Tag: DIY

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Easy DIY Blanket Ladder

Finished Easy DIY Blanket Ladder

I love my farmhouse and love filling it with great farmhouse inspired decor. I fell in love with a blanket ladder at Target, but sadly it was outside of the budget. As I stood there staring at it longingly, I thought I could probably make a version of it myself for a lot less money. Follow me on my journey to make the best DIY Blanket Ladder!

Getting the Perfect Wood

I went home and took an inventory of my wood supply. I find tons of free lumber and scrap wood through my neighborhood Facebook groups. A few months ago, I acquired 6 intact wood shutters from the exterior of an old house for free. The shutters were brown on one side and green on the other side. I went back and forth over whether to keep the paint on the wood shutters or strip the paint completely and add a stain to the wood. I decided to leave the paint on the shutters and sand it down in places to give it a rustic farmhouse look. However, if you don’t have any scrap wood you can buy your wood of choice from Home Depot, I would recommend buying furring strips because they are the best bang for your buck, but any wood will do.

Shutter I used to create the blanket ladder-I had to remove some exposed nails prior to cutting!

Materials/Supplies:

  • scrap wood or furring strips (I used three 6 ft long boards)
  • miter saw
  • nail gun
  • hand sander/sand paper
  • wood stain of your choice
  • measuring tape
  • pencil

Cutting and Preparing the Wood

Before you begin, decide on the height you want your ladder to be. I chose to make my ladder 50 inches tall. Using the pencil and measuring tape, I took two pieces of wood from one of my shutters and marked off 50 inches on each piece.

I chose to add 4 ladder rungs to my ladder; you can add as many or as little ladder rungs as you like depending on the height of your ladder. I took a third piece of wood from my shutter and marked off 4 separate 1 foot long pieces with my pencil and measuring tape, these would become my rungs.

After I had all of my wood pieces marked I proceeded to make my cuts. I wanted the bottom of my ladder to sit nearly flush with the floor while the top half rested against the wall. I set my miter saw to a 15 degree angle. I cut the marked ends of both of my wood pieces using the 15 degree angle cut on the miter saw. I set my two base pieces to the side.

I set my miter saw angle back to zero so I could cut all of my ladder rungs. I cut the 4 ladder rungs along the lines I had marked earlier, each rung should be 1 foot in length.

Sanding and Staining

I chose to sand down the existing paint on my repurposed wood using a corded hand sander. The corded hand sander made the project go a lot faster, however, if you don’t have a corded hand sander you can use regular sand paper. If you are using wood without paint no sanding is needed.

I added a layer of gray wood stain to my sanded wood to give it a rustic aged look. There are a variety of wood stains and colors, pick the stain that is right for your style.

Assembling the Ladder

After the stain dried completely on my ladder bases and rungs, I began the assembly process. I measured and marked the location I wanted each rung to be placed on the ladder on both ladder bases. The markings on the ladder bases should be exactly the same.

I placed the ladder bases on the ground parallel to each other. I placed each ladder rung in between the ladder bases in the pre-marked locations. I angled the first ladder rung towards the ground. Using my nail gun, I placed four nails on the outside of each ladder base into the ladder rung (eight nails per ladder rung). I continued angling the remaining ladder rungs towards the ground and attached them to the ladder base as indicated above.

Finished Blanket Ladder

Finishing Touches

I did not patch the nail holes on my ladder. I went with a rustic farmhouse ladder and thought the nail holes gave it some character. However, if you want to patch the nail holes you can always fill the holes with wood filler and sand it down prior to staining.

I added a thick felt adhesive to the back of the ladder that would be resting against the wall to prevent the wall from becoming damaged. Buy the felt adhesive I used for this project using the link below.

 

Everbilt Heavy Duty Felt I used for the back of the ladder.

I placed the ladder directly into my living room and added various blankets. That is it! This is a super simple budget friendly DIY project that only took a couple of hours to complete. Time to get out there and start building!

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Board and Batten or Bust!

Board and Batten Dining Room Accent Wall

I wanted to update the walls in my house and add character without breaking the bank. I could have painted the walls and added accent colors but I wanted something with a bit more character. I love the look of board and batten but sadly it was not in my budget. After some research, I realized I can do this myself for a lot less than it would cost me to hire someone to install it.

