An Ash Hope Chest Project
Reader Amy Noel received this hall bench as a wedding gift from her father-in-law
I was at a wedding this past weekend and it got me thinking: as wedding gifts go, there is nothing more personal than a shopmade present. After the weekend’s festivities, I reflected on the touching and thoughtful gifts that CHW readers have given.
Recently, Amy Noel of Bridgewater, N.S., told me how her father-in-law Baxter built the hall bench from the February 2007 issue as a wedding gift for her and her husband. “Everyone who comes into our home takes notice of this bench and asks where we got it,” Noel says, “and I love telling them the story of its origin!”
Two years ago, Ron Carr or Ajax, Ont., sent me a picture of the rolltop desk he built his granddaughter. When Carr’s granddaughter was a teenager, she asked her grandfather if he could make her the desk. He said he would if she ever got married. Well, he kept his promise.
Reader Ron Carr made this rolltop desk for his granddaughter on the occasion of her wedding
Reader Ron Carr made this rolltop desk for his granddaughter on the occasion of her wedding
Inspired by these stories, I went looking on the Web for more. Michael Lehikoinen at Antero’s Urban Wood Designs once gave a pendulum clock made of purpleheart and spalted maple as a wedding gift. Roger Yip, long-time CHW photographer, once gave a harvest table for which he had a hard time finding a gift box.
All this brings me to this week’s project plans–a hope chest (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3). Technically, this chest is made in advance of the wedding, but as you can see from all the wedding gifts above that the perfect present can be a very specific piece.
Are you planning to give some of your handiwork as a wedding present this year?
Build this hope chest from the April 1995 issue of CHW
