Ladder Repurposing

Call it whatever you want: upcycling, trash-to-treasure, curbside salvation, funky junk. It has really become a passion of mine. It serves several meaningful purposes for me, whether it be saving me money from buying similar stuff at full-blown, make-you-want-to-vomit, "I immediately regret my decision" retail prices, making a little cash on the side for making/updating pieces for other people (I happen to have several satisfied customers, thankyouverymuch) or just by giving me a creative outlet (like some people make art, run, or play cornhole). I certainly don't do it for recognition, and this blog is really more of a way to a) keep some sort of archive of the stuff I have done in case I ever want to recreate/improve something I've already done or (more importantly) b) keep myself honest. That is to say, stick with it. Like how you tell people what you are giving up for Lent so if they see you eating a piece of chocolate, you know they are silently judging you. Or why people blog about their weight loss goals so they will be more apt to stick with the plan. I enjoy doing it, but can easily see myself stopping if I dont commit to regular updates on the blog.

Anyway, I found an ancient wooden paint-splattered ladder at an estate sale months ago and have just been waiting to get to it. It cost me all of $5 and looked something like the ladder below. Remember when I said I was getting worse at taking pictures before and during the process? Yeah, umm, that's still an issue. Completely screwed the pooch on the before pic. So, look at this ladder and imagine mine looking very similar, but with way more paint splatter action and years of less-than-tender use under its belt.

I saw something on the social network du jour (excuse me, Flo?), Pinterest, that piqued my interest and seemed relatively easy and really, let's be honest here, those are the only two criteria I need to convince me to try something. Here are some examples of said idea, most of which I found on a pretty cool blog called Funky Junk Interiors.

A leaning shelf. I'm sure there is some really cute design term for it, but I call 'em like I see 'em, and that, my friends is a leaning shelf. These are made from repurposed ladders, obviously, but you can get an extra fancy "studio wall shelf" from Pottery Barn for the bargain basement price of just $349. And here is what it looks like. Related side note: the cute-sy name thing just reminded me of dozens of Seinfeld episodes and the exchanges between Ellen and Mr. Peterman, describing the latest article of clothing he found while on a trip to ______. Classic.

Anyway, so here is MY version of the "angled object supporter," featuring an old estate sale ladder find, with some minor alterations, like, you know, getting rid of half the ladder and obviously, I added some shelving space using...? You guessed it. Pallet wood. In hindsight, maybe I should have made this entire blog theme around repurposing old pallets. Seems to be a reoccurring theme, right?