In the expectation that this chest would get beat up over the years as my sons "love" it through use, I elected to keep it fairly simple. Therefore, it's mostly just a plywood box. However, on the off chance that the chest might actually survive cildhood in nice shape, I also sized it to be similar to a blanket chest; It's tall enough and wide enough to look good at the foot of a bed.
I looked for a nice piece of maple veneered plywood for the carcass. (Yeah it's rotary cut, isn't most veneer plywood these days?) The legs are from solid cherry -- 1" thick pieces, glued together into a "V" to wrap around the corners of the box. One very practical result of attaching legs on the outside is that they nicely hide the edges of the plywood which would otherwise be visible at the corners. For visual interest, I cut the legs at an angle -- a fairly short angle at the top, and a longer gentler angle towards the bottom. I think this makes a rather large box of a chest look a bit less boxy.
Only the first coat of Behr's Tung Oil has been applied
at the time of the first photo. The lid is not yet attached
and is not visible.