Quick and Easy DIY Rustic Blanket Ladder

Firstly, I measured carefully where I would put the rungs. For the first rung, I placed it at 50mm {2 Inches} and from then every 300mm {12 Inches}.

Then, of course, I measured the vertical center of the piece. All this is to make sure to mark both sides of the ladder so the rungs line up evenly.

Using the 26mm Flat Wood drill bit on my drill, I drilled holes 3 mm deep on each center mark {I used tape on the bit to use as a reference}

Test if your wood dowels fit in place if they are too tight just sand a little bit the edges.

With your regular wood bit drill holes only on the first rung place and last on each side. Use the hole left by the flat bit as your reference. These holes are to screw the first and last rung. I like to pre-drilling holes to make it easier later on the process.

Once it’s all done, sand any imperfection on the wood, especially the edges to avoid splinters in your fingers, No fun!

The next step is my favorite! PAINT!!!

I used walnut stain. First I spread it with a brush and then rubbed it all with a cloth rag, You get a pretty shade and you can see all the wood designs.

Let it dry for about 30 to 40 minutes.

I decided to go for a dry brush technique, I wanted to intensify the wood lines and dry brushing is perfect for that.

It’s super simple, just put some paint on a paper plate and spread it out kinda thin, then take a dry brush (I use really cheap brushes for this job) and get a tiny bit of paint on the end of the bristles. Then using a piece of paper just remove the excess of paint from the brush.

Now you are going to just brush this along the wood, re-dip in the paint as necessary, and rub it against the paper because you want your brush to remain dry, so get every bit of paint off you can before you get more on there.

I went through each long piece and rungs until I was happy with the amount of whiteness.

Don’t forget the ends of the sides.

When you are all done you should have something like this.

Let it dry for about 30 minutes.

Then using 80 grit sandpaper, sand roughly along each piece distressing them to give a more aged look, especially on the edges but still a smooth finish.

Clean each piece with a cloth.

To make my process easier, I put each screw on all 4 ends and screw them in until I could see the tip on the other side.

Apply some wood glue to each hole from one of the sides.

Insert the rungs on each hole, and use a hammer or another piece of wood to push it through. Wait a couple of minutes.

Apply glue to the other side’s holes and put them in place. I did it all by myself because I was alone but if you can get some extra pair of hands will be awesomely helpful.

Here is where the tricky part begins. While you push down one end of the second side piece, the other goes up, it was ridiculous LOL. But what I did was screwing all the way one end and then one by one putting in place each ladder rung when I got to the last one I drilled that one all the way down too.

Turn it over and drill the other two all the way too.

There you go! It’s all done!