Looking to add an element of design to your living room or entryway? A leaning ladder bookcase can easily be built for a third of the price you’d pay to buy one at the store. Follow these easy steps to learn how to DIY a ladder shelf. 

A ladder bookcase is a great addition to any room. Best of all, you can easily build your own for a third of the price you’d pay at the store.

Steps for Building a DIY Leaning Ladder Bookcase

Follow the directions below to learn how to build a DIY ladder bookcase.

1. Cut the 1 x 2 Parts to Size

The sides are made up of a back 1x2 leg with two square cut ends, an angled front leg mitered at parallel 9-degree angles, and crosspieces that set horizontally at the height of each shelf with one square cut end and one mitered end meet the angle of the front leg.

While I provided measurements for all of the crosspieces in my cut list below, I recommend cutting the top and bottom crosspieces to length, attaching them between the legs, and then cutting the remaining crosspieces to fit to ensure perfect joints.

Well, hey there neighbor! Jen Woodhouse here and I am so excited to share my DIY Dutch Door featuring the new Schlage Encode Smart Door Lock! Isn’t this Dutch door the most inviting thing ever? It makes me want to wear an apron and bake pies all day just so I can let them cool on the ledge! I mean, I don’t even own an apron, but now I’m going to have to get one! And guess what… this DIY Dutch Door is not a hard project, it’s surprisingly easy to do! Read on to see how I did it.

What is a Dutch Door?

A Dutch door is sometimes called a half-door or a stable door and basically, it’s a door that’s divided horizontally so that each part operates independently of each other. It can also be latched together so that it works like a traditional door. Dutch doors have been around since the 17th century and primarily served to let the fresh air and sunlight in, while keeping the farm animals that were usually milling about, out of the house. It’s such a charming old-world architectural detail. I love being able to watch my kiddos play in the yard and have my neighbors stop by to say hello – I just love it so much!

Buy vs. DIY

We recently built my detached workshop and I knew I wanted a Dutch door for it; however, store-bought, ready-made Dutch doors are ridiculously expensive. The ones I found online were around $1,500. No, thank you. I picked up a solid wood exterior door from The Home Depot for a little over $200 – just another reason why I love DIY!

A hollow core door doesn’t work as well for this project because when you cut it in half, you’ll have to fill that hollow space somehow. It’s still possible, but not ideal, especially for an exterior door, so if you can, try to use a solid door.

Standard doors typically have 3 hinges total, so if you’re converting an existing door to a Dutch door, you’ll need to add one more hinge so that both the top and bottom parts of the door are well-supported. Each part should have 2 hinges total.

After living in our house for 10 years with a career change halfway through that requires me to be in the kitchen all day long, we finally bit the bullet and decided to renovate. The dark cherry cabinets that closed the space in from the rooms on either side of the kitchen had to go. To get the open feel and additional light that was number one on my priority list, a major structural wall had to come down. It was a major undertaking (and if I never see another microwave meal again, it will be too soon), but many months later the space is exactly as I envisioned it: bright, light and airy. It’s the perfect balance between function and aesthetic.

Before

The kitchen is located in the center of the house. The only window above the sink faces east. The dark cherry cabinets and the wall separating it from the southern exposure of the formal dining room (to the right in this picture) was a very dark space. On a rainy day, it would almost be pitch black in the kitchen in mid-afternoon!

The “must-have” list was a long one. I figured if we were going to do this renovation and spend all this money, it was going to be exactly what I wanted. But in the end, there were really just four things that carried the most importance:

Remove Wall Separating Dining Room

The removal of that wall was no easy feat. It was a major structural component of the house. It also involved not only support beams where it originally stood (hidden in a shiplap clad soffit), but also another support beam and structural pole in the basement below to properly distribute the load. That part required cutting through our concrete slab foundation, resulting in quite a mess!

Almost half of the renovation time was dedicated to this important task. While the demo only took one day, the progress seemed at a standstill for weeks as all the “boring” structural work took place.

Spring is one of my favorite seasons because it’s a great time to address any roof damage that came with the fall and winter, and clean those often-neglected gutters and downspouts.

You can make sure the air conditioner will work when temperatures skyrocket and take steps to prevent your clothes dryer from catching on fire.

And you can transform a blank backyard to colorful flowerbed landscapes that will make home look and feel more like ‘home sweet home.’

It’s possible to do these things, and more, to improve your home and enhance your life. But first, you need to have a plan. And for that, read on!

Clean The Roof And Check For Damage

Regular roof maintenance is the most important maintenance tasks you can do around the home, since the roof protects you and everything inside your home. You should keep your roof clean, clear and in good shape, as small problems today can lead to much bigger ones in the future.

Experiencing new things is something we love to do as the Never Have I Ever Guys (or NHIE Guys for short)! Our latest adventure has been moving to our new house! One of the coolest parts of the move to our new house has been figuring out the amazing brands that would make our new house our home. Cue The Home Depot. One of the first things we needed to take care of was appliances. We had LG appliances in our last house, and we absolutely LOVED them, so it was a no-brainer that we would go the LG route in this house, too! Our goal in this house was to make it more of a smart home.

