Upcycled Blanket Ladder

Hey all! I have a quick post for you today that I'm kind of excited about! This project involved very little work on my end, which is always a bonus. ;) 

We've had this little garden gate for years -- I put it at the entrance of our patio: 

(You can last year's tour of our outdoor spaces and garden here.)

I got it for a deal at the end of the season and it's a good thing because it fell apart pretty fast. I was always fixing it and then one day it fell over in a storm and was finally toast. The wood had split at the top where the pieces connect so it wasn't salvageable. So I did what any normal person would do -- I dragged it to the side of the house and it stayed there all winter. I told you about the ugly side of our house and obviously nothing has changed yet. ;) 

As I've walked past it numerous times over the past few months, I started getting an idea of how I could reuse some of the pieces. See, I've wanted a vintage ladder for the family room for some time. I just love them and think they are pretty and functional. We have an open area on the wall behind a chair in there and I knew it would be a perfect spot. I was toying with the idea of making one, but this idea was even better.

Sooo…the more I looked at the top piece the more I wondered if I could make it work. The other day I took the whole thing apart and removed some of the slats from the top. And wouldn't you know, it worked!: 

It's way more rustic then I would normally use in this room so I originally planned to paint it. Now after having it in here for a few days it's growing on me as is: 

I kind of love the patina with the more finished accents in this room. 

It's such a great spot for all of the blankets we like to have on hand!: 

I do plan to use the pieces I took off to stabilize it a bit more. I'm going to cut a couple of them down and attach them behind the current "rungs" to keep it from wobbling. 

I was pretty darn excited at how much I liked it! And it was a cool way to reuse the wood instead of throwing it in the trash. I also kept the sides of the gate to use as trellis in our garden somewhere -- I'll let you know how that turns out! 

I'm going to wait to see if I want to paint it or not. For now it will stay as it is, which I'm quite happy with: 

Have you reused something that was going in the trash? I'd love to know how! Have a great weekend my friends!!