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I have been wanting a blanket ladder for some time now - hoping to find one at a thrift store or antique store on our many adventures to those types of stores - but to no avail I have never come across one. Purchasing one at a normal decor store is so expensive so I began scouring the internet for inspiration to make one for myself. Let me preface this post by saying I do not own a single power saw or sander. Since I don't have the ability to just purchase wood and cut everything myself, I had to find something that was manageable for me.
I found a post on Pinterest by Simple Made Pretty for a blanket ladder using paint sticks and I thought that might be something I could do. The post indicated to use 5 gallon paint sticks for everything and then using tacky glue to attach it all together. I felt like that was not going to be sturdy enough for what I wanted my ladder to hold so I made some alterations to the plan.
Supplies for this project:
- (6) package 5 gallon paint sticks (3 sticks come in a pack)
- (1) package 1 gallon paint sticks (10 sticks come in a pack)
- (4 - 5) 3/4" wooden dowels (12 inches long)
- E6000 glue or something similar
- Wood glue
- Wood filler or spackle
- Level
- Power drill
- (8 - 10) 3" screws
- Sand paper
- Stain and/or paint
I went to my local Home Depot and purchased 6 packs of 5 gallon paint sticks and 1 pack of 1 gallon paint sticks.. It was only 98 cents a pack.. From there I headed to Walmart and purchased 2 packs of 3/4" dowels - these are only 12 inches long so I thought they would work perfectly for this project. Each pack was just under $2.00.
I went through my husband's tool box at home for the power drill and some screws and got to work on assembly. The Pinterest post for the large ladder indicated to glue 3 sticks together to make a more solid piece of wood so I followed that step by gluing each 3 pack together with wood glue until I had a total of 6 leg pieces. From there, I used my miter box and hand saw to cut off the curved portion of 2 of the 6 leg pieces so that I was left with 4 pieces that had the curved portion of the stick and 2 pieces that were just straight.
From there, I used E6000 to glue my legs together to make 2 solid leg pieces. The curved ends were situated so that the top had one curved edge and the bottom has the other. The straight piece was glued in between those. I glued a regular sized paint stick to the back of each leg where the pieces were joined so there would be some extra stability. I then put the legs down flat on the floor with the smaller paint stick side touching the floor and added some weight in all of the areas that joined so they stayed together. I let this sit overnight to dry.
The next day, I figured out the spacing for the cross bars of the ladder and determined that 12 inches apart worked perfectly. I decided that just 4 cross bars worked for me but 5 could certainly fit on the ladder as well if you prefer to start the cross bars up a bit higher on the ladder. Once I figured out my spacing, I marked with a pencil where each bar would be going and used the drill to drill some pilot holes in both the legs and the cross bars. I drilled into the center paint stick of the 3 glued together from the side of the leg and then drilled a whole on each end of the side bar pieces. I then switched over to the screwdriver bit on the drill and screwed a large screw into each pilot hole on the legs and joined it with the cross bar pieces. This gave instant stability to the cross bars and no gluing was required.
Once the ladder was fully assembled, I used some wood filler to cover the screws and got to painting the ladder. I used Waverly antique wax to "stain" the wood pieces but quickly realized that any glue that was wiped away from the legs showed through. So I decided to go ahead and paint one layer of the wax all around and then did distressing with Waverly chalk paint in the color Plaster to hide the imperfections from the glue.
It turned out so cute!!! Once it dried I decided to add a thrifted basket to the top with some twine and then added a blanket underneath that. I filled the basket with floral foam and some off-white rose florals from the dollar tree. I also added some fringe to the basket to drive home the boho vibe. When all was said and done I was in love with this project! What do you think?