I knew this was coming up a while ago, and I couldn’t be any happier than I am with how this came out. This past weekend, the hope chest for my niece Katie achieved the state of substantially complete, and I think it came out looking pretty darned nice.

As I had mentioned before, it is a simple cherry frame and panel chest that I hope she will love once it is at her house and assembled. Yes, that’s the reason why I went frame and panel – so I can flat pack it and ship it off to her dad so he can do the final assembly at their house.

Before I could get the finish on it, though, I had to enlist a little help from Dominic and Steven with the sanding. Those guys, they can do their magic. Rhonda managed to snap these blurry shots of them moving a lightning speed as they sanded away.

I wanted this chest to be all about the little details. For instance, in order to ensure there wouldn’t be any cupping or warping of the top, I could have gone with a batten, but I thought that a breadboard edge would look more classic. I dunno, it does give a lot of personality to the piece.

As with many of the other pieces I have built, I like to inlay a penny from the year the piece was built, And, one day after buying lunch, I finally saw one … a 2015 freshly minted baby that just had to go into the piece. I dunno, it’s a nice look in the middle of the underside of the lid, so she will always know what year the piece was built for her.

And, as I had mentioned, there is an inlay of a heart. Well, here’s the story. When Katie, her sister and her brother moved into their home in Maryland, there were three trees in the front of their home. Each child had his or her tree to call their own. It turns out, though, that Katie’s tree was planted too close to the driveway, and it had to be cut down. She was crushed.

Well, her dad thought ahead and had a chunk of the tree saved for some project in the future for Katie. Of course, with just a single round of tree, what could he do? Once I started the tradition of building the hope chests, Larry knew where it could go.

Since the inlay is some type of pear and the main field is cherry, the inlay will stand out more over the years as the cherry darkens with exposure to light.

The only things left to do are to finish the drilling the holes for the hinges, then pack the piece up and ship it off. I can only hope that she enjoys it for years to come.