A Smart App for a Smart Fridge

We partnered with The Home Depot to hook us up with some goodies for the kitchen – first, the fridge. We opted for this sleek LG French Door Smart Refrigerator! We love having smart devices to make some of our everyday tasks a little easier, and this fridge is great for that! Also, we downloaded the LG SmartThinQ app on our phone for added support. If you leave the door open for too long, it will not only beep from the fridge, but you can set a notification to be sent to your phone, too. Energy-efficient, and it keeps food lasting longer.

The fridge also works with Google Home Assistant for a feature called Ice Plus. When we know we will be having a party, we can tell our Google Home Mini to make extra ice! How cool is that?

The Perfect Fit

When we were shopping for fridges, we didn’t realize the difference between counter depth and standard depth refrigerators. With the help of an associate at our local Home Depot, we learned that counter depth fridges are a bit more narrow than standard, making them a great fit for running flush with the counter. With this in mind, we decided counter depth would be best fitting for our space. We are so glad we went that way because it fits nice and snug in its spot.

We love having an open floor plan in our house, which is great for our lifestyle and entertaining. It also means our appliances are always on display. We have noticed, luckily enough, that this fridge runs really quietly, making it great for our space. After some research, we learned that our fridge has an air pump that makes it run more quietly. It’s an innovation that we never thought we needed, but when you are watching TV in the living room (we’ve all been there), it’s nice to not hear the fridge running in the background.

Hi everyone, it’s Jen Woodhouse here, digging myself out from under months of home renovations! I am thrilled to finally reveal my home office makeover! I am over the moon in love with this space! But first, let’s Tarantino this bad boy and rewind. We need to look at where we started, so we can marvel at how far we’ve come!

The Room Before

This is how the room looked before we moved in. It’s a great space with tons of natural light, but it lacked a clear direction. Is it a study? A playroom? A den? We can’t be sure, but I instantly fell in love with those two gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows! So much natural light floods into this room everyday.

Home Office Makeover Reveal

Here’s what this room looks like now. Drum roll please.

Now that the renovation is done, it’s time for the fun stuff: the furnishings and decor! Of course, I hit up my favorite store and found the perfect pieces to complete this home office makeover. The Home Depot has recently released an extensive and impressive line of home decor and furniture! You can find furniture, textiles, decor, and so much more. It’s your virtual one-stop-shop for all things home.

The Furniture

First, I outfitted this corner of the room with a beautiful natural linen arm chair, concrete accent table, gold floor lamp, cowhide rug, and my favorite Sansevieria Laurentii plant. Internet, meet Matilda. She’s a beauty and so low-key.

Cara from Never Skip Brunch here — I’m SO excited to show you the big reveal of my “Brunch Babe Space” aka my new Girl Garage.

This space functions as my studio and workshop space. As well as a place where I can create DIY tutorial content and host hands-on workshops in person.

So many amazing products from The Home Depot went into making this space a reality. From materials that fueled unique DIY projects to bold furniture and chic accessories. All helped infuse character and bring gorgeous touches to an otherwise functional space.

Unapologetically Feminine Feel

With pink accents almost everywhere you look and a playful chic style, this space is not your normal workshop. I’m on a mission to empower women to DIY big and design homes they’re truly in love with. I wanted the space to reflect that feeling.

DIY and home improvement isn’t just for the boys, and this space shows just how possible it is for women to tackle big projects on their own terms and still be able to embrace a more elegant aesthetic, full of pinks & yellows.

Hola, I am Yvette from Muy Bueno, and I’m excited to share my double-duty office workspace studio and dining room project on The Home Depot Blog!

As a food blogger I have collected quite a bit of props – dishes, silverware, linens, textiles, cookware and small appliances just to name a few. Not to mention my collection of Mexican pottery and obsession with thrifting.

I finally had the idea to turn our rarely used formal living room into an office/studio/prop space/dining room.

Before the Makeover

Here’s a before picture of the living room. This room was filled with oversized furniture, and the room was dark and rarely used.

After the Makeover

Now, I have a stylish double-duty workspace and dining room using transitional pieces that transform a casual home office for everyday use into a prop storage space, studio space and added dining space.

Decorative moulding on the front of a bathtub adds an instant facelift to an outdated tub and really improves the overall look of a bathroom. Read on to see the full tutorial on how to easily add moulding to a bathtub and give it the makeover it needs!

Step 1: Prep

Using a putty knife, hammer, and pry bar, remove all existing trim or moulding pieces from the surface of the bathtub that you do not plan to use for this project. Make sure to also remove any baseboards that sit flush with the front of your bathtub and may get in the way of applying the new moulding (optional side note – save these baseboards for later as they may be reused again during Step 8). Clean the surface area of your bathtub well to remove all dust, stains, paint drips, and/or old glue on the surface of your tub where the new moulding will go. This is to ensure that the glue adheres to the bathtub properly.

