Upcycled Ladder Shelves and DIY Crates
Upcycled Ladder Shelves & DIY Crates
Back in December I purchased a pair of ladders from an online auction site. One of the ladders was a brand new metal step ladder and the other, a wooden, kind of wobbly, vintage ladder. The brand new ladder went to my youngest son’s house and the wooden ladder has been making himself at home in my garage.
I took the back part of the ladder off when I thought I had a home for him in my grandson’s new tree house. I even drove around with the ladder in the back of my car for the past two months, but when I finally had a chance to try it out in the treehouse, it was about a foot too short. 😥
After two months, I finally took the ladder out of my car and decided if Plan A didn’t work, I need to move on to Plan B. Upcycle!
First I need inspiration. Do you know how many people have upcycled old ladders? Tons of people. I even started another Pinterest page devoted just to upcycling ladders. By the time I was finished pinning, I was ready to begin.
Gather your supplies. This is half a step ladder, the other half was removed with the help of an angle grinder to cut thru the rivets.
I also used some old tongue and groove floorboards? wall boards?…I really have no idea. I do know that they were super old, since they were attached with square cut nails.
In addition, I used some old plaster lath for the bottoms of my crates and a piece of pallet wood for the top shelf.
The tongue and groove boards were cut into 4 lengths, getting larger as you moved down the ladder. The cuts for the sides of the crates were 2 of each… 7 1/2″, 9″, 10 1/2″ and 12″.
Feel free to use pallet wood for this step.
I kept the ladder upright as I worked on this project so I could visually see how the shelves would look and make adjustments as I went along. The extra slat of wood on the ladder steps keeps the boxes level as I worked, I eventually discarded them.
I cut off the tops of my tongue and groove boards. The bottoms still have their groove.
Determine how wide the front and back of the crates will be. Either measure the width from where the top of the crate will hit the ladder, or measure from the bottom. Since the rails of this ladder angle in, make sure you give an allowance for how thick the bottoms of your crates will be.
If you measure at the bottom of the crate front you’ll have to slightly miter the ends of the wood to make up for the angle of the ladder. I measured from the bottom then set my miter saw at 5º.
Nail the sides of your crates together.
For the bottom of the crate, I used rough cut plaster lath, cut to size and nailed on with a nail gun.
Besides a few screws, construction is complete.
I could have left the crates with a natural wood finish but I did want to add a little color.
This time I painted each of the crates with red chalk paint. Transfer the logo to the box and hand paint. If you haven’t been following my posts, you may want to refer back to this handpainted sign for an easy, no special equipment necessary (besides a printer) , way to transfer the lettering.
The Coca Cola box has been sanded with an electric hand sander and within a matter of seconds the box has been aged 15 years.
All my hand painted logos lined up, just need to fire up the sander again.
Level the crates on the ladder then use wood screws from the side to attach the crates to the ladder.
Each crate is pushed flush to the wall before leveling and screwing. I used 2 screws per box per side.
Level off the 2 ladder posts with a jigsaw so you can add a top.
Any old wood will do for the top shelf, I used a scrap piece of pallet wood centered and screwed onto the side rails of the ladder.
Screw thru one (or more) of the crates to attach the ladder shelf firmly to the wall.
This is an easy project for the beginner woodworker since all cuts can be straight.
Such a fun project. Think about using it in the kids playroom, office, kitchen or even as a unique bookshelf.
Stay inspired. See you next time.
By the way, these were not my first DIY crates, these Coca Cola and Borax crates were made back in 2014 for my laundry room. Underneath the beadboard paneling is the white laminate and oak cabinets that were everywhere in the 80’s and 90’s.
DIY Coca Cola and Borax crates
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Love it! Red boxes look great!