Do you have any scrap wood laying around and a few hours to kill?
Is it a huge saftey hazard in your garage that you are constantly herding your children away from?
Are you also afraid of what creepy crawly, spidery things might try to make a home in that pile of scrap wood?
We were able to make this adorable DIY Blanket Ladder using that leftover wood for free ~ and we were able to make our garage a safer place for little ones and a momma much happier.
Here’s how we did it.
In our garage, we’ve been storing this pile of wood that we saved from some repairs we made to our deck last summer. It was aged just right and too pretty to take to the dump.
Honestly, that stack of wood was in the way and was starting to worry me with visions of 2 by 4s falling on my boys heads! So I came up with a simple idea to use the wood and free up the safety hazard in my garage.
It’s so easy peasy that y’all will be making one this weekend! Sources with affiliate links are provided for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure here.
DIY Blanket Ladder
Scrap wood – the more weathered the better!
Miter Saw
Sandpaper
Spare Screws
Tape Measure
Carpenter’s Square
Drill
Antiquing Glaze – I like this one
Felt Pads
- First we chose the pieces we were going to use and made fresh cuts to the ends with our Miter Saw.
2. The most important thing we did next was lightly sand the pieces and wash them thoroughly since our wood was old pressure treated lumber exposed to the elements.
Because I didn’t want any of those creepy crawlies left around! Especially on my soft blankets!
3. As you can see above, my pieces weren’t the same color after the sand/wash step. So I used a little Valspar antiquing glaze to add uniformity to the pieces paying particular attention to the cut ends.
4. Then we eyeballed where the braces would go, took a measurement and assembled it. So this is where your carpenter’s square comes in handy to make sure your ‘rungs’ are level.
Of course, little hands had to join in on their build as well.
But moments like these make for wonderful times of teaching and gave the boys a chance to be manly men next to their Daddy!
So it was a fun family afternoon.
That’s it!
Seriously – it was the easiest DIY project we’ve ever done! Plus it only took us about 2 hours total including the little teaching moments.
Since we were planning on placing this against the wall, one design feature we opted for was to make angle cuts to the legs to allow for an easier ‘lean’ on the wall. I also added felt pads to the feet and also to the top where it leaned against the wall.
It looks nice and aged and is certainly a perfect fit for an empty corner.
I placed our surveyor’s stick that we found for free on a trash run to the dump.
How awesome is that piece! I still can’t believe someone was throwing that away!
I also moved my Hand Painted Window into my…..window.
The light came thru the panes and highlighted the scripture beautifully.
So what do you think? Will you be making one of these?
Have fun making one of these and if you do, be sure to send me a picture so I can see it!
I just love this! It is absolutely my style. Plus my linen closet is overflowing. Please make me one lol
I want one of these! You were so smart to make your own ladder and there are a lot of different fun things you can do with it. Thanks for the inspiration. Happy TOHOT. 🙂
This is so lovely, DIY rustic farmhouse is my favorite! I'm stopping over from Thoughts of Home. Would love for you to join us over at our Vintage Charm Party! You can enter it here: http://charmbraceletdiva.blogspot.com/2016/04/vintage-charm-party-28.html
Look forward to seeing you there! Have a great weekend! xo Kathleen Charm Bracelet Diva {At Home}
That blanket ladder is gorgeous. We have a bunch of scrap wood in our garage, but I'm not sure it's the right sizes for that ladder. I'm definitely going to have to go check, though!
A great project with awesome results! Thanks so much for sharing this at the Grace at Home party. I'm featuring you this week!
What an awesome idea! Found you through a blog hop and I love this tutorial! I might just have to add this to our farmhouse
xoxo
Alicia
Happy Day indeed! Love that you are inspired by little ole me! And your compliment about my photography made my week. I'm still learning and that is HUGE coming from someone as talented as you.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Yay! This made my day! Thank you so much for the feature!! I always love linking up and am honored to be included with all the other talented features!
Great – glad it inspired you! Be sure to send me a pic of yours!
It's a surveyor's stick used to measure land. One guy looks through a scope while the other guy holds a stick like this. I believe it measures the slope of the land. Hope that helps!
Thanks, always, for hosting Laura. I love to link up and see what everyone else contributed!
Love your photography! You go girl!!!!! So happy to have met you at the Country Living Fair this weekend! What a fun project and now I'm glad I didn't get any ladders at the fair because I can make my own. 🙂
Happy day!
karianne
Great job! Isn't it nice when you can turn your scrap pile into something functional?! I'm featuring your project at the Talented Tuesday Link Party!
I really like how it turned out. It would be great for a cottage. I'm looking for something for our beach house for towels. Thanks for sharing!
Lovely! Question, is that a ruler of some type to measure well depth??
I'm pinning this for Mr. Decor. What an absolute delight this post is!!! Thank you so very much for joining the gathering at Thoughts of Home on Thursday.
I always love linking up – thanks for hosting, Jemma!
Thanks for checking it out Audra! Have a great weekend!
Great project-it turned out positively wonderful! Pinned too:)
Thanks so much for sharing this with us at TOHOT!
Jemma
I love when simple & functional meets cute! The felt pads on the bottom are a great idea!