a.forte's blog of Spain Hill Farm: DIY Ladder for Guest Bath Storage

Sunday, August 3, 2014

DIY Ladder for Guest Bath Storage

My oldest daughter and my niece recently moved into their first, real apartment. It's a townhouse with a small guest bath on the first floor. You know, the small bath that's under the stairs, causing all sorts of storage problems because of the sloped ceiling. That's when we discovered this:

BHG website

One problem, we didn't have a cute vintage ladder. So, we made one! Here's a super, easy tutorial:

While visiting my hometown last year, I picked up a bunch of old tobacco stakes from my grandparent's farm. The aged wood and stake height was right for making a ladder but most of the stakes were a little crooked...in a charming way. (Don't worry if you don't have stakes, you can use new 1 x 2 pine stakes as well.)

Hmmm...these aren't the same thickness. Back to the pile.

The two in the center were the most uniform in size so they became the uprights. I used one of the others to cut for the rungs.

With the rungs cut in graduating lengths, I eyeballed their placement...because that's how I roll (which may explain all of the nail holes in our walls.) Since the upright stakes are not square by any means, it took a little tweaking and trimming to get the rungs to fit right but it was a pretty quick fix.

Now, this step is important. Since the wood is very old and dry and likely to split, you must pre-drill the holes for the screws. I used a drill bit slightly smaller than the screw. Also, since we didn't want shiny new screws showing on our "vintage" ladder, I used the larger drill bit to countersink the heads of the screws. Eight holes drilled and eight screws countersunk, it's finished.

There you have it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy! It took less than an hour including clean up. While I made my daughter's ladder last week and have already taken to her place (upcoming post of their place soon!), this is a second ladder I whipped up today. It hasn't found a permanent spot in my house yet but here's a few options.