I'm with you on wanting the big, upholstered chair, but also liking the desk.

I kind of wish that easy chairs at desks were more of a thing. As it is, a typical desk doesn't really fit them: you have "office chairs" and "living room chairs", and the two don't meet much. Couple problems:

• A big and top-heavy chair is gonna tip more easily, so you have to extend the base and casters.

• A big chair isn't gonna roll as easily, so you can't push back from a desk.

For years, I've been thinking about switching to a table or workbench with a higher top or something.

I think that the answer probably has several elements.

• Maybe the desk can just...go away. Desks are important for paperwork, were important for supporting heavy CRTs, but I rarely actually need one now.

• Monitor goes on an table/desk/floor-mounted arm. I've been diong that, and I'm happy with it, but still have the "cubbyhole" desk from the CRT era. Maybe just swing the thing into place every time you sit down.

• Keyboard and mouse need to be attached to the floor or chair, not the desk. This is a bit harder. There are keyboard and mouse trays, but if one reclines in a chair, they also tilt the tray, which I don't want -- the mouse surface has to remain horizontal. If you can live with a trackball or trackpad, that might be tolerable. It might be possible to have some kind of leveling attachment that fits over the arms, or have a free-standing keyboard/mouse tray that fits over the chair, pole on each side of it. Something like this. If reclining adjusts the required height of the keyboard/mouse and the mount is freestanding, then it has to be trivial to adjust the height.