DIY Footstool

The traditional footstool is made out of wood with a cloth pillow attached to the top. But you can make a footstool out of many other alternative materials that will look just as cute as a traditional foot stool. You can even do something environmentally conscious by recycling some old items in the process. Here is how to make a footstool out of coffee cans. You won't even know they are there.

14 standard-sized coffee cans
Large roll of duct tape
3 round pieces of cardboard
Pencil
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Batting
3 yards of decorative cloth
Fiber fill
Decorative tassel trim

Instructions

- 1
  Arrange seven coffee cans together with one in the middle and six around the outside. Duct tape them together around the outside.
- 2
  Repeat step 1 for the other seven coffee cans.
- 3
  Put one set of coffee cans on top of the other set. Tape them together by wrapping duct tape around the whole piece.
- 4
  Set the coffee cans on top of a piece of cardboard and trace around it in a circular pattern. Cut the circle out of the cardboard with scissors. Trace around this piece on top of another piece of cardboard and cut that piece out. Put one piece on the bottom of the coffee cans and complete the sandwich by placing the other one on top. Duct tape the whole thing together.
- 5
  Wrap batting around the circumference of the footstool and cut to fit. Glue the batting onto the coffee cans using a glue gun. Seam the batting together with glue.
- 6
  Trace another circle around the coffee cans on top of the third piece of cardboard. Cut this circle out; this will be the bottom of your pillow cushion.
- 7
  Cut a hole in the middle of the cardboard piece about the size of your fist.
- 8
  Lay the coffee can/batting assembly on its side on the back side of the fabric. Wrap the fabric around the cylinder shape. Cut to fit, leaving a little extra at the edge. Fold over this little extra piece and hot glue it to the batting. Tuck the fabric around the top and bottom of the foot stool and glue in place. It doesn't matter if it looks good on top but try to glue it in gathers so that it looks good from the side.
- 9
  Trace around about six inches away from the edge of the third cardboard piece on the back side of the rest of the fabric that was cut off. This will form your pillow. Hot glue this piece, right side facing out, gathering the edge of the fabric and gluing it so that it wraps around the cardboard. Only wrap about 2 inches of fabric around the edge of the cardboard, gluing it in nice even gathers or folds.
- 10
  Stuff batting into the fist-sized hole in the cardboard to make your pillow. Keep filling it with batting until you have a firm pillow.
- 11
  Glue the pillow, cardboard side down, onto the top of the coffee cans.
- 12
  Wrap trim around the part where the pillow meets the coffee cans. Measure, cut and glue it to the fabric on the coffee cans.

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