I told my husband my plan to add board and batten to the downstairs living and dining room and surprisingly he loved my idea. I immediately got down to business and started drawing out a plan. I decided to install board and batten in the dining room first so I could get a feel for the look. My motto for this project is “Start small, dream big.”

Before Picture

I have a small dining area so the space was not that overwhelming to tackle. Here are the tools and supplies I recommend to complete the project with the least amount of headache:

TOOLS/SUPPLIES:

  • Miter Saw
  • Air Compressor Nail Gun
  • 1 1/2 inch Pneumatic Finishing Nails
  • 1x4x8 furring strips
  • level
  • measuring tape
  • paint (I used the Behr Premium Plus Ultra Minimalistic in Satin finish)
  • Hand Sander
  • Paint Brushes
  • Wood Filler
  • Paintable Caulk

*I had the advantage of having flat untextured walls. If you have a textured wall you might want to consider adding full length boards of plywood or MDF if you want a perfectly flat appearance.

The first thing you need to do before heading to the hardware store is measure the space you are placing the board and batten to get an idea on how much wood you will need. My dining room wall is exactly 8 feet in length. I decided to start the board and batten 40 inches high because I didn’t want to have to navigate around the light switches. I ran the boards approximately 15 1/4 inches apart. I ended up needing 4 boards (1x4x8 furring strips) for the entire project. I purchased my furring strips at Home Depot for approximately $2.30 per board (love that price!).

While at Home Depot I purchased the paint for the project. I have two toddlers who are always touching the walls with Mac n Cheese hands so I knew I wanted to buy the more expensive washable paint. I purchased a gallon the Behr Premium Plus Ultra in the color Minimalisitc, which is a fancy name for white. This is where I spent the majority of my money. The paint cost $32 and was worth every penny!

After purchasing my supplies I got down to work. Using my stud finder I found and marked the location of every stud in the area I would be hanging the board and batten. The reason I marked the location of the studs was so I could ensure that when I nailed the wood into the wall at least some of my nails would go into a stud allowing extra support.

I marked the location I would be hanging my vertical wood boards all the way down the wall.

I painted the horizontal top board and the two vertical end caps before placing them on the wall. This is not necessarily something that needs to be done but it saved me the headache of getting excess paint on the wall edges.

I hung the horizontal top board first. My wall was exactly 8 feet in length, which means I did not have to cut this board down (score, one less cut!). I held the board at my desired height. Once the board was in the desired location, I placed my level on top of the board to ensure it was completely level. Using my nail gun, I placed several 1 1/2 inch nails into the board attaching it to the wall.

Horizontal Top Board

I chose to paint the wall below the horizontal top board with a coat of paint before attaching the vertical boards because I thought it would make things easier for myself and it was a task I could do while the kids were napping without waking them.

I measured the distance from the bottom of the horizontal top board to the top of my base board for each desired vertical board location. I used my miter saw to cut each vertical board to its desired size. The vertical end cap closest to my staircase required me to complete a bevel cut so it would fit flush against my stair railing.

Bevel Cut

After completing all of the vertical board cuts, I attached the boards to the wall in the same manner as the horizontal top board using 1 1/2 inch nails in conjunction with my level.

All of the boards are installed….time for wood filler and caulk!

Once all of my boards were in place, I filled all of the nail holes and seams where the boards met with wood filler. Once the wood filler was dry, I sanded down the areas until they were smooth. I also sanded down a few imperfections in the wood.

I caulked around the tops, bottoms, and edges of every board on the wall with paintable caulk to give the wall a more finished look.

Once everything was dry, I painted the entire board and batten area several times with the Behr Ultra Premium Paint I purchased from Home Depot.

The total cost of the board and batten dining room wall was $42. It cost me $10 for the wood and $32 for the paint. All of the other items used in this project I already had on hand.

It took me 2 days of intermittent work (two toddlers remember) and less than $50 to complete this beautifully elegant accent wall. I can’t wait to start on my next project!

The finished product!

 

*I provided buying links to a majority of the tools and supplies I personally used for this project. As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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