The Step Stool

There were a few things I wanted to accomplish with this project and I found a perfect design in an old Popular Woodworking book by Glen Huey.  My daughter is just about 18 months old now and loves to ‘help’ out in the kitchen, but isn’t quite tall enough to reach the sink or counter, so she was in need of a step stool.  We also encourage her to read her books or play with dolls when we’re preparing for dinner, so thought she may enjoy a place to sit when she’s not helping.  Finally, I just installed some 42″ cabinets and the top shelves are too high for my wife and I to reach, so ideally we are in need of a step stool as well.  This nice little step stool converts into a cute toddler bench, perfect for small children wanting to help in the kitchen.

I used all hand tools for this little project and it turned out quite nice.  This is a nice short project that allowed me to practice some basic hand tool skills and use up some scrap wood.  You can take a look at the build process here:

The wood used is all cherry finished with a coat of boiled linseed oil and a few coats of shellac.  I’m using these beautiful wrought heads nails from Tremont to hold everything together, but you could use anything you’d like (the plans call for plugged screws).  I also found some decorative carriage bolts for the ‘axle’.

It works really well actually.  My daughter loves flipping the step up and down and uses it as both a bench and step stool. She’s still a little small to reach everything on the counter, but she can at least see what’s going on up there and put some things in the sink. She definitely knows that it’s her piece of furniture, so my wife and I have trouble using it when she’s around, but I think it serves it’s purpose very well and I can see it being in use for a long time.