Maple Federal Step Stool

We needed a step stool for our guest bedroom that would compliment my grandmother’s bed there.  The plan was to make it in cherry, but given the new processes I needed to learn – inlay, banding, beading, mortise and tenon joints – I wanted to make a ‘prototype’.

I picked up a beautiful piece of bird’s eye maple at a woodworking show and decided to use that and make a stool that Bobie could use in her photography studio.  We searched catalogs and the internet for a stool that we liked and we thought would fit the room.  Besides my grandmother’s bed, there are other antiques in the room as well as reproductions, so we were looking for a traditional piece.

We came across this form in a high-end gift store catalog – what is high-end?  The stool was $950…seems a little steep for a step stool.  I worked out the dimensions and figured out how to do the beading and inlay and I was off and running.