When a Step Stool is Handy, Everything Else is

I was born in the right generation personality wise.  I could never have survived any earlier in the 1900s...  I'm too strong willed, too forthcoming with truths you might not want to hear... and if I had to dress to make dinner or bring my husband a drink while he sat reading a newspaper... my mind would explode.  POOF... there goes Heather.

My furniture reflects my love of artistry... the carved woods of the Victorian era....  the heavy cut glass... the crystals that shine sparkles across the room... I'm not a mid century girl at all... except for one true weakness.  Step stools.  I don't know what it is but I simply can not pass up a Cosco step stool that needs TLC.  They hearken back to a day when gramma sat at the counter top peeling apples and then pulled the stool out to get the pie tin from the top of the cabinet...  they're useful today and just bring sooo many of us back to that kitchen scene.

Cosco, like many other companies of it's time, spent the early 1940's as a supplier in the war efforts.  After World War II Cosco introduced the first full line of all-metal household stools, and later in 1960 celebrated its 25th anniversary as the largest manufacturer of step stools.  These beauties came in 12 models and "5 gay colors" - red, turquoise, pink, brown and yellow... later green was added to the mix.


"When a step stool is handy everything else is"...  They were safe for all your climbing tasks and comfortable for all your sitting tasks.. you could even take it out of the kitchen and use it to sit on while ironing your laundry... check out all the vintage ads I found for these... of course they were looking for a comfortable seat... their feet were KILLING them wearing pumps all day...

Bless their hearts... To the women in my family before me... I salute you.  I have all the modern conveniences and still can't keep up with y'all in heels.

Back to modern times... I really can't pass up stools, and one of my picker friends knows this, so when he sent me this picture I called him foul names... and my husband groaned.  We all knew there wasn't a question of whether or not I'd grab them... ALL of them...  (sorry Gimli... I shouldn't have sworn... love that you know my taste TOO well)...

Like most Augusts, Bill and I have been out of town the whole month.  It's the busiest times in both of our careers.  We actually had the last week free though, so we (he) decided to tackle a "quick" project.  We discussed the different things in our garage and chose the lovely yellow "swing away" step stool.  There were a few layers of remuddling on that baby... with house paint (nononononono!!!!)... Bill removed it all and started from scratch and his final project is one of true beauty.  Will look fabulous in any kitchen, basement or man cave....

As always my hubby has outdone himself...  His next project will be the model 4a step stool to the left of the yellow one in the picture.  We're also talking about the far left stools...  these were more industrial and we're tempted to add barn wood to them... Keep watching for more updates... It's always exciting to see how our brainstorming turns out.

I'll be visiting the booth mid week (after Irma leaves), and will be dropping off this red and black beauty then...  Come see us at the Queen of Hearts in Alpharetta... we're on Broad St... you can't miss us.

Stay dry y'all!!!