Toy Chest

This toy chest, made from red oak plywood, was a present for my nephew’s first Christmas. I started with a full sheet or 3/4 oak ply, dadoed the front and back panels and decided to try a sort of “cheater” through mortise and tenon joint (first pic). This proved to be difficult due to the splintery nature of the plywood. I ended up getting a pretty tight joint with almost no nails, which was what I wanted. I then capped the exposed plywood tenons with solid oak and used banding for the top edge and sides of the lid. For the corners (second pic), I decided to use solid oak instead of edge banding because I had a little more control and could make it look a little cleaner. For the finish i used Miniwax walnut stain and 2 coats of low luster poly. Three would have be much better but I ran out of time. The hinges are simple butt hinges and I’ve added a soft-down flap stay for safety.

There are definitely a few things I would do differently next time but I’m still pretty happy with it. No complaints from my nephew… so far.

-- Blair