You know what a “Little Free Library” is. They are little cabinets, usually a cibic foot or so, on posts in someone’s yard, where they leave books for passerby to take and read and pass on. We have a dozen or so in my neighborhood, people strolling and walking their dogs and kids coming home from school like to stop and browse and bring home a new book.
We are purging and organizing our books. My goodness, we have so many. I think we could start a little bookstore. We filled a dozen boxes with books to get rid of, some pretty good books actually, and my daughter said “let’s have a Little Free Library!”
So if you’re going to do something, might as well overdo it.
At a local recyclery, we picked up a kitchen upper cabinet. I made a pitched roof with rafters and a steel “roof” from some ducting left over from my range vent hood project. This picture was taken while I was dulling the sharp edges of the sheet metal.
We are going to have labeled sections - Kids, Fiction, Non-fiction, Hobbies, etc. Also some CDs because we have an excess of those laying around.
Now for the fun stuff. My daughter is going to design and make a stamp, “From the _____ Library” for the books, and “library cards” for people to take, if they want, and a little star stamp on a chain, so they can stamp their card once for each book they take, if they really want to get into it. Which I only imagine little kids will, but who knows. We’ll have a “reading and writing” cork bulletin board, for people to leave notes - members wanted for book club, etc.
We have yet to pick a name for the library. Must be some literary reference. Cogitating.
To be fully ridiculous, my daughter is going to get the library its own Instagram account.
On the practical side, this cabinet is going to sit out in the weather year-round - not much sun where it will be, but plenty of wind-blown rain. We’re going to paint it some bright color, which should help protect the wood. I feel like maybe I should take some scrap duct sheet steel material and make flashing lips to overhang the tops of the doors. I might also cover the gables with more scrap sheet, and will caulk or tape over the screws in the roof. What else should I do to help it last longer? It’s a kitchen cabinet, was never meant to be outside.