Brandon's Box

I kind of started a bit of a tradition. Not really intentionally. It just worked out that way.

I made my daughter, Rachel, a hope chest for her 16th birthday. It was a lot of work! But when it was done I was happy with the result and she was very pleased. Today, several years later…married with two children…she still uses that chest as a coffee table in her living room.

Rachel is the youngest of my three children and the only girl.

But a few years later, when her oldest brother, Trent, was recently divorced and staying with us temporarily, I decided it would be nice to surprise him with a hope chest, or more accurately in his case, a “trunk”, handcrafted by his mother. So, I made one for him. It didn’t really turn out as well as I would have liked because I tried to get away with using less heavy-duty materials (I used some pretty thick wood with Rachel’s box and that was part of the reason it was so much work!) And, needless to say, having moved several times in the years since I made it for him, Trent’s box hasn’t held up as well as Rachel’s has.

My middle child, Brandon, who just turned 32 last month, is the only one of my three children I hadn’t made a trunk/chest for. And I was feeling bad about that.

So, this year I decided to change that and made him this chest as a surprise gift for his birthday.

Wanting to make it extra special, I hand-tooled the astrological name and symbol for his birth month, Pisces (for February), and along with a couple of hand-made leather hinges, attached them onto the lid of the box. For extra stability I added a piano hinge the full length of the box and then attached a magnetic latch to make sure it stays completely closed.

I’m pretty happy with the way this box turned out! There are things I could have/should have done differently. But overall, I think it turned out nicely.