My husband was organizing a lunch event. A guest phoned with a problem. She was having difficulty walking. She could manage the journey. But she needed our help at the venue.
Footstool Needed
My friend Gillian needed a footstool at lunchtime.
We phoned the person hiring out the restaurant which was in a room our dine and wine booked for lunch at a London club. She asked, Can you supply a footstool? She told us they had answered in the affirmative.
On the day my husband and I arrived half an hour early to check everything was ready in the room and I asked for the footstool. They did not have a footstool.
What could we do? I looked around the room. No low table or chair was suitable. Apart fromt the size and inconvience of the bulk, and the risk of damaging a table or dirtying a chair, nothing wwas novable and low enough.
I walked down the corridor, to where our waiters and the superviser were in the kitchen. I wondered if they had an object, a large saucepan, or box of food or drink? How about an empty box?
Cardboard Box Footstool
I asked if they had an empty box we could use as a makeshift footstool. I envisaged something big enough, and tough enough not to collapse with the weight of feet or legs on it?
A brown cardboard box would look ugly. How about putting something on top? A large table napkin? A small tablecloth? A washable table runner? (A table runner is the long strip of cloth you put down the centre of a large oblong table to look decorative.)
A few minutes later they appeared with an ideal size box and a small table cloth. I put the box down with the cloth on it. I tried it out by sitting on a chair and putting my feed on it. The cloth slipped sideways alarmingly, possibly jolting a delicate ankle, then fell off. It revealed the empty, ugly box.
I dashed back to the kitchen and explained the problem and asked if they had a weight, or strap, or sticky tape to fix the problem.
They produced a roll of thick sticky tape. They used it to seal the fabric over the box, underneath. Like a wrapped birthday present. Neat creases and folds. No bulk visible. Elegant.
Sticky Tape
I wondered whether they could easily remove the stikiness from the fabric, and mentioned this to my husband.
He was busy counting out menus and wine glasses and answering phone calls from people who were delayed in traffic and reassuring them.
He dismissed my worry. "That's their problem."
If I were to make a footstool at home, and had time, I would use one or several fabric table napkins, of which I have inherited or kept several. I would sew them in position with a large running stitch, so the table napkins could be retrieved and returned to the set of matching table cloth and napkins.
You could cover your box with any fabric. Cut up jeans, an old pair, for something sturdy. Pretty velvet, with foam undeneath. two or four boxes could be taped or glued to the big box to make legs.
I though of adding wheels, from an old suitcase, or bought from the internet. But you don't want to footstool to run away. That's why a walking frame has two wheels at the front and none at the back. You would need a brake or a lever, or a wall behind the desk or table, maybe with another box behind the footstool.
So, many options for a temporary footstool in a restaurant or hotel. Or a permanent DIY footstool at home.
Of course, if you copy this idea elsewhere, for example, in your own home, and want to dismantle a tamprary footstool for a visitor or invalid with a temporary disability, that will be your problem.
Wonderful. Professional looking. You would not know it was not a custom made piece of furniture.
Plastic Washing Up Bowl
At home I had an old-fashioned footstool. I moved it for a family dinner party and could not find it.
I have just made myself a temporary footstool under the kitchen table which i use as a desk. I inherited a proper footstool from my late mother.
However, when we had family over for dinner, we moved clutter out of the way. Where is my footstool now? I have no idea.
I had a plastic washing up bowl which was in the way. I put it under the desk, out of the way.
It moved. I found myself with my feet in the bowl. When I moved my feet, the edge of the bowl trapped them. Nuisance. Distraction.
I turned the bowl upside down. I put out my feet, accidentally on top of the bowl. I found I had made myself a makeshift footstool. However, when I took my feet out of my slippers, I found the base of the bowl had an ucomfortable edge.
What could I put on top? A cushion?
On my office chair I had two items. A rainbow coloured bathmat, and athen chair cushion, seat cover, the sort you tie onto hard wooden dining chairs or metal garden chairs. I wanted to keep the cushion on my desk chair. Besides it kept slipping off. But the larger bathmat could fold under the bowl.
This was not intended to be a permanent solution. Just a temporary fix until I found the proper footstool.
But I now know I have two ways to make a foostool in a restaurant or hotel bedroom. For myself. For anybody else.
Recycling Cardboard Boxes, Washing Up Bowls, Bath Mat Sets
Now I have the idea of covering a cardboard box, or an unwanted or ugly or old and stained or damaged washing up bowl, I have several more ideas for recycling. I can also re-use a bathmat or the matching or non matching unwanted toilet seat mat. An opportunity to fulfil a need. Or recycle to make an item to give away as a gift or to sell, for oneself, as pin money, as a business, for charity. Or to give away free, simply to recycle.
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