Cozy Blanket Ladder Upcycle for under $10

I am a child of God, walking with Jesus, daughter to my wonderful parents, sister to four, 3 sisters and one brother, I hope a good friend to several and an Auntie and Great Auntie to many. I cherish all of those titles, but being an Auntie has brought me so much joy that I can't adequately express. 

As a general belief system, I believe my home should be welcoming and make any and every person that enters comfortable. It is a reflection of who I am, how I was raised, an extension of my Faith and how I want others to feel. Comfortable welcomed and loved. Which leads me to this project that I'm sharing with you today.   

Full disclosure for me, one of my "Guilty pleasures" are throw blankets! Throw blankets or blankets of every kind, size, material, or color. I just LOVE them!  This love started many years ago when I only had a couple. But, whenever the grandkids, my niece's and nephews, would come over, I would make a point of having a "slumber party" of sorts, where we would all snuggle up and watch a good old movie, play and eat something fresh that I had just baked.

Inevitably, every single one of them would want my blanket throw, or would definitely have a favorite of my other two or three. I loved this! For many years we had, what I called, the "Blankie Box" and the kids, and a few of the adults, all knew exactly where it was, which one they wanted and that they could help themselves. Which tickled me pink with so much joy.

When I moved to my current house, almost two years ago, I had to admit to myself that most of my nieces and nephews had grown and other than the occasional visits from them and some of the grands, this wasn't as much needed as much as before.

A funny thing happened, or maybe just an appropriate thing in life, I now was having, more than ever before, my parents over for dinner and old movies and sharing much wanted extra quality time with. Guess what? They wanted a blankie too! (insert huge smile here)

In my last home, I had rich peanut buttery walls and preferred to paint and decorate additional pieces with white chalk paint that I would distress and enjoy. However, as this house is a rental in which the landlord prefers I leave the walls all white, I haven't found that my beautiful white chalky goodness shows nearly as well as it used to. So, in an effort to embrace change and be ever grateful for what God has provided for me, I decided that I was going to have to find a new love of painting with color. And if you're going to embrace change and color, why not do it with full-on Red?! 

( I couldn't find the exact shade of red I wanted, so I combined two shades of craft paint from Michaels until I achieved the exact color I was looking for. (my paint cost were $1.98) Not to mention, that not only does it match my favorite time of the year, but it also matches most of the accent pieces in my home.

 

Here is what I started with. When, recently, at my favorite thrift store, I came across a broken bunk bed ladder, nothing I couldn't fix though!  I paid $3.99 for this piece and came home and got to work. First, I had one spindle to reattach, easy. A little wood glue and some new screws and it was perfectly sturdy.

I secured the top piece with the addition of a few finishing nails and voila, I was ready to go! This ladder didn't tilt like a blanket ladder should, so I got my handy dandy saw out and carefully measured and marked off where the bottom of the legs would need to be cut for the slant. It took 10 minutes. This is something anyone could do, seriously!

AS for the sign... I simply wanted to make it as inviting as possible, with a touch of cuteness to it. I painted a thin piece of wood the same color as the ladder and used stencils for the "cozy" part. The words "let's get" I printed out in a font I liked and traced over the letters, then freehand painted on the rest. I've been very happy with the finished project and as you can see it gets plenty of use, as well as being a fun conversation piece.

The stencils were from Michaels, they are the 4-inch ones that run about $5.50, but I had a 50% off coupon ready to be used! :) You have to love those coupons! (and, no, I don't get compensated from Michaels) Hobby Lobby would probably have them too! This whole project cost me roughly $8 plus some tax, well under $10 total! Not bad for such a fun addition. I hope you enjoy as much as we do. I also hope you'll consider trying one for yourself. They are a really fun addition to your house and a great space saver and scream you are welcome here.
Thank you so much for taking the time to come visit me today!

I'm sharing this post with these beautiful ladies:
Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party, Home Sweet Home, Coastal Charms's Show and Share, The Sway's Recipe and DIY Linky, The Scoop @ Stone Gable, Kristin @ Inspire Me Monday

This post was gratefully Featured at the following beautiful Blogs:
Bouquet of Talent Party @ Life on Lakeshore Drive
Make it Pretty Monday by The Dedicated House