Making a Footstool

Oz Hassan builds a multifunctional piece of furniture

Table of Contents
Wooden table with cup and plate.
Wooden box with fabric interior and detached lid
Wooden footstool with leaf-patterned cushion.

At the end of a tough day, it’s nice to put your feet up. This combination footstool gives you somewhere to park your weary bones, but you also get an occasional table thrown in. The design is a simple box on legs and made almost entirely of solid beech. The cushion sits on top of the lid when used as a footstool and is stored in the box when used as an occasional table. The timber was chosen to match other woods in the room.

Slides

Woodworking machine with wooden plank in workshop
1. The timber was bought planed all round (PAR) so I didn’t have much preparation to do. It was on the chunky side so I started by thicknessing it down to size
Power saw cutting wooden plank in workshop.
2. It was then cut to length on the mitre saw. My old DeWalt sliding mitre saw is perfect for the crosscutting. To ensure all of your components are the same length, you can clamp a stop to the mitre saw’s fence
Wooden board on table saw for cutting
3. I then used the tablesaw to cut the timber to width. A good tip when using the tablesaw is to always have the blade height set just above the thickness of your timber, as it reduces spelching
Woodworking project on a workshop table
4. The sides are jointed with through dovetails, so the next step was to cut these on the dovetailing jig. The box was carefully marked because the orientation of the sides is important. I use chalk as it comes off easily
Woodworking dovetail jig with router in action
5. A router jig made short work of the dovetails
Woodworking dovetail jig in workshop setup.
6. On my jig, the tails are cut with the inside face showing, and the pins are cut with the outside face showing
Using router for wood dovetail joint cutting.
7. Next, the slot for the base was cut into the sides on the router table. The slot was stopped short of the edge so the cut wouldn’t be visible when the stool is assembled. This meant carefully lowering the piece on to the rotating bit, sliding it along the fence and then carefully lifting off
Wooden dovetail joints on a workbench
8. After the slots were cut, the ends were tidied up with a chisel. Then two battens were screwed into position on opposite sides as supports for the top, which will rest on them

Feet

Mitre saw cutting wooden block with clamp attachment.
9. I had some offcuts that were perfect for the feet. They were squared off and then cut to length using a stop clamped to the chop saw
Bench drill in woodworking studio
10. The ends were marked and drilled for the fixing screws
Woodworking miter gauge and block on sander table.
11. To minimise the feet splintering in use, I sanded a 45° angle all round the bottom edge

Base

Marked wooden blocks on a square board
12. The base was a board simply cut to size on the tablesaw with the sliding arm attachment. The feet attach with 21⁄2in screws. With the base in position, the locations for these were marked, drilled and countersunk

The lid

Wooden veneer sheet on dark workbench

13. The lid is made from a beech-veneered MDF board with a trim of solid beech to cover the edges. I would normally attempt to make all components out of solid stock, however, as solid timber changes shape with changes in relative humidity, this is only an option if there is joinery holding the piece together. As the lid is loose, I opted for a stable man-made board. The panel was cut to size on the tablesaw. The trim was prepared from a small length of timber, which was thicknessed to a little over the depth of the panel. It was then cut into strips on the tablesaw. As the strips were to be glued onto the panel, it was important to get as good a finish as possible, so I swapped a general-purpose ripping blade for a fine toothed blade
Wooden boards clamped together on a workbench.
14. The strips were then mitred on the chop saw to fit the panel, and the assembly was then glued up
Wood plane smoothing wooden board surface
15. Once the glue had cured, the strips were carefully planed to be perfectly flush with the top. Take care when planing the strips at 90° to the grain of the board – one little deviation and you’ll cut into the veneer
Electric sander smoothing wooden surface
16. After planing, the strips were sanded until they were level with the board

Stool assembly

Assembling the stool sides and base was trickier than you might think. Because the slots in the sides were stopped, it meant the base couldn’t be slid into position. Instead, the base was inserted into the slots of the two opposite sides with the pins, and then the two tail sides tapped into position. The feet were attached after the finish had been applied.

Changing the design

Carpenter using hand plane on wood dowel
17. You’ll notice that the construction photos show a different design to the final piece. Two sides are deeper than the other two and the feet are square. I had doubts about these features. It looked okay on paper but once made, it didn’t quite work. So, before the stool was glued up, it was assembled and put to use for a couple of weeks. The dovetails held together with no loosening at all. After trialling, the stool was taken apart and the sides were cut to the same height on the tablesaw, and the feet were rounded off by hand with a small plane
Sanding wooden dowel on belt sander surface
18. I then sanded the feet on the belt sander. They weren’t perfectly round but the results were certainly good enough

Sanding

The sides and base were sanded separately before the glue-up. It’s much quicker, easier and the results are much better when the thing is in pieces. I used a random orbital sander starting at 120 grit, and worked my way up to 400.

Glue-up

Wooden box clamped for carpentry work in workshop.
19. Unlike the stress of some projects, the glue-up for this was relatively straightforward. After applying glue, the piece was assembled and lightly clamped – the dovetails were pretty snug on their own. Any glue squeezed out was wiped off with a damp cloth

Clean up and finishing

Wooden cabinet glued and clamped on workbench
20. Once out of the clamps, the carcass was clamped to the bench for tidying up. Any dovetails protruding were planed smooth and then lightly sanded. It’s important to remove any remaining fine dust as it will affect the finish. So, before finishing, the piece was vacuumed and then given an all over wipe with a tack cloth. The stool was then given three coats of Danish oil applied with a polisher’s rubber. Oil finishes can be sticky to work with, so I diluted them 50/50 with white spirit – not only does it make the oil easier to work, it also improves penetration. The stool was left for a couple of weeks for the smell to subside before it was taken inside for use

Variations

The design of this stool is very flexible and can be adapted easily:

  • It can be made deeper to offer more storage space.
  • The lid can be hinged.
  • The sides can be built up, as seen in the original design.
  • The legs can be longer, shorter or removed altogether.

Further reading

Two-Step Stool

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BY OZ HASSAN

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