In my house we have several small kiddie stools, but none of them were tall enough for my kids to reach the top shelves. This resulted in my kids climbing on the counters or unsafely manipulating the existing stools to reach what they wanted. Also, we would often run out of seating. Therefore, I decided to build a tall stool that would be high enough for the kids, while also being wide enough to serve as a seat it needed. This is what the result of the project looks like:

The steps to build the stool are as follows. Also, I would sand each piece before attaching it, as that will be much easier than sanding the stool once all the pieces are attached.

Step 1: Cut the stool top to size: For this step I already had a board which was 11 inches wide so I only needed to cut the length. The length I used was 16 inches, which is only a few inches lower than the average chair height.

Step 2: Cut the legs to length: The legs of the stool I made were 16 inches long and were made by 1 x 1s. Note that my legs were extra long to help my kids reach things and also so that the stool could serve as a seat if needed. If the legs were short (say 12 inches) it would be too low to the ground to serve as a seat.

Step 3: Attach the legs to the stool top: To attach the legs to the stool top I used one torque screw per leg for the initial connection. I made each leg be one inch inward from both edges of the stool top. I knew the legs would be very wobbly with just one torx screw, so I added one bracket per leg which screwed into the leg and the stool top. These brackets are very small but are pretty useful. You can get 50 of these on Amazon for $10, they can be found on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079BYC2S4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Step 4: Add cross boards to the legs to add stability: I added four cross boards to the legs to add stability to the stool. While the brackets helped, the cross boards were needed to really make the stool feel stable. Each cross board was held in place by a bolt and nut. Make sure that the bolts were at different heights so that they do not hit each other.

Step 5: Stain or paint the stool: I decided to stain the stool, but the last step would be to apply some kind of stain or paint to protect the wood.

That is basically it, the steps to make the stool are pretty simple. The follow video shows all the steps described above and also provides some additional details.