Refurbished Vintage Extension Ladder and Cozy Blankets!

Hello friends, welcome! Can you even believe it’s November already? How the heck did that get here so fast? November is my birth month… but since the number of candles on my cake is getting a little out of hand, we won’t go there. 😉 For those of you that have been hanging out with me here for a bit you all know that I’m about making our home cozy and welcoming. That’s really my favourite compliment from people when they come to visit us, “your house is so welcoming”, for us it’s extremely important that we are comfortable and not terrified to flop down onto the couch and just let the day go… relax, chill and just be.  I love to use layers,  with pillows and blankets and some (A LOT of)  vintage sprinkled in (I could go on and on)…  but you basically had me at cozy! Truthfully it was a no brainier when the lovely and talented, Jennifer from Town & Country Living asked if I’d like to join her and 10 awesome friends in her new, Cozy Living series. Ummmm, YEPPERS! You can find the rest of my fellow, Cozy Living blogging friends at the end of this post, AND…

Follow this hashtag #CozyLiving on Instagram to see more of our cozy ways!

The first project I wanted to share for this series is a refurbished vintage extension ladder (that’s a mouth full), we are now draping our cozy blankets on our new to us blanket ladder – it fits perfectly into our cozy living room. You might be asking yourself, do I really need a ladder to hold cozy blankets? I’m going to say this very very clearly, YES YES you do!!! A place to store your cozy beauties and display them at the same time, that is a win win in my books! I may have used way too many exclamations in this paragraph, but I really love a piece that utilizes function and style. Function, hanging your cozies up makes for a tidier living room, a quick grab of your favourite throw when it’s chilly and style, you can change out your blankets for any season and or holiday theme, hang lovely wreaths, drape lights… the sky is the limit. Right now we’re using our ladder for our Fall throws.

DIY Chenille Blanket with pom poms

Why we refurbished a Vintage Extension Ladder

Let me show you how we refurbished this beauty and explain why we modified a ladder that was pretty much completely untouched. This 12′ painters ladder is actually in pretty good condition… I feel like I need to duck my head when I say that, for all of the purists out there that don’t modify or paint wood! Yikes, I’m a little scared truth be told! Bud and I had a long talk about why I saw fit to modify and how he thought we should leave it alone. I asked him where we bought it from… a second hand store (it had been there for ages – I’ve been eyeballen it) , I asked him if it would be used today by a painter? We didn’t think so, not with how they make the ladders of today, so lightweight and durable. I then asked him where he thought it might end up since it’s been in this specific picking spot of mine for a long time… obviously we don’t know the exact answer to that, but I told him, “babe, you know that we are going to breathe new life into this ladder, we will do right by it”. hahaha, that sounds crazy, I do actually know it’s a thing, but it’s a vintage thing that has had a “life” before getting here. Sooooo, we are using it to display and store our favourite things, I see the patina and the paint splatters from jobs gone by every day.  We were also able to get 2 beautiful ladders out of this one for our living room and one for our master bedroom. I consider that a huge win.

 How-to modify a vintage painter’s ladder

That title should say, how WE modified a vintage painter’s ladder. 😉 haha We aren’t experts here, not by any stretch (see what I did there)… but we do love to share how we accomplished this DIY relativity easy! Yay, for easy projects, am I right?!

1. Measure how tall you want your ladder to be, we chose 7′ tall. There will be a thick stabilization wire running through each side of the smaller section of the ladder, use a cut off wheel on a grinder to cut that (don’t forget your eye protection – always).
2. Saw through the ladder (on all 4 pieces) at the desired length, we chose a hand saw, if you’d rather something powered, go for it. 🙂
3. Once your ladder is in pieces, power wash it, this will help clean it and bring out the beautiful patina and colour of the wood.
4. Make sure you get all sides of the ladder while power washing.
5. Let your ladder air dry.
6. Sand the entire ladder, making sure it’s very smooth and no splinters (ouch) will come off on your cozy blankets or hands.
7. Then seal and protect your freshly sanded and cleaned ladder. My go to, every single time is Fusion Mineral paint beeswax finish! I can NOT tell you clearly enough how much I love it, I literally use it on anything and everything. What do you actually use it on? Wood, obvs, cleaned metal, basically anything I want to preserve the patina of, it can be used on butcher block, it’s food safe! I’ve used it on wooden salad bowls and I used it after I’ve finished painting any piece! I’m telling you, it’s my BFF!

Vintage Extension Ladder – Brings All The Cozy Blankets to the yard!

And they’re like – my blanket ladder is better than yours… hahaha, sorry, but I’m a weirdo!

Messy hair, don’t care. Dodi knows how to do cozy!

There you have it a little bit of the cozy that is in our living room, I’m day dreaming about what I’m going to do with this space for Christmas… it’s really just around the corner time sure is flying, I hope you’ll come back for some holiday fun. 😉

Meet the Cozy Living team!

What does cozy mean to you? I’m so curious, I’d love it if you would share that with me in the comments, what are your must haves to be cozy? As you know for me it’s cozy blankets and a cuddle on the couch, it’s truly my happy place.  My other happy place is sharing in this cozy living series with these talented and beautiful friends, I am a big fan of the way they do cozy and I know you will be too! Enjoy. 

AKA Design | Bless’er House | Duke Manor Farmhouse | Finding Silver Pennies

Flat Creek Farmhouse | Little Glass Jar | Making It in the Mountains | Sincerely, Marie Designs

Thoughts from Alice | Town and Country Living | VinYet Etc.

AND… just when you thought this post was over, not quite yet. 😉 Not only do I love cozy and these lovely ladies, I also adore VINTAGE! That’s probably not shocking if you’ve been hanging out here for a bit. I’m telling you that because myself and some vintage loving friends have started a group for us vintage addicted peeps… if you too struggle with wanting all the vintage all the time, pop on over to our new (and Free) Facebook group, Vintage Darlings. It’s SO much fun! AND VINTAGE, hello!

Direct link here —> Vintage Darlings Facebook Group

Thanks for stopping in, much love! xoxo