Ladder Laundry Rack

I am SO excited about my latest "project" ... it's kinda a long one.

....But it'll be worth it. :-)
Are you ready???

OK, so to preface this I need to remind you that I am a TALL gal.  5 feet 11 inces, to be exact.  

And my legs take up a great deal of those 71 inches.  A 35-inch inseam makes me ridiculously happy.  

But it is also relatively hard to find ... and more importantly - KEEP!  

I can't tell you how many times I have "ruined" my just-barely-long-enough jeans by putting them in the dryer. :(

And therein lies my problem.  Or part of my problem, anyway.  

Let me put this in pictures ... 

This is what my laundry room looks like most days:

Jeans, pants, and various other dryer unfriendly articles of clothing hung on the coat hooks and any other hooks I can find (like the one inside my ironing board cabinet door).  

I NEED a drying rack.  But 1) I don't really have enough room for one (if I still want to move around my laundry room, anyway), and 2) I don't really love the look of those metal industrial-looking drying racks you can buy in the stores.  

Enter:  this old wooden ladder.

 Which I painted turquoise blue (the same turquoise blue I used on the trunk on the front porch!)...

 And then I sanded and scuffed and stained it up a little bit ...

and screwed some hooks in four spots.

And THEN ... I got these shower hooks for $4.95 from Amazon.com.

And I spray painted them Rustoleum Cherry Red (to match the old laundry cart that also hangs out in this room).  

And then I talked my handy, helpful husband into helping me hang the whole thing from the laundry room ceiling!

 I bought four identical lengths of chain at the hardware store and painted them the same color as our walls (so that they would blend in as much as possible - I'd rather have the ladder be the focal point than the chains!).

And here is the finished product!  

It's only been up for a week, but I'm lovin' every moment!  

Here it is in action...

Total cost for the entire project (because I already had the old wooden ladder) was less than $10.00 ... so worth every penny!  And I love the feeling of taking something old and forgotten and turning it into something functional and CUTE!  

Thanks for stopping by to check out my latest project ... to see the other projects I've been working on over the last month or so, look HERE!

P.S. Have you checked out my very first giveaway!?  Please help me celebrate 100 followers, and go take a look!  And if you like what you see, I'd love for you to follow me! :-)