About 1 year ago, our kids school made a post about recruiting someone to build them a little free library. My wife saw the post, tagged me and asked what did I think. I looked at the request and thought "this is an opportunity to do something for the community instead of myself". I replied to the post as a potential candidate and shortly after, I received a response saying they would be glad to work with me on this project.
The librarian that I worked with was great at providing information and communicating what the school envisioned for their little free library. A lot of the inspiration for this project came from a discontinued train caboose model that the official Little Free Library used to sell combined with a couple other Pinterest ideas I saw.
The main body of the caboose is made with 32/32 BC exterior grade plywood and assembled with Kreg pocket hole screws. The ladders and roof beams are made with 3/4-in lattice molding. The doors are made with 1x2 select pine and fitted with Optix acrylic sheets for the windows.
The doors also have magnetic catches inside that keep the door closed when not in use. My origin plan was to paint with the sprayer but diluting the paint so it would flow through caused the color to look like Kool-Aid so I decided to hand paint. The outside is painted with 3 coats of Krylon Gloss Banner Red and the interior & wheels are painted with 3 coats of Krylon Gloss Black.
One thing I do wish i would have done was to leave more space on each side of the door because when it rains hard or it's really hot outside, the doors tend to stick together. I did go back and sand/repaint one time but they occasionally still stick. Other than that, the project went as intended.
Thanks for checking out my blog on how to build a little free library train!
How To Build A Little Free Library | DIY Little Free Library
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