Repurposed Rustic Ladders and DIY Farmhouse Storage

From breadboxes to rustic ladders, we are slowly adding rustic / vintage inspired and farmhouse decor to our new home. Despite my urge to tackle every room of the house at once, I’ve committed myself (so far) to updating only one room at a time. Start-to-finish. I’ll let you how it works out. (fingers crossed we all stay sane!) But for now, I’m going to show you how to create farmhouse decor and storage using an old rustic ladder. One I’ve been searching for since we moved in!

Finding the Perfect Rustic Ladder

We moved in back in January, hibernation season. Once springtime hit, it was time to get out. Ya know, meet the neighbors or at least get a peek at our surroundings. On a peaceful evening walk, as peaceful as it can be with small kids, there it sat on the side of the road just waiting. Waiting for us!

Laying there discarded and tossed out with last night’s pizza, it seemed we had found our treasure! The clouds parted and the sun shone down upon the most beautiful (rustic), glorious (beat-up, paint laden), and one of kind (we’re talkin’ held together with duct tape) rustic ladder I had been searching for! Consequently, we found a giddy-up in our step, rushed home, jumped in the car, and sped around the corner like Bonnie and Clyde (plus a 7 year old accomplice) to pick up our jewel!

Waste not…

It was right there in that moment when one man’s trash became another man’s… old rusty ladder in the garage. And there it sat… for months.

On a peaceful evening walk, as peaceful as it can be with small kids, there it sat on the side of the road just waiting.

Finally, we decided it was time to give the old girl new life. We split the ladder in half, removed her bandages of duct tape and brought her inside. I had plans of using it as a towel rack in the girl’s bathroom, but the bathroom was too small. I was going to put it in the living room for blankets, but every corner of the room was taken. So, it moved to the bedroom where I would stare at it every night while I pondered on the perfect place for my well-sought find.

Finally inspiration struck! After updating the paint in the bathroom, I wanted to create some storage over the toilet in addition to some farmhouse decor. We turned the old ladder into a great farmhouse storage solution in our bathroom. Here’s a before of the master bath from when we moved in:

Cute, just not my style. And after a fresh coat of paint and some added farmhouse decor, here is the after!

We took off the bottom two rungs and realized the legs were too narrow to fit over the back of the toilet. For a moment, I thought maybe this just wasn’t going to work after all, and my glorious rustic ladder would have gone to waste. But hope was not lost! Never doubt a couple of creative minds coming together can make something work! We cut down the legs, took off the old rusty hinge to prevent any accidental injuries, added some picture wire and a hook and this ol’ gal was ready to hang!

Never doubt a couple of creative minds coming together can make something work!

Do you remember my black wire baskets that I transformed awhile back? I had been using them for craft storage. I moved these farmhouse painted baskets to a new home in the bathroom to hold my homemade soaps and some plush fluffy hand towels! We just attached one basket to the ladder with some screws and this one is in the bag!

My daughter loved it so much she had to join in on capturing some photos in the new bathroom. Seems like she just likes the camera no matter where it’s at. 😉

I tell ya, this girl is a natural. She knew just the right touches to decorate with. This little plant of lavender over the toilet was her idea. In fact, she even took the picture!

And this one too. Who doesn’t love some good little mason jar storage?

All that’s left to do here, is update a light fixture and mirror! Plans are in the works!

Along the way here, I’ll be sharing the new house in it’s current state,along with our plans for updates and making it our own. Hope you like the new rustic addition of some farmhouse decor and maybe it will inspire you to find your own treasure and make it into some great storage ideas!

P.S. My daughter had to capture a little behind the scenes pic for ya!