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Do you love the look of those trendy blanket ladders, but you don’t love the prices? Make one yourself with 2×4′ wood boards! Keep reading to learn how you can make a DIY 2×4 Wood Ladder for use in your home decor! You won’t believe how easy it is and you can make one for less than $15! Make sure to check out our other Home Decor Diys while you’re here!
Supplies needed for this project :
- Three 2x4x8′ wood boards
- Wood screws
- Speed square
- Pencil
- Screwdriver
- Measuring tape
- Circular saw or handsaw
- Orbital Sander
- Paint
- Water bottle (optional)
Step one : Cut one of your wood boards
You will need to cut one of your 2×4’s into five pieces. Using a measuring tape, mark off every 19.2 inches of a 2x4x8′ wood board. Then use a speed square to draw a straight line across the board at each of the five marks. This will render five pieces from your board, which you will use as your steps.
You can see here all of our pieces cut from one of our 2×4’s. Those short pieces will eventually become the steps of this diy 2×4 wood ladder!
Step two : Attach the “steps”
Depending how far down you want to start your ladder steps will determine how far apart each step is, so this measurement will vary. Just make sure that you place your top and bottom step first, leaving 6-8 inches on either end. Then find the center of the top and bottom steps and place your middle step there. Last, place your last two steps in the center of each wide gap on either side of the middle step.
Since measurements will vary widely for this step, that is the easiest way to do it that will result in an equal measurement between each step.
Another note that is important, we angled our steps as you can see here, but you can place them straight if you prefer. We used lumber screws to attach the steps to our ladder.
Step 3 &4 : Sand and paint your ladder
Once your ladder is made, sand the rough edges and any places that are splintered or uneven. I combined this step with the painting, because I don’t have an illustration to go along with the sanding. I think that is pretty self explanatory though. My recommendation is to use an orbital sander for this process. Now, let’s paint!
After your ladder is sanded, dust it off, because you don’t want any dust in your paint finish. Before I start painting, I like to use a spray bottle and moisten the wood surface with a little bit of water. This helps the paint go on easier to the rough wood surface.
You can use any water based paint, and I prefer chalk paint, because I love the matte finish that it leaves. Use a thick brush, because the unfinished wood will soak up the paint quickly, so you will need to use quite a bit of paint to get adequate coverage. If you prefer a more rustic look, you could also just do a white wash like I’m doing here.
Step four : Decorate with your new ladder!
Isn’t it gorgeous?! And this was less than $15 to make! Try to get a blanket ladder that cheap anywhere! It’s not happening!
I hope you enjoyed learning how to make this DIY 2×4 Wood Ladder and that it inspires you to make one for your farmhouse decor! We’d love to see your finished ladders in our Facebook Community DIY Group and to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Please join our email family below so we can keep in touch!
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