MONTPELIER, Vt. — Nothing was the right size for Paul Hartmann.
So the 6-foot-11 architecture instructor said marketing products designed for taller people wasn't much of a stretch for him.
For most of his adult life, Hartmann has been taking everyday products and adapting them for use by taller people — it began with the bed extenders he used in college. Now he's taken his inventiveness to the Web, selling beds and bunkbeds to colleges, universities and other customers, adding an extra 10 inches of comfort.
Hartmann started Tall Paul's Tall Mall in 1999, and five schools already have purchased some of his beds, including Binghamton University, which has supplied them to its basketball team.
"It brought a lot of my skills and interests together in a business I really feel passionate about," said Hartmann, 48.
Hartmann said the majority of his business comes from people who track down his site on the Internet. Besides furniture, his online store also sells household items for taller people.
George McQuilken of Portsmouth, N.H., has purchased two of Hartmann's oversize Adirondack chairs, which cost $395 each.
"I love them — I'm 6'6", and I find them very comfortable," McQuilken said. "When people come to visit me and they sit down, they invariably say they feel like a little kid because their feet don't touch the floor."
Hartmann also sells ergonomic office chairs starting at $565 and custom-size dining tables.
He sells bed frames and mattresses ranging from 7 feet 6 inches to 9 feet long, as well as bed extenders for standard-size mattresses. His bed frames range from a $475 dorm single to a king-size sleigh bed that starts at $2,325.
And he leaves out no details — customers also can buy custom-size sheets for their larger beds.
"I know what it's like," Hartmann said. "I have this unique position of knowing the need and living the need."
A trained architect, Hartmann said he's discovered that his true passion lies in industrial design.
"Designing buildings was not giving me great joy," said Hartmann, who also teaches at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. "What I really enjoy is designing objects."
Once Hartmann decided to go into business selling tall products, he began contacting potential suppliers and also used the help of a local Small Business Development Center, an office sponsored by the federal Small Business Administration.
He first marketed his products to members of tall clubs in nearby metropolitan areas like Boston.
Hartmann concedes he's definitely operating a niche business. Only about 4 percent of American men are 6'2" or taller and less than 1 percent of women are 5'10" or taller, according to estimates by the Tall Club of New York City.
That's not a niche that very many companies can — or want to — fill.
Several reclining chair manufacturers do market chairs for different-size people, according to Cindy Sheaffer, a spokeswoman for the American Furniture Manufacturers Association in High Point, N.C.
Making something like an oversize dining room table would be a problem for many, she said, because it's more efficient for manufacturers to produce furniture for people who are of average height and weight.
"As far as somebody selling a whole line of products like beds and dining and office furniture, we've never heard of that," Sheaffer said.
Hartmann said he'd love to break into furnishing NBA players and other tall professional athletes with his products, but he suspects it's not too hard for them to buy appropriately sized furniture.
"Cost is really no object, and they can get anything they want," he said.
Hartmann's made-for-the-tall products aren't limited to furniture. He also sells shower head extensions, "really big work gloves" and even a folding cot for the "tall visitor."
And he said he's developing a cutting board with legs so that taller people don't have to lean down as far to reach their countertops. He's also working on a tall ironing board, something he said his loyal customers have been requesting for some time, and on creating some appropriately sized camping furniture.