your own house, you can choose the non-foldable version. You can choose your foot, too; most customers choose the 6-inch adjustment. In the near future, commercial customers will be able to choose the height as well.

Let’s hope that this makes life a bit easier for more of us tall fellows, so we can save our money for something nicer than longer beds. And, while you are at it, you may as well clean the floor underneath your bed. 😉