Decorative Ladder Tutorial

I had two problems when decorating the nursery. One was that I had a whole lot of time on my hands before the babe was born so I made like a quadzillion blankets. Well...not that many. But probably too many :) Second was that I had a spot in the nursery that needed something. It was just way empty. So, why not make something to hold all those blankets?....umm, well more like two or three of those blankets? :)

This was a really simple project. All you need is:
Two 1x2s, measured at the same length. Mine are at approx. 6.5 feet.
Five 1x4s, measured at the same length. Mine are 16 inches.

First step:
Line the two 1x2s up, then measure an equadistance on each piece and mark -this will be the place for your 'steps'. For the top, choose whatever distance you want. I wanted the first 'step', or top step to be a little higher, so I didn't care if the distance was the same from the top to that one than it was from that one to the next. Make sense? So for the first step from the top, its 9 inches. Then the next step is 14 inches, and each step after that is 14 inches.

Then secure each 1x4 to the 1x2s at the correct marks you made. Use wood glue and a screw.

Step 2:
Sand. I sanded the heck out of the corners and edges of each piece of wood. First, to make sure there weren't any sharp edges. Second, to make it look a little bit more 'used'.

 Step 3:
Finish. Paint and distress. Or just paint. I used Crisp Linen from Glidden to match the top color of the room.

 I initially didn't have plans to put it in this corner, but then when I found the street lamp for that 'empty' space I was building this for....

I had to find a new place for the ladder. Which is a good thing, cuz I needed something for this corner too and it fits perfectly ;)

 I can put about 4 blankets on here if need be, but since all the blankets are either dirty or in use or elsewhere in the house, there's currently only one :) But I decided to break it up a little by adding the frames I made from this tutorial (click here). I just hung them using some jute.

The cost of this project for me was free, since I had all the supplies on hand. But if you needed to get the wood, you would need two 1x2s and one 1x4 which would be about $4 total.