Easy DIY Blanket Ladder + 5 Creative Uses

I have been wanting a blanket ladder FOREVER and so we headed to Home Depot because I had this great idea to use copper T’s.  Then I saw the price…almost $13 a piece and I needed 6!!!!  I had a momentary melt down in the plumbing aisle and then went home 🙂

I returned later with my husband and he came up with this peg blanket ladder idea and I LOVE it!  There are no nails, no screws, and no glue and it only cost about $35!  It can also be adjusted to any width.  Here’s how we did it and how to could use this super versatile ladder in your home.

Now I am not super technical but I have lots of pictures and please ask questions if you don’t understand a step.  I bought two 1×4 6 ft. pieces of pine wood.  Then I bought 2 dowels that were 1 3/8 inches thick for the rungs.  Ask them in store to cut them for you and they will.  I had the round dowels cut into 3 22 inch pieces.

Ugh now for the measuring…I REALLY hate measuring but Dane did it for me this time 🙂  We divided our 72 inch wood pieces into fourths and made marks there.  So basically every 18 inches you will make a mark.  Then we made sure those marks were centered because that’s where the holes for the dowels are going to be drilled.

Once your marks are perfectly centered, it’s time to drill the holes.

Ok if this picture doesn’t make you smile, something is wrong with you.  I took the picture of the 1 3/8 bit that we were going to use for the holes and when I looked back at the picture, there he was 🙂  If you don’t have one of these paddle bits (I didn’t) they are about 5 dollars and are over by the drills.

Put the wood on something like a cardboard box and make sure that someone is holding on to the wood or it could spin around and get you!  Drill all the way through and sand the holes to make sure they are nice and smooth.

Tip from my Dad:  If you put a scrap piece of wood under the wood you are drilling, you will have a perfect cut with no splintering.

This is what it looks like when you are done drilling.  I chose to stain mine but you could leave it natural or even paint it.  So many possibilities.  You could also drill more holes and make it adjustable.

Sand the entire surface so that your wood is very smooth and won’t snag your blankets.

I stained the wood a few times and then put on a light layer of sealer.  This picture was after the first coat of stain.  I used the Early American Minwax stain from my DIY Mirror and loved the final look.

I painted the ends of the dowels copper.  I think that’s my new favorite color!

All done!  This is in my living room right now and I love how it’s a simple storage solution that is also a little work of art 🙂

Here are 5 other ways to use the exact same blanket ladder to store other items in your home:

Store Necklaces and Scarves

Hold Magazines

Store Hats

Towel Rack

Book Shelf (for this one you might want to anchor it to the wall)

What other ways could you use this ladder?  Is this something you think you could DIY?