The motivation for this project came from the top of the honey-do list. A request for a stool was put in and the design left wide open. This could have went several directions, from a simple stool made out of one 2x4, to a completely unnecessary, space saving, folding, fancy foot stool. You can guess which choice this engineer picked!
I'll admit I wasn't clever enough to come up with this design myself, and all the credit goes to Steve Ramsey over at Woodworking for Mere Mortals. You can find a free set of plans over at his website - woodworkingformeremortals.com
The build was pretty straight forward. The hardest part was drilling all the holes for the dowels straight as I don't have a drill press. I ended up making my own make shift drill press to aide in the drilling. I finished the stool parts in water based polyurethane which I now regret as it makes the folding operation a bit sticky. A wipe on wax would have been a much better idea.
The top was painted by my lovely wife with a quote from Confucius and then finished in a durable epoxy finish similar to the DIY coasters I made.
Admittedly the stool doesn't need to get folded up much, but it sure looks unique sitting there in the corner of the room.