DIY FootRest using Foam sheet

 

For those of you sitting for hours infront of a system, this handy foot rest can be a great help in terms to making sure your feet stays comfortable plus it even says online that it improves your posture while sitting and avoids backpain issues. We have a tendency to slouch forward towards the computer screen thereby moving our body away from the back support of the chair. From what I have experienced this is partly because we keep trying to make sure that our legs get proper support w.r.t to the chair height. So having yourself a foot rest keeps you comfy and irrespective of the height of the chair, you can still get proper support for your feet.

Enough of story telling, lets get down to the real stuff . . . . Why did I go through the trouble of making one from scratch, when you can buy one for less than 500Rs? Two reasons, the ones you get for 500 bucks is not height adjustable and almost all versions available online have limited foot space so I did not want to spent a lot on a foot rest and I also wanted ample foot space to fill the entire foot area in front of my chair. Finally the choice of material, Wood is definitely the best choice and there are a lot of DIY video online about making with wood but working with wood needs tools for drilling, polishing, screws etc so the cheaper and homely alternative was Foam sheets that is available in any Crafts related stores

Items you need,

3 x Foam Board/Sheet (0.4mm) - 60 cm x 60 cm

2 x  Flex Kwik Instant Adhesive (or any strong Instant glue)

Glue like Fevicol (optional)

Cutting blade

Pencil/Pen

Measuring ruler 60 cm (recommended) 

I did not plan to make an actual blog so the images may be a lot less pro and a lot homely. I searched online for designs but ones online were either too inclined or too tall with gap towards the edge so I stacked a key boxes under my feet and identified the exact height that I need, after all the reason why I started down this route is because of the perfect height requirement so I would suggest you do the same. Sit on your chair adjust to the perfect height, now stack books or boxes and identify the height that gives you the perfect touching point for your feet and measure this with a tap. This measurement will be the highest point in your foot rest. Next is the width, how wide it needs to be depends on your preference. Below is a rough plot I worked with,

STEP 1: FOAM CUTTING

As long as you make proportional changes to the dimensions, you should be fine using the same plan. For instance, if your measured height requirement is 10cms then just change the highest point on the top image to 10 cm so the height dips on either side would be 9cms and for bottom section it would then be 5, 25, 18cms (We are just changing the last 15cms to 18cms otherwise the top curve to the base would be steeper)

Once you have a perfect cutting of the top figure, use this as reference to make 3 more so we have a total 4 exact same foam cutouts of the top figure. If you want you can stack them together with a thread, lay it on the floor and try with one feet to see if the height and shape suits your requirement. If can make any shaping changes at this stage, just make sure all four pieces are exactly the same and all of them must have a flat base.  

Now for the Base rectangular sheet (middle drawing), one side needs to match the length of the top cutting and the other side needs to be the width of the foot rest you need. This is the board on top of which we are going to add everything else.

The third drawing of the long rectangular strip is a support structure, and the back panel. The width needs to match your foot rest width and for the height you can take based on height at different points of side panels and equally distribute. In my case, the dotted lines on the top drawing show points where I placed these supports. Its best if you work on these strips after step 2 so that you have a better idea about your best support points.

We will not be cutting the top cover right now.

  

STEP 2: BUILDING SUPPORTS

On the base sheet, first place the two side panels on the flat surface and stick them at 90 degrees. Since we are using quick drying glue you just have seconds before it sticks so first place cutting at the exact edge, check if is straight from the top angle and then stick. Do the same for the two edges

So this is how it is going to look after your are done with the two edges, and as you can see I have drawn horizontal lines on the base sheet so that I have a clear understanding of where each of the the horizontal strips would go. I made 4 strips, one for the back closing, one for highest point, one just before the curve starts, and one in between these two. The back closing panel is shorter which is why you can't see that in the image below, buts its all there a total of 4 horizontal supports. When cutting out supports, remember that it is ok to have them a bit longer and shorten them later based on requirement rather than the pieces being even slightly shorter and simply wasting board.

