What do you do with an old ladder that doesn’t seem to have any use any more? Throw it away? Absolutely not! There are many things that you can do to transform that old ladder into something new and useful. For one, you can make it into a fancy decoration in your home. It doesn’t even have to be that expensive to refurbish the ladder because you have so many options in saving and at the same time making it look good. Here you can learn. Sounds impossible but it can actually be doable if you know the tricks to do it.
What is a Rustic Ladder?
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A rustic ladder is a ladder that is designed to look rural or to blend in with the countryside elements. There are some people who love the feel of being at home with the rustic feel to it. There are also some establishments and restaurants who approve of rustic decorations for their buildings. The wonderful thing about rustic furniture is that they are very easy to create and you can even add your own customization into it making the furniture more personalized.
Of course, there is rustic furniture as well as ladders being sold in the market and they are truly beautiful however they can cost a bit much sometime and if you don’t have that budget, you might find it difficult to buy them for yourself. Sometimes it may even cause you to save for a few months before even getting to buy what you want.
Some of this furniture cost around more than $200 and it may be too much for you to handle. There may even be knockoffs that cost way less than these expensive ones. Therefore you should be mindful and practical of which furniture you choose to buy.
This is the more the reason why people tend to recreate their own rustic furniture. All you need to do is gather your tools and prepare some important materials in order to transform your furniture. Or that old ladder into something beautiful that you can actually display at home.
The Material List For Your Dream Rustic Ladder
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You might already be asking yourself, what will we need to make a rustic ladder for under $20? Below is a list of things that you need to prepare in order to start your rustic ladder project.
- Two 1x2x8 boards, Cedar, preferably since they have a rougher one side that is perfect for the rustic look.
- One 1x4x8 Cedar board
- Twenty wood screws
- Saw
- Drill
- Paint (Black, wood stain or gray stain it depends on your taste)
- Paint brushes
- Old ladder to compare (optional)
How to Create your Very Own Rustic Ladder
- Start off by cutting the boards into the size that you need them. You can start with 1x2x8 boards to 72″ long and also 1x4x8 board into 18″ long. These will serve as the rungs. You can prepare about four or six pieces of the boards depending on how your work goes.
- After making sure the boards are cut correctly, it’s time to assemble them. Place the 1x2x8 boards next to each other and leaving a 16” gap between them. The top and the bottom boards should be lined up correctly. With Cedar make sure that the rough side is facing upwards.
- Look at the possible locations of the rungs and attach the individual rungs to the sideboard with the help of the wood screws. In attaching the rungs make them hang over the side boards with 1” each size. This then gives you an 18” ladder in wideness. Always make sure that they boards are in perfect level with each other.
- When the assembly is done it’s time to start painting the ladder. Begin painting with the black paint. The key to making the rustic look is not painting evenly on the ladder. You can sue the dry brush method. This method is where you simply dip the tip of the brush into the paint and wipe off the excess with a rag. This leaves you with a washed out color that is perfect for the rustic effect.
- You can paint the ladder any way that you want; this is where you would want to look at references such as your old ladder or a picture of a rustic ladder, something that can power your imagination on how you can start with the black paint. Once you’ve gotten the hang of your style then you can continue and paint the rest of the ladder for its first coat. Make sure the paint is dry before adding another coat.
- For the next coat, you can add the gray stain color. Use the dry brush method again to be consistent and paint the ladder overall.
- When the gray stain is dry, add the final coat which is the wood stain. Make sure you get every part of the ladder as not to show any missed spots.
And there you have it, done! You can now have as many rustic ladders as you want to display in your home. You can use them to hold plates or books and so on. Of course, you should also mount them carefully as they won’t fall off. The perfect ladders to use would be the step ladder and the stairway ladder.
Be Careful in Using Ladders
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Before doing anything else and adding decorations to the ladders make sure they are mounted well first. Wherever you may put them make sure that there are on even ground and will not fall off. Also, measure the weight of the things you want to put on the ladder; you don’t want to risk your masterpiece to collapse right?
More importantly, you don’t want anybody getting accidents from falling objects out of your ladder. This is why you need to secure them in the places where you choose to display them.
