The real question is whether or not YOU think they're cool! If you like it, why would you care what any one else thinks? You're the one choosing to live with it!

I've seen good ones, and bad ones. Really depends on what you choose and how you use it.

It's a fad that's had it's day, however...practically speaking, it's a great addition to a small bathroom to add an interesting and useful hanging space for towels.

I am currently searching for a wider one to use for hanging my works of art ☺️ quilts. We plan to suspend it at an angle behind a casual chair. I think it will look cool. I don't care what others think, really.....

I was going to stay out of this, but I have held on to a ladder that was used in the orchard of my grandfathers Okanogan Valley farm for years now. I will display it proudly regardless of "trends" as it reminds me of where I came from. I appreciate many items that I have collected such as this, most of varying levels of quality and/or on the fringes of popular taste. If it makes me feel something it stays. Period.

I say go for it. If your place is as you describe....you're not one to follow trends anyway!

I know I don't. I do ask advice, get different ideas & such, but the bottom line is that it's my home & I have to live with the decisions I make.

I have one, it came with the house. You can just see it on the left side of this photo, in a 2-story atrium lined with bookshelves. And no, nobody in their right mind would attempt to climb on it, it is an obvious antique.

If you like it that is what matters. What I'm trying to say is, It's your house. Make it your own. Fads will come and go. Pick what makes you happy.

Do I detect ambivalence? our home has lofts requiring ladders yet I found a place and use for Dad's old paint ladder as a decorative feature. Has been a cat tree, quilt rack, pan rack and held cookbooks. Just saying, I Will always find a use for it. We will always love it. In your home you get to decide (might ask the cat).

I don't decorate my house for cool or to please anyone but me & my family. You don't like my house or think the things in my house look "dated", tough!
Decorate your house to make you happy, that way you aren't having to keep spending more & more money to keep up with the Joneses......

Keep up with the Joneses, they've taken your purse.

I've never liked them, but if they suit the style of the house, then decide if you like them or not and go by that.

I recently ran a fundraiser yard sale and a LONG wooden extension ladder was donated not safe for use and it will soon become book cases with planks resting on the rungs, a towel holder for the bath and what ever else I can come up with....

I've had one for some time that I use to hang old quilts (not my best ones) on it. Looks great leaning in a corner.

etet: How did you make an old ladder into a cat tree?

@GN, boy you sure like standing on the edge :))

If you decide you want one try the weekly auction at Leonard Joel (Hawksburn, Victoria). They often have one or two in the furniture auction on a Thursday. Catalogue online on Wednesday. No, I don't work for them, just spend a lot of time browsing the catalogue :0)

I have a short, primitive ladder that we use as a side table. With chippy, light green paint & a vintage look, this inexpensive, inherited piece is perfect in our sunroom! Next, my husband used crape myrtle prunings & made a rustic & wild short ladder from the branches (minus leaves). I leaned it against the wall on the screened porch. With short pieces of checked ribbon, I tied several antique garden tools to it on the crossbars. Added a grapevine wreath on 1 side. It helps make this room a perfect transition to the outdoors!
We love it! I say, get the ladder- there's no end to what you can do with it!!!

In the yard and in the house displaying the baskets I've made.

I have one in my living room, which I fold blankets over the rungs. If I get the chance to get a other one I sure will find a place for it.

30 years ago, after seeing a picture in a magazine, we bought a ladder, opened it up, added shelves and used in a den for the TV and books. It looked great and was such a space saver. I've had it all these years leaning against the back of the house we now live in, just outside the garage door. I am turning a bedroom into a studio and was thinking about how to store things, looking online, pondering. Coming in from the garden, I looked at that ladder and felt silly. My "storage" was sitting right there. Now it holds paints, fabric, tools--everything a mixed-media artist needs. I did put it out in the yard, open it up and stand on it to see what would happen after all these years. It held. When we first used it, it was nicely sanded and stained. Now it is weather-worn, but I worked with that and it looks just fine where it is.

I will have a ladder or two in my house at sometime in my life. Will never get tired of the look.

Q. Why did the lawyer take a ladder to work?
A. So he could take his case to a higher court.

Q. Why are women so strong?
A. They carry ladders in their stockings all day.

I found a huge old ladder, sawed it in half and now each half resides in the very corner of my master bedroom. Mostly its for decoration but its also a great place to put the throw when we don't want it on the bed and my husband often puts out his clothes for the next day on "his" ladder. I love them. Think its timeless.

I just bought one a few weeks ago and it now houses my blankets in the family room.

