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A toybox I made for my daughterl from salvaged 100 yr. old doors (all southern yellow longleaf pine-the most amazing wood and gone from the forests now)

There were ~5 doors in my old neighbor's house sitting up in her attic since the house was built around the early 1900's. You can see the large dowels that were used to hold the doors together in the photo where it is all ripped and planed back down into stock. In fact, all the floors/doors/trim in these houses (including mine) are made out of southern yellow longleaf pine-If you cant' tell from all my projects, I really enjoy the challenge and satisfaction of using reclaimed wood for all my projects. Not only is it beautiful, but it's FREE.

During the building, all the panels were joined together with dowels and then glued. I intentionally put all of the revealed dowels on the inside of the box, so you see them when it's opened, but can't see any of them when closed. Cut the scrollwork with a jigsaw and then put in a floating bottom held in by two pieces of trim with brass screws. Finally, the child safe hinges. Oh right, and because I knew people would be sitting on it, I put in an additional support for the top lid on the sides of the box, so as to take some of the weight off the front and back.

I intentionally didn't make this a cutesy kid's toybox so that as my daughter grows up, she can keep this and use it as a hope chest or something like that. I hope she'll like it and always want to keep it. :)

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Comments

· Registered
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1,575 Posts
Nice Build!! I've got a hunch your Daughter will be holding onto this!!
 

· Premium Member
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11,639 Posts
Man! that's clean for a reclaimed piece. The tone of the wood speaks to its history, though. a very attractive piece.
 

· Registered
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581 Posts
Very nice design and huge score on the wood! It will be an heirloom for sure!!
 
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