A step stool is a useful helper to have around the apartment, especially if you have high ceilings that allow you to go upward more than outward with your storage. Our kitchen, for instance, would be useless without one. And while step stools can be purely utilitarian pieces, here are three that can be appreciated for form as well as function:
1 Doublewide Step Stool by Loll Designs - $177.
2 This small (but sturdy) Copper Step Stool by Jonathan Muecke of Cranbrook is for truly space-challenged households.
3 The 10°ree; Step Stool: "With legs canted at 10°ree;, a slot for hanging is also bored at 10°ree;. When hung on an archetypical nail that is pounded into a wall at a slight upward angle, the angled slot allows the step stool to lay flatly against the wall, in harmony." by The Office for Lost Objects.
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knockoffwood really needs to do plans for that first one...it looks SO simple (and not worth $177)
i love library step stools, having used them a great deal as a child visiting libraries. not only great to fetch books high up but to sit on and read. dwr, crate & barrel, & others sell their versions of these stools, often for less than $100.
I saw one at Crate & Barrel that I really liked - it's a toolbox and step stool in one http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=14458&f=35683&q=step stool&fromLocation=Search&DIMID=400001&SearchPage=1