I lived in Virginia and loved country things, old things, rustic things. My daughter loves these things, too. We went flea marketing in Missouri where she lived. We saw an old ladder with a unique narrow shape and some old splashes of red paint on it. I wanted it, but, the owner said it was not for sale. It was too old and he didn't want to part with it - 120years and 12'6" long. We came back to Virginia without it. Then, my daughter called us and asked us to come back there during Christmas because she had our Christmas gift - but, we would have to bring the van and pick it up. We went. There she had that ladder!! She had gone back every week until the owner gave in and offered them a good price. They bought it for us for Christmas. So, we tied it up to the top of the van and drove it all the way back to Virginia. That was about 15 years ago and it has been used a number of different ways - standing with other small things sitting here and there on it, standing alone from floor to room shelf 12' up, placed long ways along a counter with each square created by the rungs used as a frame for country pictures and objects. Wherever we used it, we loved it and always thought of our daughter so far away from us. Then, almost eight years ago we moved to Tanzania East Africa. We had other smaller ladders used as towel racks, baskets racks, hanging over the kitchen table for lanterns to hang....and on and on. Now, we had to pack shipping crates to travel for months before us to get to Africa. Now, we had to decide what to take and what to leave. We gave away much of our country stuff - that same daughter got the smaller ladders, deacons benches and bakers' tables, enough too fill a 20' rent-a- truck. We took all of that back to Missouri. But, what about my special old ladder? I had no idea if we would have anywhere to use it there. But, "it is going!" because wherever that ladder is - there is my daughter! So now, cut to 2014 and we are living in a house built by a German man in the hills near a river. Our compound is connected to another piece of land with a small, sweet ( also, German built) cottage. And, if you go into it, you will see hanging flat above the large kitchen window and along either side - about 13' above you - that ladder with the cranberry and mustard berries I also brought woven in and out of the rungs. The ceiling that goes way above the ladder is stained narrow strips of wood and black beams that form an "A". We are missionaries doing work in a primitive location. My children are far away from us. But - when I step into the kitchen of that cottage - I am reminded ...by the ladder.....that my daughter is there, too. The ladder is an old wooden piece that cannot be used as it was originally intended but, it has great value to me.

My home has a little tuscan flavor on main level floor. I couldn't resist an old ladder over my dinette in kitchen nook decorated with pip berries.

I have one and it helps add height in the corner of our family room. I add different wreaths (wine cork, grapevine, etc.) and other decorations during the seasons. It is old and even has some paint splatters.

I have been looking for one for a client and cant get my hands on one!

Oops, voted yep :( They make great decor items. The more primitive the more interesting. Simply propped up against a big blank wall looks very cool. Like sculpture. (Upton, check out eBay "ladders & antique ladders". Pricey but available.)

I use mine for displaying my antique quilts. It's propped up against a wall. Love it!

If you love it...do it! It's your home and who cares what anybody else thinks. If you walk into a room of your home and give a sigh of contentment...then you've done it right!

I want one! Where are you finding these? Actually I want several!

I worked on the visual team at Pottery Barn and the first thing everyone wanted was one of our old wooden ladders that we used as a merchandising tool. Too bad, these items weren't for sale--so if you've got one, there are a million uses for one--or two- of these. Vertical to horizontal, the possibilities are endless!! Go for it!!!

Love my ladder. Stands in a corner in my back foyer. It's a wonderful architectural piece. Great red paint worn in many areas, hand carved rongs, its one of a kind. 11 months a year it stands unadorned but at Christmas I hang a collection of antique stockings from it.

Joseph & I are waiting for a lull in our work to get to work on the ladder in the library we just put the shelves in.....it will hook on a round "pipe" and have stable feet as it will be sitting on our wonderful slate floor.....

i'd like to know what part of the world you live in. i'd love to buy one of the ladders in your photo. i had one 20 years ago like the one on the far right side of the photo. it's a lineman's ladder, used long ago by utility companies outside. obviously, it held up in the weather! i used mine to get to a storage open loft area in my first retail interior design studio. found it in a junk yard. it was excellent quality. don't buy trends - first rule of interior design. but if it's something you love and/or can use, by all means buy one.

My very first ladder was wood. Eventually one of the rungs near the bottom splintered off and it wasn't safe. I cut it down and painted it black. I still have it and plan to use it in my new house. I'm not sure where, but it will find its home somewhere. Most likely it will be a plant shelf this time.

Still cool.

Ha! There's an article in the newspaper today (!) about how to use an old ladder as a decorative shelving unit. I'll post photos.

Photos. Proof it's way cool to use an old ladder. In the Netherlands at least ;-)

It's how you use it...stand it up in the corner and put gnomes on each step - not so much...hang it sideways on the wall and use as a book shelf - GREAT. Nothing against gnomes :)

I'd love to have an old ladder draped with vintage fabrics, but my cats would pull them all down!

Great leaning against a fence or workshop with vines and flowers filtering through.

I use them at my cabin and love them.

Have one ...early 1800s ...hangs in my galley kitchen...rustic...gorgeous....aged...I hang unique old kitchen items & baskets from it...used 3 coats of Minwax polyshades on it to help with dusting/cleaning. Visitors love it.

Get one! They are still in! You can always repurpose them to fit your style

II’m lolooking for a coocool laddladder for my cloclose. Are you selling these?

I have an antique ladder that I use to display family heirloom quilts.