I wanted to create something for my grandkids to keep toys handy for when they visit. At the same time, I didn’t want something obtrusive and obnoxious taking up space that was only needed occasionally. My solution was to construct a toybox that is also a small window seat tat can sit nicely and permanently in living room
Materials:
- 1 4×8 sheet of plywood (I used Blondewood 1/2-in Whitewood Plywood, Application as 4 x 8 at Lowes)
- Three 36×14 rectangles (Top, bottom and back)
- Three 14×14 squares (left and right side, middle support)
- four 11X13 rectangles (drawer sides)
- four 11×16 1/2 rectangles (drawer faces and backs)
- two 11×16 1/2 rectangle (drawer bottoms)
- Titebond II glue
- 1×2 walnut
- I used rough sawn lumber planed down to a common thickness, sawn to a common width
- I have 4 pieces at 18 inches (for legs)
- I have 14 pieces at 16 inches (for tops, sides, and drawer faces)
- I have 3 pieces that are 14.4 inches (for the top sides and middle)
- I have 7 pieces that are 14 inches (for upright pieces back and on the drawer sides)
- I have 4 pieces that are 10 1/2 inches (for horizontal pieces on the sides)
- Antique Oil Finish
- 2 14″drawer slides
- 2 drawer pulls
I cut three rectangles (top, bottom, and back) from the plywood. I cut three squares for sides and middle support). I used a stacking dado to cut a 1/2 inch rabbit joint the perimeter (absent the front) of the top and bottom and the sides of the back piece. All three pieces were dadoed at the center.
I assembled the box by gluing and clamping the squares in the dadoed slots for the top and bottom. The back piece fit nicely around the support squares and inside the top and bottom pieces.
The drawers bottoms received the same rabbit joint, but the sides were constructed with 1/2 inch box joints in increase the strength of the joints in anticipation of lots of pulling and pushing on these faces.
I chose to stain the plywood with an antique cherry stain. I have tons of walnut on hand, but no cherry. If I had cherry, I would have made panels for the top, bottom, sides, back, and drawer faces and only used plywood for the drawers sides and backs. The stained plywood is not ideal, but it is acceptable for what I want to achieve.
The walnut pieces are essentially trim to make the box pretty. I did use the 18″ upright pieces as legs. They each have a slight taper going to the floor. Since these were to be the legs as well as trim, i wanted to ensure some strength by fabricating them as stand alone pieces before affixing the to the box. They were glued and nailed into place and then I went about piecing in the rest of the walnut as trim, gluing and clamping as time permitted.
I chose to go with an antique oil finish for the ease of application. I wiped on the oil liberally with a clean cloth, let it rest for a day, and then applied a second coat of oil. After that dried, I installed some drawer pulls with an oil rubbed bronze finish. The only left to do is to upholster some padded seats that will rest in the square inserts on the top of the chest.