Jacqueline Weiley

At first glance, you’d never guess the purpose of this piece of furniture, being sold by local businesswoman Jacqueline Weiley.

That’s one of the reasons why the toilet footstool recently won an Australian Good Design Award.

The PROPPR bathroom footrest is designed to help users replicate the squat position when sitting comfortably on a pedestal toilet.

“We aimed to create a beautiful, minimalist foot stool that would be a stylish addition to a designer bathroom,” says Ms Weiley.

“It’s a functional piece of bathroom furniture to be proud of. It says you care about your health yet you don’t need to sacrifice style!”

Her business partner, Zhenya Gerson, a Cronulla based gut health nutritionalist, has been encouraging clients for years to use footstools to help alleviate or prevent gut and bowel issues.

“In cultures where squatting is the norm and the bowel is emptied completely each day, the incidence of many common western bowel problems are extremely low,” she says.

The problem is, until now, the stool designs were too ugly to feature in a stylish bathroom.

In praising the design, the Jury said, “This is a really neat example of good design making a difference to product. An honest, intuitive and no nonsense design approach has created a unique product that will enhance our health and wellbeing.”

The Australian designed and made stool is available from www.theproppr.com in timber or acrylic versions.