DIY Step Stool Makeover

I decided to makeover my kids old bathroom Step Stool.  Ya know, the step stool the kids use when they’re lil’ tikes and unable to reach the sink.  Awe!  Unfortunately, as my kids grew taller, their trusty ole’ white step stool was tossed outside in the weather….until now.  I gave it DIY Step Stool Makeover and it’ll  now live happily in my craft room so I, can reach the high shelf.

DIY Step Stool Makeover

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I’m sure most of you either own this step stool or recognize it at least.  It’s an older Step-N-Store stool from Target. I have lots of pictures of my kids standing on this stool brushing there teeth.   Such cute memories from then and to think my son actually thought it was fun to clean  up back then.  My daughter also used the stool to hide random things inside of the lid.  Like the TV remote. Not kidding.

The stool is made of wood composite so I sanded down the peeling paint and rough areas using an electric sander.

Then, lightly wiped English Chestnut Minwax stain all over it.   I didn’t want to remove all of the white since it’s made of composite wood so I darkened and distressed the stool using this stain technique.  Painting the stool with Chalk Paint did cross my mind too but I really liked how the natural distressing occurred using the stain.

Recognize the wood strips I used on top of the step stool?  Yep- {freebie} Paint sticks.  You didn’t really think I actually cut all those wood strips by out did you??

I measured and cut the paint sticks down to size and left them a little rough around the edges.   Some of the paint sticks I used on this project were actually my old Rit Dye color tester strips from previous projects. Since I planned to dye the sticks anyways with Rit Dye, I just used some of my tester strips.

I love how you’re able to keep the natural wood grain by using Rit Dye to dye unfinished wood.  So Pretty! For my wood strips, I used Tangerine,Cherry Red, Kelly Green, Denim Blue and Royal Blue Rit Dye colors.

After I dyed all my paint sticks and finally decided on how I wanted them arranged, I used Gorilla Glue to adhere them on the step stool.

Love how this DIY Step Stool Makeover turned out and I’m sooo glad I was able to re-purpose a sentimental item from when my kids were little tikes too.

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