Ideas for wall mounted fold down step stool?

[gthornhi]

This one might be a bit unique and maybe belongs in woodworking.  You can see a pantry in the picture, essentially a repurposed closet from the adjoining room.  It's over the top of a stair well going down to the garage which is why this is elevated up off the floor a bit.  Anyhow it's only about 18" or so high but my wife has a hard time stepping up into this pantry to get to everything in there.  She's asked for some sort of step.  As you can tell the exterior door opens into the space directly in front of the pantry door.  I've seen some fold down chairs that I suppose would work but looking for something relatively small and certainly sturdy enough to take our weights.  I'm pretty good at making things but not a great engineer of the ideas.  My ideal world would be something that when folded down (hinged from wall), would auto extend legs out for support, and conversely retract when folding up.  I can build something out of wood but can't seem to get my head wrapped around a system that would extend / retract the legs.  Ideally this would fold down when not in use, that way the kids don't have to mess with it if they don't want to as they can hop into the pantry just fine.

Any thoughts out there?  Much appreciated

Greg

[DieselDennis]

No real ideas, except that I predict your back door will have a mark on it at some point in its life where this step is going.  

The easiest way to deal with the legs is gravity.  Mount them kind of loose so they will always stay plumb no matter what orientation the step is in.  Might also be a good idea to mount these "legs" on the end of the step as to keep them as close to the wall as possible when the step is folded up.

What is going to trigger the folding of this step?  Your hand or foot?  Pantry door?  

I don't blame your wife for not being able to make an 18" step.  That's tall.  Even two 9" steps is going to be pretty big.  

I'm assuming there's a stud knee wall underneath the pantry door.  Give some thought to cutting the drywall out of this side to give yourself a 4" deeper hole to work with.  

And don't skimp with the steps.  You're going to have something in your hand going up or down those steps every time.  In other words, make them big enough for your feet to land on.  

Final thought, how big is the pantry?  How much space are we getting for the trouble with this step?  Would she be happy with a really deep shelf behind the pantry door?  Something she could reach standing on the ground, and maybe get a step stool for the things on the top shelves?

[Cooler]

Make a step stool similar to the  one in the photo below.  Attach a hinge to the back edge of the top step and and attach it to the floor of the pantry so that when lifted up it resides inside the pantry,and when it is lowered it rests on the ground.  You will have to size the steps to suit the rise above the floor.  But at 18" that works out to  about 9" rise, a comfortable rise for most people.

[Phil S.]

Can't see what kind of space is behind the pantry door, but I'd be inclined just to use a small step stool that can sit in the pantry until it's needed.  A lot simpler than trying to engineer something to fit between the wall and the exterior door.

[crokett™]

I would just keep a stool inside the pantry, either on the floor or hang it from the inside of the door.