Personalized Vintage Step Stool Tutorial

A dear friend of mine is having a little boy, Luke, this upcoming March and for her birthday this year I made her a little step stool (it was originally intended for her, as she needed one for work) but the more we talked about it, it seemed like a great gift that she could use now and then Luke could as he started growing, so instead of leaving it plain I painted it in colors to match Luke’s future room. I loved the way it turned out and wanted to share a step by step tutorial.

I hope you enjoy!!

Here is what you will need:

• Step Stool (You can get them at Michaels, Hobby Lobby or A.C Moore)
• Three Colors of Paint
• Vaseline
• Sandpaper
• Printed Letter (I used Word to print out my letters)
• Carbon Paper
• Paste Finishing Wax

Step 1: Paint the outside edges and any other places that you want to show through in a dark brown

Step 2: Use your finger or a Q-tip and apply Vaseline to the places that you want to distress

Step 3: Paint the step stool in your main color, in my case Yellow

I applied three coats to make sure it was fully covered

Step 4: Take your finger and scratch off the areas you applied Vaseline (you will know where the places are because the paint will have a crackle in the places you applied Vaseline).

Step 5: I used Word to find a typeface and printed off the letters for my sign. I used England Hand DB in font 270. I then cut around the letters and taped them to the carbon paper. I then positioned the words so they were centered on the step stool and then taped them down.

Step 6: Take a ballpoint pen and trace around each letter, applying pressure as you trace. I went over my letters several times just to be sure that it would show through.

Step 7: Once you have traced around the word remove it from the step stool and it should have copied perfectly over to the wood. See how easy that was!!!

Step 8: Take a small paint brush and paint inside the letters.

Step 9: Using fine grit sandpaper sand over the letters to give them a distressed look

Step 10: Apply a thin layer of paste finishing wax to seal the paint and give it a shinny look.

And there you have it, a Vintage Style Personalized Step Stool.