Now we are done with the horizontal supports, and we move on to the tougher part of the build which is the vertical supports. Not complicated but this part takes a lot of testing to get it just right. Remember that we made a total 4 cuttings of the first image, and we used up 2 for the edges, the other two we are going to cut into 4 pieces each and place them between the vertical strips so as to divide the base section into three equal sections. Once done your model should look like the one below,

  

Since the design was a lot wider and made of foam, cutting the vertical strips up and placing them in a straight line would make wide pockets without support that can lead to the top cover sagging or our feet pushing down at those points so I added additional pieces on some rows to give better support and moved them across to create an equal distributed support. For each section, always cut the required number of strips, place them at the required points, finalize their angle and contact surfaces (smoothen when needed), and touch the glue only after that because if you try to push it in and the horizontal supports start to incline then that's going to affect the shape of all other support pieces (more time trimming the edges for supports). Once you reach the above stage then you are almost done. You can apply a layer of normal glue over all the contact areas for extra support and also to coverup contact points that have very minor gaps. If you are doing this then its best to leave it over-night for everything to dry and set nice and firm.

STEP 3: COVERUP

Before we lay the cover on top, take the ruler and move it horizontally along the surface of the structure. The goal is to identify if there is any support structure taller than the edges, its ok if its very slightly shorter than the edges (not too much). But supports in between both horizontal and vertical should ideally have the same height at all points matching the two edges, you can use the cutting blade to trim down supports that are taller or use scrap foam to build supports that are too short because too much irregularities in between can cause bulges on the surface of the top panel and also make it even more hard for the edges to stick. 

So once the verification is completed, we move to the final coverup part. Before proceeding further, if you have normal glue then put some glue on the top edges of the entire structure, these are the points over which the top panel would be laying so a glue on top will make sure the surface sticks on to the supports but the critical points that we need to guarantee perfection is definitely the outer edges. We have an easy way and a hard way for completing the top portion, the easy way is to cut horizontal strips like we did for the supports and lay them flat on top. Since you can work one piece at a time, you have much better control and easier to apply the quick drying glue at the contact points and even the supports The only variation is that cutting it to strips reduces the strength slightly (only slightly, as long as you take strips of around 6cms width for back and front, and a single big piece for the horizontal portion, you should be fine). 

The hard way which is is the one I used (obviously!!) for the smooth finish is to use a full foam board (slightly larger than the whole base) and lay it on top of the structure and start sticking the foam to the edges of the structure. Align one corner of the foam board to one side and back panel first so that when you are done, the back and that one side will be perfect. The foam will be excess over front and other side. You work your way from one back edge to the front edge on the same side (press down tight as you stick each portion). Now back edge to front edge is done. Now from that same back edge, move along the top of the back panel, and we are done with two edges. Once we are sure the back and one side is ready, we follow the same approach now for the other back edge to the front edge on same side. So now have the two sides firmly sticking on to the outer edges, now we cut away the foam on one side which was going over the outer edge. The front edge may not stick to the front base as the foam inclinations are a bit tricky at this point and there may be a gap between the base and sheet cover, not to worry just make sure that you cut the top cover at the front portion slightly more that just the level of the base so that it just reaches the floor when the foot rest is laid on the floor (See image above showing the front edge, see how the top cover just flows to just touch the floor).

FINAL FINISHING

We are practically done, but something I felt imperfect was the gap under the front section. Because bringing the top cover to the floor might look perfect from the top but if you turn the base you can see there is gap and the front portion is actually held in position only by the two front edges, so lets fix that. Through the gap you can see the ends of the two curvy vertical supports, hold the top cover tight against those and put a few drops of instant glue so that the curvy supports grab on to the top cover on the inside. Now for the gap between the base and top panel, take a thin horizontal strip of foam and place it in the gap such that it fills the gap and creates a contact surface we can glue on either side the base and top cover. Since we glued a rectangular piece to the gap, there will be a corner that's out of level from the base, so just take a blade and trim it down at level with the base and the we solved the gap issue as well as found a way to attach the front portion. Since we used single foam, there is a tendency for the foam to break out at the edges if not properly glues so just apply another round of ordinary strong glue like fevicol and put some not too heavy items evenly on to the surface of the footrest, with slightly heavier ones at the edges. Leave the structure over night or till the glue dries completely and your done. Now cover this with your favorite cloth material or a fluffy floor mat for extra comfort

Please remember that you made this out of foam and not wood, so use is only as a foot rest and not something you can stand on. Also you will be using a lot of quick drying instant glue, so always plan your action and then execute and also wear gloves and specs if possible. 

Hope you find this useful and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions