Easy DIY Blanket Ladder

I’ve wanted a blanket ladder and couldn’t find one that was the right size or the right price ($100? no thank you!) so I decided to take matters into my own hands.

First, decide how tall and wide you want your ladder to be for the space it will be in. I made mine the full length, 8ft. and then made the rungs about 16” wide. If you will be using chunky blankets, you will probably want to fold them and measure how wide they are before you cut. Go to Home Depot or Lowes or your favorite lumber store and get 3-4 furring strips for $1.32 each.  At my store they are next to the cedar fence boards.Remember, you can have the helpful employees cut them right there for you!

Take time to choose some good ones that are straight and have less knots (unless you are going for that look!) You may want to get a couple of extra in case of mistakes.

I took 20 minutes to sand them down with my electric sander – I just liked the look better. Here is the sanded on the left and the non-sanded on the right.

Then I used the cement lines in my garage to straighten it up – I spaced the rungs 12 inches from the top and bottom and then about 15 inches apart. I measured the distance with the ruler, but just eyeballed it for straightness, of course you could use a corner ruler or a level.

I used a drill and these black 1-5/8” drywall screws ( I just got a couple of the small packs for $1.18, the link goes to a box of them) to attach it all together. I chose the black because I knew they would be exposed and I liked the look of them but the screws actually ended up going in smoothly and not cracking the wood. Yay for drywall screws!

So they look like this when all is said and done:

I just used some leftover gel stain (this is Minwax hickory gel stain) – wiped it on, then wiped it off with paper towels until it looked right and that was it.

It’s a great winter project to keep extra cozy blankets close at hand (or just to look pretty)! This ladder cost me $6 and some change since I already had the stain on hand, I just bought the wood and screws.