Today I am sharing with you how to make the perfect DIY Christmas gift. You will love how easy and quick it is to make these DIY Tea towel Ladder. Follow along as I teach you step by step how to make your own!
DIY Tea Towel Ladder
Looking for a simple and stylish Christmas gift on a budget? This tea towel ladder is the perfect DIY Christmas gift for someone you love. Add some fun to their kitchen counters or guest bathrooms with these adorable stencil tea towels, while barely spending and certainly not splurging! This DIY craft will leave you wanting to do more and more. Let’s get started.
Supplies Needed To Make Your DIY Tea Towels and Ladder:
- Cotton Tea Towels
- Essential Stencils – Home Minipack
- Essential Stencils – Buffalo Check Plaid
- Iron
- Chalk Paint – Black, Fern Green, Elephant, and Plaster by Waverly
- Stencil Brush from Essential Stencils
- Blue Painters tape
- 1×2″ pieces of wood, 15″ long (2 pieces)
- Use 5-gallon paint sticks as an alternative and trim to length as needed
- 3 Dowels with a diameter of 2 ¾ cm – 8″ long
- Plunger Handle from Dollar Store as an alternative – trim to length as needed
- Sanding Block
- Hot glue and wood glue
- Paintbrush
- Puppy Pad
STEPS TO MAKE the perfect DIY gift for Christmas:
1 – Grab your cotton tea towels and your iron. Iron your tea towels so your surface is free of any wrinkles or bumps.
2 – With your Essential Stencils: Home Mini Packet and some blue painter’s tape determine where to place your stencil. Use tape to secure your stencil in place onto your towel. Tip* Lower bottom section of your tea towel looks best.
3 – To begin painting, grab your regular chalk paint, Waverly Fern Green, and your stencil brush. Be sure to offload any excess paint so you do not allow for bleeding on your tea towel. Tip* Select colors of your choice to paint to use for your tea towels. I am going for a neutral pallet so it is easy to give as a gift.
4 – Using a swirl motion, place your fern green chalk paint on the wreath section of the “HOME” stencil. Next, grab some black chalk paint and complete the remaining letters on your tea towel. Tip* Remember, you do not need a lot of paint!
5 – Next add your Essential Stencil: Buffalo Plaid on your tea towels. Use painter’s tape to help you determine how much of your buffalo patch stencil you want to add to your towel.
6 – Add “Home Sweet Home” on top with some Waverly Chalk: Elephant gray paint. Remember, these are decorative towels. These are not meant to be washed.
7 – Set aside to dry. Tip* To clean your stencils, just wash with soap and water.
8 – Let’s start building our tea towel ladder. Grab your 1×2″ pieces of wood, cut 15″ in length. We just used scrap wood, but you can find these at your local hardware store. Tip* I measured the distance from the countertop to the base of the cupboards up top. Add an angle on ends with a miter saw to really be ladder-like, but not needed. Alternative – 2 packs of 3 5-gallon paint sticks.
9 – Grab 3 dowels with a diameter of 2 ¾ cm, measuring 8″ long to fit the width of your towels. Alternative – Plunger handles from Dollar store cut to size.
10 – To prep, sand your wood to smooth it out. Then wipe down to free of any debris or particles.
11 – Wearing plastic gloves to stay clean, grab your Waverly paint, color Plaster and paint all of your wood with a thin layer. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
12 – Using the same brush and your Elephant gray we used earlier on our tea towels, lightly slap on some gray over your painted white. Do not paint completely, just brush it on here and there.
13 – Then wipe with a baby wipe to give it a weathered, distressed look. Complete this technique for all of your pieces of wood. Don’t forget your dowels. Tip* If you have too much, keep wiping with your baby wipe to get the look you desire.
14 – Now sand it down with your sanding block, adding to your distressed look.
15 – Once all pieces of wood are sanded and wiped down, layout your wood to form your ladder. Play with placement. Center your middle ladder rung first with 7 ½” on both sides. Be sure to measure to make it even!
16 – Use hot glue and wood glue to put in place! Press firmly to secure or even clamp overnight.
17 – Place your next rung about 4” up from your center rung, by hot-gluing in place. Repeat with bottom rung, about 4” below from center. Tip* These measurements are just a guide, you decide what you like best.
18 – Once glued, if you wanted to use a nail gun to help secure, that is also an option.
19 – Hard part is deciding which tea towel to use first in your decor and which friend gets this cute DIY Christmas gift!
There ya go! This entire project can be done for less than $10, probably even less than $5. Can’t you just see these tea towels being beautiful on a kitchen counter or a guest bathroom? So pretty. So simple. Most of all, so excited you were here to craft with us.
Other great DIY Christmas Gifts
Be sure to Pin this DIY Christmas Gift so you can make this later!
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