12 Creative & Rustic Garden Art Ladder Ideas

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Add character to your garden with a repurposed wooden ladder. Creative ideas include using a vintage ladder to display planters, birdhouses, and garden art.

If you want to make your own, this tutorial shows how to make your own garden ladder.

Use Old Wood Ladders as Garden Art

Wobbly, old wooden painter’s ladders have lots of reuses both in the home and the garden.

I took these photos at home gardens where ladders are repurposed as plant stands, to display décor, and to support climbing vines.

Ideas

Paint the ladder in bold color(s) and use it to display:

Birdhouses & bird feeders
Garden art collections
Flower planters with trailing vines
Watering cans
Garden signs

If you ever see a wooden ladder in the garbage, snap it up! They have become popular in recent years, both in the home and garden, so prices can be too high for those of us who are frugal.

Whether you paint them or leave them plain, wooden ladders make a quirky, fun garden art accent.

This one is in my garden:

Old blue ladder in flower garden. — Bold old blue painter’s ladder in flower garden

Tips for Long-Lasting Wood Ladders

Old-fashioned household ladders made from wood are not durable in outdoor conditions.

To make a ladder last for years outdoors all year-round, consider painting it with exterior latex paint and adding rain boots!

This will prevent rotting due to exposure to the damp soil, rain, and snow.

Blue garden art ladder with yellow boots used to protect the lower legs. — Garden ladder with rubber boots on each leg

Want your ladder to last longer?
Ladder Boot Instructions

Garden Ladder Ideas

1Turquoise Blue

Eye-popping color is always good!

This ladder has various potted plants and a quirky birdhouse up top.

Turquoise painted garden art ladder with red birdhouse on top. — Turquoise garden ladder with potted plants and red birdhouse up top.

2Display a Collection

Ladders are a great way to show off collections like these blue bottles:

Garden art ladder with blue wine bottles. — Old wooden garden ladder resting against fence with display of blue bottles.

Table top garden with flowering potted plants and various decorative treasures.

3Unfinished Painter’s Ladder

This one is in my garden:

Old wood painter's ladder with kettles and watering cans. — Old wooden ladder in garden with assorted watering cans, glassware, and birdhouses.

4Colorful Containers

This next one has an orange and yellow theme:

Garden art ladder with yellow planter boxes. — Old wooden painter’s ladder in garden with yellow flowerpots on each step.

Front porch with beautiful black urn planted with pink flowers.

5Ladder With Shelves

Ladders are excellent for showing off collections:

Vintage ladder with garden art on a front porch. — Wooden ladder painted gray with wood shelves over the steps and assorted garden art.

6Flowerful Ladder

See how they placed the flowering annuals along the ladder? Very pretty!

Garden art ladder with lots of flowers. — Old wooden painter’s ladder in colorful flower garden.

Old-fashioned wagon used as a flower planter.

7Repeated Pots

I took this photo many years ago in the blazing hot sun:

Garden art ladder with flower containers. — Wooden ladder in garden with potted flowering annuals.

8Empress of Dirt Blue Ladder

Here’s another look at my blue ladder:

Blue garden art ladder with watering can. — Bright blue garden ladder with watering can planter.

Garden before and after planting large flower and vegetable garden.

Related:Tour My Garden Year By Year

9Step Ladder

This little step ladder looks sweet:

Step ladder with window box planters. — Plain wooden ladder in garden with potted white flowers.

10Garden Sign Ladder

Clever idea: use each step for a letter to form a word:

Garden art ladder with the word bloom on it. — Wooden ladder in garden with decorative letters spelling BLOOM.

11Black Ladder

The pink flowers really stand out with the black garden ladder in this next garden.

Black step ladder with dahlia in flowerpot. — Black step ladder in garden with pot of dahlias.

12Angel Ladder

This backyard was filled with quirky and rustic garden art. I love the rusty angel with the aged patina of the wood.

Garden art ladder with angel decor. — Rustic wooden ladder in garden with metal angel décor.

13Clematis Ladder

This ladder was in my old garden next to the first clematis vine I ever planted. I didn’t intend to keep it there but came to love how the two looked together.