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Home › Articles › Fatherhood › Out of the Box

Out of the Box

Building a Unique Homemade Toy Chest

By Mark Stackpole

Pages:  1  2  3  

"This is a project that can be built by someone with the tools, basic skills and level of interest shown on the cable home-fix-up shows, and if the result is a little coarse and clearly not factory-made, it will look even more like its early-American counterpart," says Tom Riley, an aerospace engineer and accomplished woodworker in Baltimore, Md.

Vince Belcher's daughter, Lilyann, is still too young to help her father with tools, but at 13 months old, she has provided her father with a lot of inspiration for his projects. Belcher, from Tampa, Fla., is a member of a woodworking club and really enjoys building things for his little girl. "There is nothing like watching my baby with something I've made, whether it is a toy going into the toy box or pulling her to the table in the highchair I made," says Belcher. "It feels like Christmas morning. I know I've made something that Lily will be able to use for her children and, hopefully, their children. It's a very satisfying feeling."

While Belcher is lucky enough to have some very nice equipment, he believes any set of tools can do the job as long as a few basic needs are addressed. "I do a nicer job on something if I have sharp blades for my saws, fresh sandpaper and good glue," he says. "A sharp blade on a handsaw will make a nicer cut than a dull blade on a compound mitre saw any day." For those woodworkers looking to take his or her tool collection to the next level, Belcher recommends that mitre saw and a good table saw, a basic router, a dovetail jig and a biscuit jointer.

Like many of us, Belcher doesn't have a dedicated workshop but, rather, a garage that must remain functional in addition to being used as a work space. Even with these constraints, Belcher considers a toy chest to be a two-weekend project. "If I shop for materials on Saturday morning, I can have most of my cuts made and basic assembly done by the end of the day Sunday," he says. "By the next Saturday, I need to get a little more sawdust cleaned up, and then I can start finishing."

Of course, children grow up and eventually stop playing with the toys that used to clutter up the living room floor. Once the toys are put away for good, a parent is left with the memories of not just the good times but also of having to clean up after them. A toy chest that you've built with your own hands, assisted by the little hands too soon grown big, is a good place to store not just toys but all of those memories as well.

Given this important opportunity, O'Rourke has a final bit of insight for making the toy box particularly special: Use materials that have some significance to the family.

"People can cut down a tree in their own yard, dry it and use the wood," she says. "Maybe the wood from a stool that the parents had as kids can be used for the toy box. With furniture, you can take something apart and build something new. Remember, it doesn't have to be an antique to be passed down."


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