Monday, June 01, 2020

We Built A Little Free Library

We built a Little Free Library®!

Having a Little Free Library has been a dream of mine & it finally came true!

We actually completed this project in January but it took a while to get this little library in our yard!

Since we have harsh winters in our area, I wanted to wait until spring before we brought the library outside.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit & I was unsure if it would be the right time to open.

Finally, I decided to open (with precautions) a few weekends ago!

I love Little Free Libraries & I think they're just the cutest!  



We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog

Having a little library was something I considered having for a while.  I saw them all over Pinterest & thought they were the coolest thing!  I finally decided to construct my own after I saw an actual  Little Free Library in the wild one day.

We live in a fairly rural area & libraries are few & far between.  I wanted to make books accessible to the people in my area.  I also wanted to start reading more books & having a library close by would help me accomplish that!

The sky is the limit when building a Little Free Library.  I wanted ours to resemble our log home because I love when the libraries match their houses!
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
This is what we started off with!  It was just a cabinet we already had on hand but it was perfect for the base of the library.  From there, we built around it to resemble our home.
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
For the "logs", we cut down a few pieces of rough cut lumber & attached them to the cabinet.  We then went back through & filled in the gaps between the logs with more rough cut lumber pieces.

We then used the same rough cut lumber to build a base for the roof.  For the metal roof, we were able to go to the same person who did the metal roof on our actual house & have a piece of metal made to match.
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
Last summer, we stained our log home so we had the stain to match the Little Free Library.
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek BlogFor the door, we used a picture frame that fit perfectly!  We just put a piece of plexiglass over it & insulated it a little bit.

We built a chimney base on the top & used rocks we found outside to fill it in.  We used grout we already had on hand.

The only thing we actually bought for this project was the plexiglass & hinges/handle for the door.  Everything else we already had!

I'm kind of glossing over it here, but it really took a lot of work & time.  It also took a lot of thinking & planning to get it to match our actual home.  Our house is really unique so our Little Free Library had to be unique as well!
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog

It was one of the more fun projects we've worked on this year & I hope that others enjoy it as much as we do!
We built a custom Little Free Library® | On The Creek Blog

2 comments:

  1. Well done, your library is adorable! Love how it matches the house

    ReplyDelete

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