Vintage Step Stool

I girl with a dream….

Don’t we all have dreams?  I know I do.

Well, so does Ana White  you can read about her dream Here.

So, why am I talking about Ana White’s dreams?  Well, because they have affected me.  First through her blog, and now her new book.  The Handbuilt Home.  I LOVE this book!

She has given me the confidence to learn to build, and I am obssessed!  I never would have thought I could have built furniture….but I have, and I plan on continuing to learn….and to build.

For my birthday last week I got The Handbuilt Home, and promptly got started on my first project from her book.

A cute vintage step stool…eeek!

 Isn’t it so stinkin’ cute!

Lets take a little journey on how it came to be.

I used wood I had on hand for this build, so for starters one of the boards was warped a little, I strongly suggest using straight wood.  Do as I say not as I do…

Here is my wood all measured and cut.

Next I drilled my pocket holes.

Then start to build!  This was my second go at attaching these boards, I put them on upside down the first time, oops!  This way worked much better.

Make sure it is level, that’s pretty important.  Also you see my gorilla glue?  I always use glue.

Then you add the bottom three support boards.  This is where I ran into a problem.  I adjusted the cuts because the three boards were too long.  I just measured the length and cut more boards, and re-drilled pocket holes.  So, this is where I would suggest cutting as you go….

Then add the steps!  Ohhh, this is getting so exciting!  See how easy this is….  I also want to note that I had to measure and cut down the bottom step as well, then it fit perfect!  Still not sure what I did wrong.  Next I glued and screwed the steps on.

Fill holes with wood filler, let dry, then sand.

Check out the arrow…yep I  have a gap…on both sides.  It seems harmless, except the top step needs to lay on those boards, and it doesn’t.  When I tested out the top step it cracked a little (which I glued and clamped).  It cracked because I had not put the support boards high enough, not because I am too heavy…lol!  So that is where those three redish boards come in.  They are adding the support the top boards were supposed to add.  I glued them down and screwed them in on both sides.

Problem solved….

We tested it out…and it works…yes, it even holds me now….

 I had gone back and forth on the finish, which is why I didn’t post this last week.  I decided that this color would be good for now…I wanted to do something fun, like words/numbers, or…, but my little one was really sick and with our busy schedule, I went with the pretty Harbor Blue (plus I already had it).

It does look pretty in blue.

Since I knew it would get distressing on it’s own, I went ahead and gave it a hand.

Then I may have gone too far…

I grabbed my stain, some gloves, and a q-tip.

I rubbed stain on the distressed areas…

Then quickly rubbed it off.  The stain was really soaking into the wood, a little more than I wanted, and so I ran and got some mineral spirits and put it on the cloth I was wiping off with.  It helped a little, but I still think it was a little darker than I had envisioned…

Oh, well.  I sealed it with this (again what I had on hand),

and I love it anyway.

And, so do my little ones!  (you can see my poor little boy’s eyes, he still isn’t feeling too well)

It makes me so happy to have this stool…

I no longer have to hold these two up to wash hands and spit out toothpaste, my vintage step stool does it for me!

Ahhhh,  kids love to feel independent!  Mundane things are now fun!

And I have just a few more minutes in my day, maybe to chase some dreams….Thanks Ana!
If you want to check out my brag post on Ana’s site you can do that here.

Mindi

I will be linking to these parties.