Scrap Lumber Step Stool

I built my son a kitchen tower a couple of years ago, but he has grown out of it now. He's still not quite tall enough to work at the counter, though, so I built him this stool. It's a very simple design - it could easily be a first wood working project for someone - and I used scrap lumber. None of the pieces are particularly large, so if you do any amount of carpentry, you probably have these odds and ends lying around. I finished it with some stain I had leftover from another project, and joined it with fasteners I had on hand, so this was a $0 project.

Tool List:

Table Saw

Miter Saw

Palm Sander + Medium Grit Sand paper

Drill

Kreg Pocket Jig

Clamps

Cut List / Supplies:

1 - 12'' x 24'' x 3/4'' board

1 - 5'' x 24'' x 3/4'' board

1 - 3'' x 21.5'' x 3/4'' board

2 - 12'' 2x4

2 - 17'' 2x4

2 - 17'' 2x2

4 - 4'' 2x2

Wood Glue

1 1/4'' screws

Adhesive felt pads

I was using boards left over from a floating shelf build (this is why they are partially stained already). I cut them to the dimensions in the cut list (12 x 24, 5 x 24, 3 x 21.5) using a table saw.

First I ripped about 1/8'' off of each side of the 2x4's and 2x2', using the table saw (see photos). I did this so that the lumber would have perfectly square corners as opposed to the rounded corners that off-the-shelf dimensional lumber has. This is not necessary, but does make projects look neater when you are butting multiple 2x4's up against each other, as I did in this project. After that, I used a miter saw to cut the 2x4's and 2x2's down to the dimensions in the cut list.

I then assembled the sides of the stool. The order of pieces, from bottom to top, for one stool was: long 2x2, long 2x4, short 2x4, pair of 4'' in long 2x2's. I spaced the top 2x2's so that you can fit your hand inside the stool for easy carrying. I glued the sides together using wood glue, and let the glue dry before moving to the next step.

Use some sort of sanding device to sand everything. You're going to the outside and inside of the stool, so you should sand all sides of your pieces.

I absolutely love my Kreg Pocket Hole jig. It makes it so easy to hide screws for butt joints, and I use it all the time. It wouldn't detract terribly from the stool to have visible screws, but I like to keep them hidden if possible. To do that for this project, I used the jig to prepare the cross piece (the 21.5 x 3 board) and the sides of the stool as shown in the photos.

I assembled the stool upside down, since I was using the pocket holes. The full assembly is shown above.

I applied leftover stain. Follow the instructions on the can of whatever you are using for your wood coloring/treatment. I just painted it on, waited a few minutes, then wiped the excess off with a rag.

I used adhesive felt pads like what you put on the feet of furniture on the bottom of the stool. My 3 year old is going to be dragging this stool all over the place, and I'd like to minimize the damage to our floors.

Here is the stool from both the front and back.