This sweet little chest was inspired by a wonderful piece of flannel remnant fabric we discovered at a local fabric store.  It wasn’t a very large remnant, but it was too lovely to cut up.  So on a recent trip to a regional lumber yard we made sure to collect enough pieces of walnut together to build a chest to fit the dimensions of the fabric!  The corners are mitre-joined with biscuits, and the bottom is nested into rabbets made on the interior perimeter of the sides.  The top is one solid piece of beautiful walnut.  A simple construction, all in all, so that we could focus our energies on the decorative aspects.  With the walnut as a match to the brown of the flannel, we needed a little pink to finish off the exterior.  So we used tulip poplar to make four square feet, eight square corner brackets, and two square inlays for the lid, all to carry the pink squares of the interior over to the exterior.  These we painted with multiple coats of a blend of acrylic paints to match the fabric, and the entire piece was finished in multiple coats of a water based, semi-gloss topcoat.  The interior is ‘quilted’ with a double layer of batting and the wonderfully soft piece of flannel, all held in place with antique bronze-colored upholstery tacks.  Wow is this thing cute!

 

The chest is compact but solid and heavy.  On the outside, it measures approximately 21” long x 13” tall (including the feet) x 9 1/2” wide.  The inside dimensions are approximately 19” long x 9” tall x 7 1/2” wide.  Because of its weight and dimensions, a dual-layer of box and packing materials are required, so there are extra costs for shipping.