DIY Fire Station Toy From Recycled Boxes

The idea of this fire station came while looking for present in the shape of a fire station toy for a kid and the options I liked were nowhere near affordable. So I decided to give it a try at making one from recycled boxes, so environmentally friedlier as a bonus :-). The cost of such a toy are location specific, but just to give you a rough idea, for me it was around 212kc / 10USD / 9EUR. Hope you find it inspiring!

Step 1: Materials and Tools You'll Need

Materials:
- red adhesive tape - I used half of a roll

- red paper - I used 2.5 tubes of wrapping paper of 2 m each

- white paper - 3 A4 sheets

- black paint

- paper glue - I used 1 tube of 250g

- 4 carboard boxes of identical size

- the cardboard core from 2 kitchen roles

Tools:

- scissors, ruler, pencil, rubber, paint brushes, black marker, white marker

Step 2: Prep the Boxes

I recycled 4 diaper boxes, each measuring 29 X 26 X 22 cm, but any size will do provided that the boxes are equal in size.

- 2 boxes don't need prepping

- the other 2 will sit one on top of the other with a hole going through the middle of their floor/ceiling to allow for the fireman's pole

- to cut out a hole for the fireman's pole, trace 2 lines from each corner to the opposite one and then draw a circle with the middle in the intersection point of the lines. Cut out the circle

Step 3: Wrap the Box in Red Paper

- Cut out rectangles of red paper equal in size with each box wall, both inside and outside

- Glue one box to another and then 2 other boxes on top of the first 2 that were glued to each other. Make sure the hole you carved out is positioned so that the hole is facing upwards to the level above it. The top level doesn't have walls between the 2 boxes.

Step 4: Add the Pole and Windows

- Measure the height of the box floor to ceiling, from the ground floor to the second floor through the fireman's hole

- Build the pole from kitchen role core (I used 2 pieces to make a pole that long), paint it grey and glue it from the floor and ceiling of the box, making sure it goes through the middle of the hole

- Draw 16-18 windows, paint them and cut the painting out. Then glue them on the inside and the outside of the fire station

Step 5: Build the Fire Station Banner

- Cut out a piece of cardboard equal in length with the width of the fire station. I shaped mine as a half oval with flattened ends and painted it black. Because I didn't have such a long piece of cardboard, I put together 2 pieces of cardboard to make the whole banner

- Cut out 2 identical badges from red paper and glue them together with the red part on the outside

- Write the name of the building on the double sided badge

- Build a support piece that will help you attach the banner to the fire station. To do that, shape a toilet roll core as a tube with square corners, rather than a round tube as it is normally. Then glue one side of the support to the building and one to the banner, like in the pictures