My son's birthday is coming up and as you might have guessed, the theme of the party is pirates. So for the party I decided to build a lockable treasure chest that will hold the birthday booty.

My wonderful wife has created a treasure hunt that will take the kids around the yard and the "X" that marks the spot will the the treasure chest that I have built.

I was even able to find on e-bay a working replica period pad lock.

Step 1: Starting the With the Base.

I do not have a list of materials, but I will give a general list of the items used to build the treasure chest throughout the instructable.

The treasure chest bottom box is 16" wide x 12" deep x 10" tall.

I began building the side frame.   I split a 2x4 down the middle. So now I have 2 pieces that measure 1.5"x 1.75".   Out of the wood that I split I cut 4 pieces each 9.25" long. These will be the legs of the framing.

I cut a 1"x4" board to go between the 2 legs this will make up one side of the framing.   I made 2 side pieces and they look like the letter H.   the width of "H" from outside to outside is 12".

I attached the bottom plate to the "H" side frames. The bottom plate was made from 3/4" plywood left over from another project.

I skinned the side of the chest with 1/4" luaun plywood. and the front and back with 1/2 cut log siding waste from a construction job site.

I used trim nails to attach every piece to the side framing.

Step 2: Now the Top

Once the bottom was done I put it to the side.

I used 1/2" plywood and free hand drew the top's sides. I used 1/2" so that I would have enough material to finish nail into the narrow edges.

I attached 1"x4" boards on the front and back of the lid to the plywood sides.

Then I ripped 1"x4" boards down the middle of the board to make the top of the lid. The reason I ripped the boards was 1. for better size proportions for the entire box size and 2. the smaller the board the better fit you get when following the radius of the lid top.

Step 3: Finishing Touches

So now to put the finishing touches.   I stained the inside and outside of the chest with a minwax stain. The color is 'Red Oak'. I applied the stain with a cloth rag.

After everything was dry, I attached 2 - 3" strap latch for the lid hinges. For the locking mechanism I used a clasp.

The pad lock is a replica working pirate lock that I found on ebay.

The whole project took about 4 hours to build.

I can't wait for the party.