Easy Rustic Step Stool diy
- By Joan
- March 26, 2015
- 7 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I was able to spend the morning shopping with my sister. We visited several antique stores, vintage stores and thrift stores. What I found in that shopping trip, was that my sister has an unusual obsession with benches and stools. She ooohhed and aaaahhed over all of them.
I’m not off the hook… while she is admiring all the benches and stools, I can be found drooling over all of the old wooden boxes. Whether they are storage crates or tool boxes, even the old vintage suitcases, I love them all.
While I didn’t buy anything, I did get loads of ideas for future projects. One of which was this step stool.
For this project you will need about 38″ of a 2×8 or 1×8 piece of wood as well as some extra pallet wood for the trim.
From the 38″ hunk of wood, cut two pieces 11″ in length and 1 piece 16 inches.
The two 11 inch pieces will become the legs. Mark the center point of the wood, about 6 inches up, and cut a notch out for your legs with a jigsaw.
Nail the 16″ piece onto the legs. I used Common nails, the long kind contractors use for framing.
Next step is to add trim around the perimeter of the stool. These were pieces of pallet wood mitered at the corners. The trim pieces were nailed into place with finishing nails.
Another piece of pallet wood, cut in half lengthwise, was added to the legs to give a bit more stability. The entire stool was then given a good sanding.
Actually the stool is pretty much finished and could be left as is but I wanted to paint mine.
The bottom was stained with a dark walnut…that old wood really soaked up the color. The top was painted with some leftover wall paint.
Well, now it looks too new again, so the palm sander came back out and the paint was sanded back down so that the wood was again peeking out.
Gave the entire piece a coat of wax tinted with stain.
Thought it still needed a little something, so I decided to add a vintage style logo.
I don’t know if you saw my vintage style sign from earlier in the week but I used the same technique to add a logo to my step stool.
Find a logo, cut out the logo, scribble on the back with pencil (if you don’t have carbon paper) tape in place, follow the outline of the logo with pen to transfer image, paint in the lines.
You know I had to sand the logo down to get that aged feel.
All finished, just want to show you a few more pictures of the finished step stool.
It turned out super sturdy and would be great to give that step up in the kitchen….or to hold plants in a sunny window…or as extra seating. I’m sure my sister is a little jealous right now. 😉
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Very nice! I’ll have to make one. Thank you for the tutorial.
This is amazing & sweet. I love it! Happy to of found you at the Friday Favs party!
Love love love the stool! Can’t wait to make one. I don’t know where I will put it, but I just know that I want to make one, lol. Story of my life.
That’s always my problem. My family ends up getting a lot of homemade gifts. 🙂
Great project, love your stool with its extra Bakery logo. Pinned. Visiting from Funky Junk Interiors.
Joy
Why yes I’m jealous. My birthday is coming up and I can always use another step stool! Looks great Joan!
Very cute stool and very do-able. I really like the bakery transfer….wish I could go on a “bakery hunting trip”, scope at all the bakeries across the US….sheesh, would probably end up weighing a few hundred pounds, maybe I better re-think that one! Thanks for sharing.