Colourful little library brightening up Whangārei suburb

Brigid Sinclair doesn't just have the most colourful house in Whangārei's Morningside, she also has the most colourful fridge and library. Photo / Tania Whyte

Whangārei's Brigid Sinclair is proud to have the most colourful house in Morningside and now she's also probably got the suburb's - if not the city's - most colourful fridge and library.

Sinclair, who has painted her Morningside Rd home into a colourful celebration, has now got a bright addition to her property - a donated fridge she has painted up to become a colourful, and waterproof, 'Little Free Library'.

The library, or is it a fridge? - is filled with books so the community can share their reading material, and discover new books and authors.

Little Free Libraries - also known as Lilliput Libraries - have been around for a few years, with several already in Whangārei, and Sinclair said she came up with the idea of creating one during the first Covid lockdown.

''A lot of people were complaining that they couldn't go to the library. So I got some old shelving and put one up, and covered it with plastic. But that wasn't waterproof so I thought about using a fridge instead,'' she said.

''So I asked online and somebody had one so I decided to paint it and use that instead. It's been popular and I'm looking at putting a bench seat up beside it so people can have a sit down and read if they want to.''

The Little Free Library is just along Morningside Rd from its Pataka Kai free food bank and Sinclair said the aim was to add to the community wellbeing.

She said most of the books in the fridge/library are adult fiction, but more kids books and non-fiction are getting added every day.

Brigid Sinclair's free library on Morningside RD, Whangārei, is actually a fridge. Photo / Tania Whyte

''We initially had people taking books and not bringing them back or bringing others to exchange, but I'm getting a lot of books now and more are coming in. If we get too many for it I'll store the rest until there's space in the library for them.

''It's all about bringing something good into the community up here.''

Sinclair said gardening books are particularly popular, along with women's fiction and action thrillers.

''But the aim is to have something in there for everybody so they can find the right book for them - and the library will add a bit of colour to their day.''

She said she could have left the fridge as it was for the library, but it was in her nature to add colour - and it complemented her colourful abode.

''I could have left is as one boring colour but ...''

The Little Free Library movement started in the US and there are now more than 100,000 of them across the globe. For more details check out https://littlefreelibrary.org .