Building one (usually in the diagonal-side-cut style) is a popular DIY project.
[1][2][3] It is sometimes claimed that these chairs were designed by Benjamin Franklin.
[citation needed] Franklin himself preferred to sit in a step chair he designed for his own library.
This chair folded in a slightly different way from the common diagonal-side-cut step chair; the seat flips up, resting against the reclined back of the chair, and forming three steps; one formerly hidden under and parallel to the seat, and two attached vertically along the seat's front edge and midline.
[4] A variant form has a third position, in which the back of the chair becomes an ironing-board.