After the August camping trip, Terri observed that my jump seats were great, but footstools were necessary. Not all criticism is valid, but there were a few reasons why this seemed like a good idea.
I had put shorter legs on, but the seats are still a little high. The most practical way to address that is use foam for the seat that is 3″ instead of 4″. I’m considering that.
The seats are high enough that Sparky isn’t confident he can get up without assistance. If he had to jump up to get a baby rabbit, he’d do it, but I’m not a baby rabbit. Also, there are times when a low seat would be better than sitting on the bare floor, like when I want to get down to Sparky’s level to chat.
That was enough to get me started on the hassock project. Building a compact and sturdy stool is a challenge. The best approach was to buy a metal step stool, and add foam and a cover.
This $25 stool is steel, has folding legs and can be configured for 3 different heights.
There wasn’t enough fabric left to cover the stools, so another yard was needed. Turns out, you can’t always buy more fabric. The original vendor on Amazon didn’t have any more, so I found it on Walmart.
I went to Joann Fabrics for 2″ foam, and did not enjoy the process. On Amazon, there is much more technical information available. Joann Fabrics just has what they have. The sales people don’t have any specifications. The upside is that the foam is available to handle.
In my research, I learned that for seats, the pro move is to use two different layers. A stiffer foam at the bottom, and a less firm foam at the top. I will try that if I decide to modify the seats.
To attach the cover to the stool, I wanted to use snaps. Velco seems like the cheap and easy approach. Like everything, snaps are more complicated than you’d think. Pop rivets were used to attach the snap to the metal stool. I only needed corner seams for the covers. For durability, I did double hems so the other side of the snap couldn’t tear through the fabric. The anvil is there to mushroom the snap cap on to the snap. I used a soldering pencil to make neat holes in the hem for the snap.
The only really tricky part was cutting the fabric. At the corners, a diagonal cut was made for a corner seam. The fabric was rolled once, to hem, then rolled a second time for a double hem. Drawing chalk lines to make the cuts and folds was kind of complicated.
The footstool goes together like this.
That little notch in the corner of the fabric isn’t great. Because the cover has squared-off corners and the stool has rounded corners, the lower part of the corner could be brought in a little bit. That seems too OCD, so not going to do it.
In action, the footstool looks like this. Using the footstool really is more comfortable, and makes me think there is not reason to replace the seat foam to lower the seat.
The stools fold up nicely. Resting on the wheel hump, it’s like seating for little people.
I’ve been training Sparky to use the footstool to get up on the couch. He likes novel experiences, but is skeptical of novel equipment. He sees the utility of using the footstool to get on the couch, and while camping, took to using the stool to get on the seat.