Step 2: Tile Board

Measure the surface area of where your tile board is going to go. Cut the tile board according to your measurements using an oscillating multi-tool. Glue the tile board on the flat surface of your tub using Loctite Power Grab glue and a caulk gun. Spread an entire tube of the Loctite Power Grab glue evenly on the back of the tile board before pressing it to the surface of your tub. Reinforce the tile board in place to prevent sagging by using clamps if applicable. If clamps do not fit on the configuration of your bathtub, use heavy pieces of furniture or scrap pieces of wood laying around to secure the tile board in place. Let cure for 24 hours. Pro tip – place a piece of scrap wood in between the tile board and clamp to hold in place and allow clamp to fit over the bathtub. (see photo).

Step 3: Measure and Cut Vinyl Moulding

Using the measurements of your bathtub combined with the dimensions of the vinyl moulding, draw out a diagram of how your bathtub is going to look. This will allow you to determine how long each piece of vinyl moulding needs to be and where to make your cuts. Cut six vinyl moulding pieces according to your measurements using a miter saw (see diagram above labeled with stars). Suggestion: cut one piece at a time and make sure it fits in place incase your bathtub is not perfectly level. You may need to go back and make some minor adjustments. I had to do this a few times with a few pieces as our bathtub had settled unevenly. Measure twice, cut once!

Step 4: Glue Vinyl Moulding

Glue each piece of cut vinyl moulding to the tile board in order to create the three-panel design. (see photo). Secure the moulding pieces in place using clamps and/or extra pieces of wood.

We were counting down the days to get our LifeProof Carpet installed in our home. In the past, let’s just say we have had some not-so-great experiences with carpet. To the point that I literally didn’t think we would do ANY carpet in this new home. That was until I found LifeProof Carpet. Their 25 year Wear Warranty, Lifetime (yes, you read that right) Household Stain/Pet Stain Warranty has me on board. I couldn’t really believe that they would have a lifetime warranty on stains! During my shopping experience at The Home Depot I asked if that is actually accurate, and he assured me that yes it was! He said as long as your carpet is being steamed/cleaned every 12-18 months for cleaning upkeep they will adhere to the warranty. AMAZING right?!

They have tons of different color and pattern options. I was floored. I had several favorites, but we ended up choosing to go with Lower Treasure, in the color Plaza Buff. It has a short pile, making it even easier with kids to upkeep.

Once you have picked out your carpet, The Home Depot will send someone to measure within just a couple of days. After that, lead time is typically about 4 weeks. They do, however, have some carpets that have a rapid turnaround of only 7 days!

Install day was so exciting! I can’t believe how quickly everything was laid down. Since our home is a new build we just had to make sure that we had paint and trim done before carpet came in. Other than that, The Home Depot took care of everything. In just a few hours, they laid the nail strips, padding and carpet in two bedrooms.

 I couldn’t be more happy with the final result of not only the carpet but my whole experience with The Home Depot. They were amazing from start to finish in making sure the carpet was going to fit my family’s needs and that install would be done to perfection. I could not recommend LifeProof Carpet enough to others, especially those with children.

Anika’s DIY Life Fun Room Makeover

Anika of Anika’s DIY Life knew that her son’s new dinosaur-themed room makeover would be fun and easy with the help of The Home Depot’s ProjectColor App They were able to decide on the perfect dinosaur greens, “Secret Meadow” and “Back to Nature.” It was bittersweet changing her baby boy’s room, but this colorful transformation was a true reflection of his growing personality. Check out Anika’s blog on how she brought this project to life.

Crisp, Clean Color Line Mural

Lindsay Zeulich of Wood Brain decided that her guestroom deserved a fun and funky mural design that bounced all around the room, from the walls to the ceiling and back. She used a variety of bright Behr colors, including “Extreme Yellow,” “Summer Dragonfly,” “Thai Teal,” “Real Teal” and “Deep Breath” for this cool transformation. See step-by-step here on how she was able to make it happen with the help of the ProjectColor App.

Colorful Abstract Focal Wall Mural

Rebecca Propes of Rebecca DIY took abstract to the next level as she gave her master bedroom a pink-popped accent wall which featured Behr colors like, “Heart Breaker,” “Beauty Queen,” “High Maintenance,” “Watermelon Punch” and “Sunset Pink.” She used various colors and techniques to bring this abstract mural to life. Check out her blog here to see how she did it.

DIY Brushstroke Accent Wall

Jessica Camerata of My Style Vita decided to skip the wallpaper and hand brushstroke her home’s gallery accent wall using a deep blue by Behr called “Hemisphere.” Hand painting her wall made the project a lot more fun and gave the room a more authentic feel. Head over to her blog to see how she did it. Every little detail matters.

Nursery Reveal with Seeking Alexi

It’s always exciting to prep the little one’s room before they get here. Alexi Politis of Seeking Alexi and her husband tackled their nursery paint project by testing whether a sprayer or a roller would get the job done faster. Check out her project video to see how they chose the perfect color of “Graphic Charcoal”  with the help of the ProjectColor App and which painting method worked best.