Christening Gift - Toy Chest

The other day I was looking through some photos I'd taken a few years back and happened to come accross the photos of the christening gift I made for my brothers second son, my nephew Anton.

This gift is one of my favorite homemade gifts and if it wasn't such a time consuming project I would have made more of them. Perhaps I should mention that this one is actually the second of its kind. My first nephew August also got one - but of course it looked quite different to this one. I never did take any photos if that one to my greatest regret.

But here is Anton's homemade Toy Chest.

I got great help from my sister with the painting of the wicker basket. That was the most time consuming. I could have used spray paint, but couldn't get the exact colour I wanted. I easily took the wicker basket apart as it was gathered with plastic screws (these I afterwards replaced with proper ones) and this made it easier to paint it with a good paint brush.

The toy chest is based on this wicker basket bought in IKEA (L: 68 cm, W: 34 cm, H: 34cm). I honestly don't know if IKEA still sells them.

The chest was filled up with other gifts from my parents, my sister and me as you can see below. I also made a couple of embroidery strips which my mother used to make homemade baby bibs with and I made three baby clothes hangers as well. If you look closely you can see them in the chest. My mother also sewed a set of baby linen for Anton. 

For the lid I sawed out a piece of fibreboard (træfiberplade/sponplade) approx. 1,5 - 2 cm thick. My father always has something usable lying around in the barn at my parents place, so I just have to make a request and... wupti... we find something which can by used. I did though have to go out and buy the hinge. Here in Denmark we call this type of hinge a "piano hinge" (klaverhængsel) and it can be found in different lengths. The good thing about this hinge is that it is very slim, so it doesn't take up much space when the chest is closed.


The top and bottom of the lid I decorated with rub-ons and die cut letters and figures from the Déjá Views "Little Ones" Collection. I used a Sailor Freshly Picked Pastel Collection pen to make the dots illustrating the route of the plane and the waves for the boat. The colour was "warm cream". To protect the decoration and the paint on the wicher basket I gave the whole chest some varnish. For the wicker basket I used varnish in a spray can, but the lid I painted very carefully with varnish. I gave it several thin layers. Wanted to be absolutely sure the chest could withhold the rough life in a childs room.

Well, hope you enjoy my little tour-de-toy-chest project. I know I haven't given you a very detailed decription of how I made this toy chest, so feel free to ask my any question you might have.

By the way, the photo here to the right is of the giftcard my sister and I made. It is not a folded card therefore the greeting is written on the back, which made it possible for us to laminate the giftcard. To this day the giftcard still hangs on the toy chest, which I can't deny amazes me.