Photos of quilt ladder and shelves

The laundry room shelves are adequate. I ended up taking the shelves off and cutting them again with the table saw. Much better, but the one warped board still made it challenging to get a perfect fit. I went ahead and sanded again and painted with the Rust-Oleum Ultra Cover 2x. I painted it in the garage, but had to bring it inside to dry. It's 5 degrees here. I had planned to put a wood panel on the back just to make it a little more secure, but we didn't have anything on-hand. So next time I'm at Home Depot or Lowe's, I'll pick up a piece of plywood for that. I'll use my leftover paint and paint it before I attach it. It's so plain, but keeps the clean look I like in the laundry!




Here's how it looked before paint, while I was still deciding whether to take it apart.










Here is my simple quilt ladder. I used a piece of oak hand railing for the frame (cut at Home Depot into 5 ft lengths so I could get it home). We mitred the oak at home to 22.5 degrees on both ends, determined by how far out from the wall I wanted it to rest. Then I cut (2) 1 1/8 inch diameter round dowels (48 inches long) in half using a chop saw for the four rungs. (Yes, there are a total of four--I could have taken a shot with no blankets!)






I tried to measure, mark, and glue everything before I started drilling, but I didn't have a good way to stabilize the project while the glue dried. So my helpful husband stepped in and pre-drilled all of the dowels for me, then set up (my) drill press and new Dremel to get a straight pre-drill in the railing. He's so smart!















Anyway, I had sanded all of the wood, and once it was completed I stained it with a natural satin polyurethane. I'm quite happy with my $35 project!

This week I'm staining my quilt ladder (loving it-it's totally Simple and sturdy and functional). Now if it would be this simple: I have the perfect, most convenient place to hang our much needed blankets after using them in our chilly little basement movie-watching area, so my sweet boys will stand up promptly after snuggling in for a movie or wii session, fold their blankets in half and hang them neatly on one of the rungs. Ha! I don't have confidence that this will happen even once! Still, there it is. (There is a chance that I might be able to get my husband to use it!) If nothing else, when I clean up after my little piggies I'll have a sweet ladder on which to hang their blankies.

I finished the laundry room shelves that I mentioned earlier, but due to the fact that I stubbornly only used a chop saw to cut my 12 inch boards, the shelves are not totally flush. This, coupled with the fact that one of the boards I picked up for the frame of the unit is a little warped, resulted in a sloppy side. To help me decide if I needed to take the thing apart and re-cut the affected shelves, I put my linens on it. I discovered it is completely acceptable for its purpose, and of course I'm really tempted to leave it as is. But I have such a cool color (satin granite-seems perfect with the whole washer and dryer / there's still some exposed concrete in my laundry room deal) that would be ridiculous to put on if my boards weren't perfect. Now I can't bring myself to clear that thing off and re-do it...Still, I'll take some photos tomorrow to help me think about it some more!