Barn in a Box | Kilan Rougeot

A laser-cut plywood box shaped like a barn, with a hinged door, a curved lattice roof, dormer windows and engraved farm tools and animals on the walls. It is based on my grandfather's farmhouse and on the barn in the mobile game "Hay Day".

Overview

Make a working box that reminds me of my grandfather's farmhouse and uses as many joinery and laser-cutting techniques as I could fit. The requirements:

Incorporate at least 5 different joint types
Use at least 4 fastening methods
Manufacture from a single piece of 1/4" plywood, 18" × 24"
Include personal design elements that reflect the farm's character

Design

Concept

The first sketches worked out which parts of a barn would carry over to a box: roof angle, window placement, where the farm imagery would go, where the joints would sit and how the box would open.

Pencil sketch of the barn with a weather vane, dormer window and a 'Tools' sign above the double doors — Concept sketch of the barn's proportions and features.

Annotated sketch of the barn labelling where each joint and fastener goes: rabbet joint, box joint, mortise and tenon, dowel, nails, screws, glue and tape — Planning sketch mapping each joint and fastener to a location.

Prototyping

Cardboard prototype of the barn with a slatted roof and cut-out windows on a workshop table — The cardboard prototype used to check proportions, joint fit and the opening mechanism.

The cardboard prototype settled the box proportions, let me test the joint placements and fit, checked the opening mechanism, and gave me the assembly order. It also turned up more ideas for patterns and details to include.

CAD

CAD render of the barn from the front-left showing the orange lower roof, gray upper roof, windows and door — The CAD model from the front.

CAD render of the barn from the front-right with the dormer, weather vane and 'Kilan's Farm' sign — The CAD model from the opposite corner, with the dormer and sign.

The CAD model set the exact joint dimensions and compensated for the plywood thickness. The roof is modelled flat: the curve of the lattice hinge depends on the material and could not be predicted accurately in CAD.

Build

Laser cutting

Epilog laser cutter bed with the nested barn parts cut and engraved into a plywood sheet — All the parts nested onto the single 18" × 24" sheet on the laser cutter.

The parts were nested onto the sheet to waste as little plywood as possible, and the decorative engravings were added to the cut file in Adobe Illustrator.

Roof assembly

Hand holding the barn while a hammer drives small nails through the lattice roof into the body — Nailing the lattice roof to the body after soaking and clamping it into its curve.

Problem: The straight lattice roof needed the right slot spacing to bend, careful alignment, and a way to fix it to the body that did not spoil the look.

Fix: I looked up lattice hinge spacing, found values that worked for this plywood, and nailed the roof down. Nails held far better than glue and were less visible than the other fastening options. To set the curve I sprayed the hinge with water and clamped it to the body overnight.

Fitting the sheet

Monitor showing the barn parts nested in Adobe Illustrator for the laser cutter — Nesting the parts in Adobe Illustrator to fit the sheet.

Problem: Every part had to fit on one 18" × 24" sheet with the grain running the right way for strength.

Fix: I exported the parts and nested them in Adobe Illustrator. The first layout did not fit, so I scaled the whole barn down. That was quick because every dimension in the CAD was driven by equations.

Joint selection

Close-up of the 'Kilan's Farm' sign fitted into the barn wall with a mortise-and-tenon joint next to a box-jointed corner — The farm sign, added specifically to include a mortise-and-tenon joint.

Problem: I needed at least five joint types and four fasteners without making the box weak or hard to assemble.

Fix: I picked each joint for where it sits and what it has to do, and added parts specifically to carry a joint, such as the mortise-and-tenon sign. The final list:

Joints

Box joint (front corners of barn)
Half lap joint (window frame)
Basic butt joint (back side of barn)
Mortise and tenon joint (barn name sign)
Straight lattice joint (curved barn roof)
Hinge (door opening)

Fasteners

Wood glue (everywhere)
Screws (back left barn wall and hinges on door)
Nails (roof attachment)
Tape and rivet (wind vane attachment)

Assembly

Barn body standing on cardboard with the roof and walls dry-fitted together — Body and roof standing on the cutting mat.

Sanding the plywood roof panel by hand on the assembled barn — Sanding the roof panels.

Four barn walls joined at the corners with loose window frames beside them — Walls joined, with the window frames waiting.

Barn walls with window openings and small plywood offcuts scattered on the table — Fitting the window cut-outs.

Barn walls being glued with a bottle of Titebond wood glue in the foreground — Gluing the wall joints.

Digital caliper, screwdriver and an engraved horse silhouette panel on the workbench — Caliper, screwdriver and the horse engraving.

Attaching the roof to the barn with a roll of tape in hand — Test-fitting the roof.

Nearly finished barn with the 'Kilan's Farm' sign fitted, wood glue and pliers beside it — Fitting the sign and dormers.

Barn on the workbench next to a pile of leftover plywood offcuts from the sheet — Leftover offcuts from the single sheet.

Barn shell with loose parts and paper towel on the table during assembly — Walls assembled, with loose parts still on the table.

Freshly cut plywood sheet with the barn parts still in the frame, pieces piled on top — Parts straight off the laser cutter.

Workshop table covered with cut plywood parts, glue, pliers and the partly assembled barn — The workspace mid-build.

Results

The finished box is a barn with windows, a curved slatted roof and a working door. The walls carry engraved farm tools and animal silhouettes, six joint types and four fasteners hold it together, and everything came from the one sheet.

Finished barn from the front-left with engraved farm tools beside the door and the 'Kilan's Farm' sign — The front, with the tool engraving and sign.

Finished barn from the side showing the slatted lattice roof, dormer windows and engraved animal silhouettes — The side, with the lattice roof and dormers.

Finished barn from the back-right with engraved farm animals along the lower wall — The rear corner, with the animal engraving.

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What I learned

I came out of it comfortable with CAD-to-laser file preparation, kerf compensation, and choosing joints and fasteners for a job. Two things stood out: driving every CAD dimension by equations, which made scaling the whole barn down to fit the sheet a quick change, and testing fasteners instead of assuming, since nails held the lattice roof far better than glue.