Old Wooden Ladder Transformed Into a Country Chic Shelf

by Brantley Ashlee

My husband and I started with an old ladder we found at the antique store for $8
As with all our DIYs, it collected dust for a few months till we figured out how to repurpose it on a dime.

old wooden ladder transformed into a country chic shelf

We did our best to make the ladder level (which we latter learned couldn't be done, so we added adtional wood in areas under each shelf to make them level)

We measured cheap wood and cut to the sizes according to the length we needed.

Nearly done with the woodwork

I gave the ladder a fresh coat of paint...

and did a black stain on the wood parts of each shelf and white washed the ladder.

I'll need to rearrange my trinkets... But overall, it's such a great addition to our eccentric country home!

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3 questions

Barbara Kraemer on Nov 11, 2016
what are the length of the shelves

0
User on Aug 22, 2017

Making a couple for my son's wedding as displays. Have been working and searching for hours on how to remove/move steps to make the sides level. From your blog it seems that isn't possible?

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Mary F Burnett on Aug 20, 2018

How long and how wide did you cut it shelf

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13 of 48 comments

Karalee Gross on Sep 10, 2015
A safety though, in case someone has children, or in my case furry children....attaching the boards to the ladder might be a good idea. I know my cats would have to check it out. =) <><

4 Reply
- See 10 previous
- Neva Dew on Sep 10, 2015
  @Karalee Gross Please read the whole post. There are 2 replies to comments in which she says they are attached with screws. (To all: sorry to go off on this - but so many times questions are asked and it is obvious that persons do not read the post - must just look at the pics!) While I'm griping - many people also need to proof read their post - too many typos that sometimes make it hard to understand what they are trying to tell us.
  
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- Brantley Ashlee on Sep 10, 2015
  Sadly I am using my phone to post our creations and it autocorrected while I wasn't paying attention... Honestly I was too tired to notice :( But I'm with you, I don't like reading and seeing typos ;) (I wish there was a way to edit!)
  
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- Sharla Hash on Sep 11, 2015
  Mine too, lol!
  
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- Brandi Lynn on Sep 11, 2015
  Sorry to go off on this but what in you decide to police a response and state as fact she didn't read post? You say it like a fact in which it can't be a fact they you know maybe she was making a general announcement reminding to others who want to try this not to forget. And saying things in my head then typing posting them is what most of us do but with auto correct even reading it over as it posts it will correct spelling still it's annoying I know but I speak and read typo fluently there are far my things
  
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- Karalee Gross on Sep 11, 2015
  Sorry NEVA! So sorry that i ticked you off. Don't sweat the small stuff & it's all small stuff. And BTW - it does NOT mentio anywhere ABOVE about securing the boards. <><
  
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- Brantley Ashlee on Sep 12, 2015
  You are so correct, a very important detail I should have mentioned :)
  
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- Neva Dew on Sep 12, 2015
  @Karalee Gross Apologies to you. I guess it just was the straw that broke the camel's back. Not so much ticked off as frustrated. Really did not mean it as vicious and personal to you. (the time line of posts I saw actually did show the previous responses I mentioned - I doubled checked before I posted - but who knows what goes on in cyberspace on these things?) And Brantley, if you had a typo I did not notice it - but I had just read a few other posts on other projects in which the typos were really numerous. I hope this atones for my earlier comments.
  
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- Karalee Gross on Sep 13, 2015
  @Neva Dew Thank you Neva. We all have times like that. And thank you cyber space for giving us this "tiff". LOL <><
  
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- Hannah V on Sep 14, 2015
  @Brantley Ashlee Hey there! I came across this correspondence (glad everything's all good now :) ) and I wanted to let you know that if you hop on a computer you can edit your Hometalk posts! Just go to the post and click the upper-right drop arrow and select "Edit post." Sadly we don't have the edit feature available on mobile yet :( but I thought I'd let you know the other option for the future!
  
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- Bonnie on Sep 14, 2015
  @Karalee Gross It'd make a puuuurfect cat shelf!!
  
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- Brantley Ashlee on Sep 17, 2015
  @Hannah V Thank you so much for that tip! Now to edit ;(
  
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Susan on Sep 12, 2015
Such a cute idea!

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