Hey there!  Welcome to Decorate and More with Tip! Here on my blog I share how you can decorate your home on a budget.  I share budget friendly decorations by creating it from scratch, revamping, re-purposing or giving it a makeover with easy tutorials.  I hope I inspire you to create something beautiful for your home. 🙂

When I placed the re-purposed attic ladder and thrift store shelves in my old craft closet it served it’s purpose.  Now that I am changing from a closet to a room I decided I want a storage unit to look more like a piece of furniture.  I decided to combine the two pieces to make one nice storage unit.  It has to be functional and look pretty.

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To view my previous craft closet you can click here → CRAFT CLOSET TOUR.

For my craft room what I would love to have are built in cabinetry with counter tops all around the room.  The thing I have to remember, my craft room would have to be easily switched back into a bedroom when we want to sell our home.  The cabinets are out of the question, so what I will do instead is make the room functional using what I have with some modifications of course.

For this piece it has to be able to store all of my paints and painting supplies.  I don’t have any other piece of furniture sitting around not being used besides my shelves and re-purposed ladder. I don’t want to use it as is and hate to get rid of them so I grabbed my thinking cap, put it on and figured out how I can build a storage unit with the shelves and ladder.

Here is how I upcycled my items to make a storage unit.

First thing I did was I cut one of the shelves in half to make two smaller shelves.

Since all my pieces are mismatched, painting everything the same color will help them all blend in nicely.  You know I love my Benjamin Moore Advance paint when painting furniture.  I am using the color Chantilly Lace.  I did the norm, cleaned, sanded, primed and painted.

I purchased a panel of wainscoting to attach to the back of my ladders.  I cut the panels to size using the nail gun to attached it to the back.

Gave three coats of paint to all of my pieces.

I used L brackets to attach the ladder underneath the longer shelf.  This will keep the ladders in place without having to attach them to the wall.

I attached the wall brackets to the wall where I want the shelves to be.

I sat the long shelf with the attached ladders on the 3 top arms of the brackets.  The ladders are standing firmly on the floor and secured with the L brackets to the shelf.  I placed the two smaller shelves in the center of the two ladders.

It’s starting to look like a piece of furniture, well almost!

Since the ladders are attached to the front of the shelf I cut a piece of wainscoting using a nail gun to attach it to each side of the unit to enclose the space in.  I used a nail gun to attach the panel to the ladder, it’s not attached to anything else yet.

I didn’t like how sloppy the corners were on the unit so I added trim to each corner.  We had this piece of corner trim in the shed, worked great to cover the corners.

Also around the top edge of the shelf I added another piece of trim.  I used the miter box to cut my ends.  Without Mr. Tip’s help I think I did a decent job, not too much caulk to hide the unevenness. 🙂

I painted the trim.  I couldn’t wait to start organizing my shelves.  Works perfect and I have room for more.

I measured the spaces I had between the two middle shelves and purchased canvas storage bins on Amazon to place all my supplies in.  Homyfort Foldable Storage Cube Bins 11×11 inches, Fabric Storage Bin Baskets Box Organizer with Labels and Dual Plastic Handles for Shelf Closet, Nursery, Set of 6 (Blue

Not too shabby.  This is exactly what I had in mind for the paint station.  I only had to buy a panel of wainscoting and the storage bins.

I know you probably don’t have an attic ladder sitting around your home, but the reason I am sharing this with you, I hope I inspire you to up-cycle an item you aren’t using into something you can use again.

Next I am going to be focusing on the wall above my cabinet to store more paint.  I hope to have that ready for you at the end of the week.

Did you enjoyed my up-cycled storage unit?

If so…..

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