Paper Ladders

My friend Melanie wanted to know about paper ladders. Melanie, my email to you bounced! Maybe someone else wants to make a paper ladder of their very own, though, to display their decorative papers in their workspace:

I like this simple design very much, and was sorry that I had to throw some out from our store because I couldn't find homes for them!

We made our paper ladders. It was so easy, really. You need two boards, 1x4 or 1x2, whatever wood is a good price. We used pine. Around 6 feet long seems to work best. Then you need dowels or lengths of pipe, fairly thick, but not too thick, because you also need a drill bit to match. Each dowel makes one "rung" of your ladder. 1/2 inch dowels worked best for us (24 inches long), and drill holes slightly larger than 1/2 inch. We varied the distance between holes on different ladders, but usually kept them around 8-10 inches apart. Match up the holes and dowels like tinkertoys, and you have a ladder. A little wood glue in the holes sometimes is necessary to keep them in place.

If you want two ladders to connect together to make an upside down "V" rack, you can drill holes about 2 inches from the top, and bolt them together at the top with big jumbo nuts and bolts from the hardware store.

I also considered mounting just one ladder on the wall, with the base just about a foot from the wall, but the top of the ladder somehow secured to the wall, to save floor space. I just never got around to trying that.

After you assemble them, of course you could paint them or finish them or collage on them or...