In similar fashion to the Making Half an Owl Cage post, we wanted the cart going through Platform 9¾ to also have a Hogwarts trunk on it.  Of course, since it would be half-way through the barrier, it would need to only be half a trunk.

But how to make half of a Hogwarts trunk?

First we found a trunk at our local swap meet.  It was inexpensive (just the thing if it was to be cut in half).

I measured the distance on the trunk where we would cut it—no use painting the part we would cut off.

Then, at our Community Painting Day Thuha and Alan set to work, carefully converting the drab trunk into a Gryffindor colored one by adding maroon paint but leaving the edging and hardware their original colors.

After that, it was time to cut the trunk, but how?  Well, since there were metal strips across the area that needed to be cut, I decided against using power tools and instead opted for the old fashioned saw.  I used a regular wood saw for most of it and a hacksaw for the metal parts.

Here is a picture of how the trunk will be oriented on the cart.  We will push this up against our faux brick wall (and add the owl cage) so that people can take pictures pushing the cart ‘through’ the barrier.