This random crafty idea popped into my head the other day. It was one of those ideas where you’re off and running with the project within 30 seconds of thinking of it, just cause you can’t wait to see if it will actually work out.
Kennedy and I have been playing around with some of the decor from the Fall bins this last week and she set up my little fantel (fake mantel) for me. There was a bit of an empty spot and I thought something like this would fit the bill for the harvesty kind of theme she had going on. Plus we home decor types just seem to love ladders for some reason. Every time I post a picture with one of my real old ladders in it, I seem to get roughly 3000 compliments on it. So another ladder is always a good idea and I gave it a try.
Well, it worked! And it didn’t. It did turn out pretty cute, but it’s a little more creepy and Halloweeny than harvesty. It’s still fun though!
Here’s how it happened:
We have this big bin of wood scraps sitting in the middle of our driveway right now. All little leftover pieces from the playhouse we’ve been working on. So much project potential!
I found some of the thinner scraps and set them down on the driveway. Then, I just broke them to the size that I wanted using my hands and brute strength. OK, the strength required wasn’t all that brute to tell you the truth. They ended up broken either way though.
I brought the pieces inside and set them down to look like some of the apple picking ladders I’ve seen around. Notice how the “step” pieces get smaller and smaller as they go up.
I just used my hot glue gun to stick everything in place and then took some watered down dark brown craft paint and made the whole thing brown.
I didn’t really love it. I went back to the painting table and added some gray paint here and there, followed by just a smidge of white to try to “age” it a bit more.
Like I said, it wasn’t really the rustic harvesty look I was going for. A little more on the creepy side for sure, but luckily that’s just what I’ll be needing in a few weeks! I happened to have found the perfect creepy orchard Halloween decor to go with it too when I was out hunting around last May!
Creepy orchard decor, it’s a thing now. Stay tuned for that!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.