Photo Ladder

Just after we moved in, our real estate agent mentioned that under no circumstances could we use Blu-tac to hang posters, because she can’t stand the damage it does to the walls. We laughed, and when we realised she wasn’t joking, we laughed even harder. These are the pristine walls she wanted to protect:

But since I value the return of my bond more than I value my Lion King poster, I went looking for alternatives, and found a tutorial on making a photo ladder that the internet has since eaten and now refuses to regurgitate. I no longer even remember the name of the blog, but her tutorial went something like this:

1.       Cut ladder to size and paint. (It should have mentioned ‘Do not paint the same colour as the walls, even if that’s the only paint you own’, but it did not.)

2.       Paint rungs with fabric Mod Podge and wrap with material, making sure the join is at the back of the rung.

3.       Shoo away the pet cat sleeping between the rungs while the glue dries. (In our house, it’s more likely to be ‘shoo away the ants, the mice, the possum that lives in the roof or the stray dog that came inside to chase the possum.)

4.       Tie frames to the rungs with string. (‘Get some artistic photos’ would also have been good advice at this point, rather than hanging a photo of the obese guy from The Inside.) I had to add small sticky hooks to the back of the bottom of the frames so I had something to tie the string around: if you tie them only at the top then they hang lazily backwards like the black frame is doing.

Also, when you’re carrying the ladder inside, it’s a good idea to try not to bash a dent in the ceiling, or it kind of defeats the whole purpose of the exercise.