Due to the safety issues involved with ladders, there aren’t too many unorthodox or fun ways to use them that involve actually climbing them. But that’s only if you want to use them as actual ladders – in fact, you can have endless fun and get very creative with ladders as aesthetic and functional objects around the home! Use old wooden ladders if you want a rustic feel, or go for steel if you’re more into modern industrial.

Drape It with Tea Towels

Sick of tea towels falling off kitchen cupboard handles? Or maybe you don’t have convenient places to hang them and don’t want to keep fishing around in drawers for them? A smallish ladder is your unlikely saviour here. Lean it up somewhere unobtrusive and tasteful in your kitchen and suddenly you have a whole tea towel rack on hand.

A Hanging Rack

If you have some power tools and chain or good rope, you can hang a ladder from your roof to create a stylish and convenient rack. This could be used for pots and pans in the kitchen, for pot plants in a sun room, or even as an unconventional tool rack for your workshop.

A Gourmet’s Best Friend

Few things make your cooking leap off the plate like home grown herbs. Maybe there’s an old ladder leaning against the shed near your herb garden – leave it there! With the judicious application of twine it’ll be perfect for drying out herbs so you can finally make a bolognese that tastes as good as mum’s.

For Booklovers

You know when you have too many coffee table books for your coffee table? Or when you want all those philosophy books out in the open to show off your brains, but they look a bit shoddy stacked against the wall. A ladder can function as a perfect display bookcase for your living room. Pop it next to the couch so guests can browse it at their leisure. Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, you could mount a ladder horizontally on your wall for a bookcase that also functions as avant-garde art.

The Odd One Out: Photography

 A step ladder can actually be a really valuable tool for a photographer. First of all it can function as a shiny, silent, slightly eerie assistant if you can’t afford a human or canine one yet. It can’t make you coffee but you can rest your coffee on it, along with your camera and other supplies. You can also rest your camera or elbows on the top step to steady your shot. The assistant analogy breaks down there. At least, it should. And, of course, you can climb up on it to get that perfect high angle during your shoot.