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I have an assortment of blankets that I keep bedside that needed a storage space. I thought a simple blanket ladder would be the perfect solution.
There are lots of ways to make a blanket ladder which makes this a versatile, customizable DIY project. You can make one to fit your storage needs and space. I chose to use materials I already had on hand which dictated the final measurements of this project. Materials/Tools:
I had this great 2x3 96-inch long board in the garage and thought it would be perfect. Using this made the final ladder 48-inches tall. Here I'm cutting the boards to length on a miter saw. Notice I've clamped the two boards together in order to accurately cut the final length so both boards are the same.
I'm not exactly sure of the origins of these dowels, but I think they are table legs from a round side table. They are 1 1/8-inches in diameter or so I thought! I cut them to 19 1/2-inches in length.
Here I'm marking the placement for the rungs or spindles as I call them in the video. I drew a line down the entire center of the board. Actually, I mirror imaged the boards so if the holes were slightly off, they'd be off in the same place and the design would still work. I clamped the boards together and marked across both boards to make the hole placement.
I used a nail set to make an indentation for the spade bit. I wear gloves as it's easy to get my fingers pinched when using this tool.
I used a 1 1/8-inch spade bit to make the holes. I used a Rockler drill guide to accurately cut the holes. The guide has stops so each holes is exactly the same depth.
I clamped a sander upside down on the Husky work table and lowered the table to a comfortable working height. It's less fatiguing for me to sand this way. When I tested the dowels, I found that not all of them were exactly 1 1/8-inches in diameter. I had to sand the ends to get a couple of them to fit. That's one of the pitfalls of upcycling materials!
After dry fitting everything it was time to glue the dowels into the sides. I was happy that everything lined up as it should!
I used long clamped to hold it while it dried. That blue pool noodle is a great tip to use for these long clamps. We put them over the ends to avoid running into them.
After priming, I used this paint to finish it. This matches the trim in my house.
All finished!
I didn't do it, but you can cut the legs to sit flush against the floor and wall. There are numerous tutorials on the internet on how to do this.
Because of the difficulties I had with the dowels, it might be easier to start with fresh, new ones, but it really wasn't that big a deal to sand them to fit. Now, I want to explain the math involved in placing the rungs evenly spaced. The top and the bottom rungs (or spindles) were placed four inches from the top and bottom. To determine the placement of the next two I measured the amount of space between the top and bottom rungs and divided this number by three. That gave me the exact spacing that I needed. Please note: This is not a sponsored post. FYI: We are not professionals, and we don't claim to be. This is what we found worked for our project. Yours may need a little different approach. Safety first! FYI: Affiliate links are being used on this page. Purchasing via these links help support MDP. Related Projects
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