DIY of the Week: The Ladder Shelf

With most of us stuck at home, we’ve found the three things to take up our time and keep our sanity in check: DIYs, cooking, and plants. Since we know nothing about cooking, we scoured Pinterest and got this cool idea from  My Bright Ideas for a neat little (or maybe not so little) project for our plant-babies.

Caring for plants has been proven to be therapeutic, especially during the pandemic, and just having them in and around your house can reduce your stress and fatigue. This 3-tiered ladder shelf will help keep them organized in their cute corner indoors or outdoors!

Materials

Let’s start with our materials. You will need:

• Pink Power PP121LI 12V lithium-ion cordless drill and wood drill bit

•  2 ½ inch Screws

• Wood:

• 1 – 1" x 3" x 15.5"

• 1 - 1" x 3" x 25"

• 1 - 1" x 3" x 32"

• 4 – 2" x 2" x 48"

• 8 - 2" x 2" x 24"

• 2 Hinges

• Sand Paper

• Tape Measure

• Pencil

• Square

• Paint & varnish (optional)
  
  
  

Steps

1. Cut your boards

   If you have a miter saw or if the hardware store can cut it for you, you can purchase one (1) 1” x 9” x 8ft board and two (2) 2” x 2” x 8ft boards as My Bright Ideas did. Saw one 2” x 2” x 8ft board into four  2" x 2" x 48" stick boards. These will serve as our ladder’s legs. Saw the other board into 8 - 2" x 2" x 24" sticks which will serve as our “steps”.
   

   

   Finally, cut down the 1” x 9” x 8ft board into 3 equal planks of varying lengths: 15.5 inches, 25 inches, and 32 inches.
   
   

2. Prepare your wood

   Once your wood has been sawed to the right dimensions, make sure to sand it down until it’s smooth. The last thing we want is to get a splinter!
   

   

   
   
   

   You may also rough up the wood and chip off some pieces for a more distressed look if you’re into that.
   
   

3. Pre-drill the holes

   The next step is to pre-drill the holes into the wood. For the drill, feel free to use any drill you have at home. However, we do recommend using the Pink Power 12V cordless drill, due to its lightweight and compact nature. This is because our drills, along with the entire range of the Pink Power tools, were designed to be tools for women.
   

   
   
   

   You can follow our diagram below or measure out your own to customize the height of your plant stand. Lay out the pieces in place and pre-drill the holes with the PP121LI. Make sure you have a total of 5 holes per leg and 2 holes per rung (one on each end).

    

   

   
   
   Don’t add screws yet! If you want to paint, stain, or add varnish to the wood, now is the time.
   
   

   

   
   
   

4. Assembly

   
   
   
   
   
   

   
   Once the paint dries, we assemble it! Attach the rungs on each side to make 2 pairs of ladders.
   
   

5. Place the hinges
   

   

   
   
   Screw in the hinges on the top of the “inner” sides of each ladder.
   
   

6. Add the shelves

   
   
   

   
   Almost done! You can adjust your shelf to the desired height, keeping in mind the distance for the actual shelves. Once decided, lay the planks across the rungs.
   
   

7. Last Step!

The last step is to step back, admire your work, pat yourself on the back, and maybe grab a glass of Chard if you’re up to it! (we won’t tell 😉 )

When you’re sure everything is dried, bring in the plants and decorate how you want! You can hang some fairy lights along the frame of the shelf, add some table runners, or put some fun stickers. Position the shelf in a place where your plants will get enough sunlight and transform any room in a snap!