I have twin boys, and with that came bunk beds. The bottom bunk was a bed my wife found off a swap site for like $20. So I decided to made a loft style top bunk for fun. It was a cool project and I definitely wish I had video of it. But here’s the pic of how it ended up, with Brooks showing approval.

Anyway, Whit was the one that ended up with he top, which he loves. But his biggest complaint has been that he has no night light. There’s an outlet high up on the wall for Brooks underneath. So Brooks has always had a light. Whit has had to settle for the light across he room on the floor outlet. Bummer.

So I told Whit I’d make him a special light. Anything he wanted. He really wanted a fire truck. So that was he task at hand. How do you turn a fire truck into a night light?

I came up with a layered concept. There would be a base that would hang on the wall. And then I’d have some spacers attached for the lighting to go around. And then there would be a fire truck frame that would sit on top of those spacers, and the light would shine through and around the truck.

I first thought a side view, but realized that wouldn’t really incorporate lights inside the truck. So I ended up with the front facing view. That way, I could cut out holes for the headlights, turn signals, and all the red flashers.

The base was made of extra 1×4’s I had in the garage, and trimmed with some ripped down pieces. Note: this would have been much faster to just buy a 2’ x 2’ sheet of plywood, but I went with what I had on hand. And I wanted an excuse to use my planer. Oh, and I used a torch to burn the trim pieces.  Just couldn’t resist using fire on the fire truck project!

The truck was made from 3/8” hardboard that I had left over from my bathroom wainscoting project. I used about a 14”x14” square to start. I used a pic from google images to get an idea of the look I wanted, then just drew it out in pencil. I then cut out as much as I could on the bandsaw before switching to the jig saw (Side note: this was really my first bandsaw project, and was finally my opportunity to take that thing apart and really figure out all the moving parts.  It’s going to be great having that thing operational in the shop).  I drilled holes for the lights, and then squared them up with the jig saw. I am not too skilled with that thing, and it was a lot of moving and re-clamping. It’s far from perfect, but it looked a lot better after sanding and painting.

The lights I used were some copper string LED lights I found in Amazon for about $13. They gave me easier flexibility than normal rope lighting. And it came with a remote that allows you to dim them, and cycle through multiple flash settings. Perfect for a fire truck!  I found some inexpensive colored transparency sheets, which I cut out and super-glued to the back for each light.

Since I wasn’t sure how well there inexpensive lights would hold up, I knew I needed a way to remove the truck piece from the base easily, so definitely didn’t want to use glue here. I decided on some Velcro strips, and it worked perfect. Now I can switch out he base if the lights go bad. And I can reuse he base if he decides he wants something other than a fire truck. We can just make that piece and add Velcro to the back.

Things to different you ask? I probably could have taken my time a little better with the jigsaw while cutting out all the holes for the lights.  I’m also a little bummed about the stain on the base.  I did have a test piece with the stain and it looked like the dark cherry I wanted, but that test piece was from last spring, and apparently the weather must have impacted the look.  It definitely has much more of a purple look to it than I wanted. And I said it before with using plywood to speed up the project.  The brick look on the base was something I added in on the fly, and it would have had the same look on plywood.