In Fine Wood Working Issue #266 (Jan/Feb 2018), Christian Becksvoot wrote an article about a step stool influence by a Shaker Style. I immediately fell in love with it. The construction looked straightforward and I had a young daughter at home so it would get some use.
I decided to make it out of poplar and give it a milk coat paining. My wife is an artist and she was then going to finish it off with cartoon characters. The layout and construction were straightforward. It had dovetails on the front. It was my first set of dovetails that went into a piece. I had practiced dovetails before but I was bit apprehensive on getting five to all fit. I took my time and they came out nice.
My wife was too busy to paint cartoon characters. Initially I was a bit grumpy about this. I would have chosen cherry otherwise as the wood. I just don't think poplar looks as nice when finished as compared to other woods. I had seen an article on how to finish poplar so it looks nice (https://www.popularwoodworking.com/american-woodworker-blog/make-poplar-look-pretty/). I decided to try that. I was happy with the way the finish came out (Figure 1).
Having said that I prefer cherry is true. I don't want to dismiss poplar. It works nicely with hand tools and it can have some very nice color as it matures. I have used a lot of poplar in things for the shop.
My daughter uses this chair on nearly a daily basis but not as designed. Rather than use it as a step stool, she likes to sit in it as a chair when watching TV. In this way, it actually gets more use. She is starting to get too big for it. I am starting to debate if I should make a larger size one for her or a Limbert style chair (Figure 2). All good problems to ponder.
Figure 1 The finished step stool
Figure 2 Limbert style chair I like
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