Practical toy storage is one thing — but a toy box personalized with your child’s name and personality is so much more fun!
Welcome to the world of personalized wooden toy boxes! With all kinds of colors, styles, and designs to choose from — it’s both exciting and overwhelming at the same time.
Today, I’ll walk you through your options — and help you confidently choose the best custom toy chest for your family. Whatever your design preference, whatever your budget.
Knowledge is power! Let’s jump right in!
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In a hurry?
Here’s your fast-track to find the perfect personalized wooden toy box. After reviewing the wide variety of styles, colors, and personalization options — here are my top picks:
- Hollow Woodworks – Best Natural Wood Toy Box
Shop on Etsy - Dibsies Personalization Station – Best Budget Toy Box
Shop on Amazon & Etsy - Country Barn Babe – Best Custom Engraved Toy Chest
Shop on Amazon & Etsy - Do It Yourself (Buy a non-personalized toy box, and decorate it yourself)
1. Hollow Woodworks – Best Natural Wood Toy Box
Available on Etsy
- Price: $$$$ (Pretty pricey)
- Size: L 32”, W 16”, H 16”
- Personalization: Box color, Letter color, Engraving under lid
- Wood: Maple
Located in Missouri, Hollow Woodworks is a long-standing maker of children’s stools, chairs, step ladders — each with a personalized name puzzle built right into the seat.
Hollow Woodwork’s toy box is handmade with natural maple wood and decorated custom-cut wooden letters to spell your child’s name.
Compared to other companies’ wood composite toy boxes decorated with vinyl decals — you’re getting a much higher quality piece of furniture. Real wood materials and in-house craftsmanship come with a price. Hollow Woodworks toy boxes cost 2 to 3 times more than their Dibsies’ and KidKraft’s (below) wood composite toy boxes.
The shopping experience is like this — you can choose the tox paint color or finish — and the letter colors. They only offer one font type, but that’s to mitigate production cost and give you the best value for your buck.
Another plus — no assembly required. The toy box comes shipped fully assembled, so all you need to do is pull it out of the box and pack in the toys.
→ See more from Hollow Woodworks (Etsy).
→ See more toys from Missouri.
2. Dibsies Personalization Station – Best Budget Toy Box
- Price: $$ (Affordable)
- Size: L 30-33”, W 18”, H 16-19”
- Personalization: Box color, Letters color, Font, Decals
- Wood: Composite wood
Located in Cincinnati, Ohio — Dibsies is the most popular bespoke toy box personalization service in America. Where they excel is letting you pick out designs to match your little one’s personality, hobbies, and interests.
The shopping experience is like this — you sift through Dibsie’s toy box collection, and pick out the one with your favorite color and construction. Next, you pick a decal and a font. After you spell out your child’s name — viola! You’ve got a personalized toy box.
The box includes a child-safe closure with safety lid supports — which you know is a key safety feature if you’ve ever dealt with smashed fingers before.
My best guess is Dibsies sources wholesale toy boxes from some manufacturer — so I can’t confirm whether or not the toy box itself is made in the USA. However, all the detailing and customization take place in Ohio.
The toy box is made from wood composite — which is the industry standard for light and durable and affordable large wood kids furniture. Basically, wood composite is a combination of different synthetic materials that are processed to give the appearance of wood. So, it leaves a greater carbon footprint than natural wood.
And if you don’t like any of the decal themes you can choose from, then you can just order the toy box with the name — for a slightly lower price.
One thing to watch out for is shipping. Typically Dibsies only ships to the 48 contiguous states. If you’re in Alaska, Hawaii, or outside the United States — you will have to pay more for shipping — or your order may even be canceled.
Dibsies Custom Toy Box For Boys
For boys, Dibsies offers decals like dinosaurs, sports balls, or “transportation town” — and toy box colors in espresso brown and dovetail grey.
Whatever theme you pick out for your little guy comes with custom font choices to fit — like varsity letters for the sports theme, and a font that looks like Jurassic Park for the dinosaur theme.
Dibsies Custom Toy Box For Girls
Dibsies toy box design specialists are no strangers to the whimsical side of a little girl’s imagination. With princesses, unicorns, and baby elephants themed decals, and toy boxes in feminine shades of pink, grey, and brown — you’re sure to find a setup your little princess will adore.
With fonts to fit — like a curly magical script or a refined princess print — it’s like the cherry on top that makes your little gal’s toy box fit for a princess.
→ See more toys from Dibsies (Amazon & Etsy).
→ See more toys from Ohio.
3. Country Barn Babe – Best Custom Engraved Toy Chest
- Price: $$$ (Average)
- Size: L 10-23”, W 8-13”, H 8-13”
- Personalization: Box style, Box color, Front engraving, Lid engraving
- Wood: Composite wood
For a rustic-look with your child’s name engraved into the front of the toy chest, Country Barn Babe is your go-to shop!
Made in Georgia — the vintage feel means they double as a functional playroom piece while your child is young and as well as a memorable keepsake box as your child grows older.
Made from pine wood, and finished with child-safe non-toxic paints and stains — you’ll find kids’ wooden treasure boxes in all sizes, shapes, and styles.
Country Barn Babe’s specialty lies in their masterful engraving techniques. Too often, you’ll find wood engravers have a limited selection of unexciting fonts. On the contrary, Country Barn Babe doesn’t limit you to fonts at all.
Whatever style or design you want engraved — they’ll take your idea and make it into reality! For certain toy chests, you have the option to paint-fill the engraved area to make the letters stand out even more.
All of their newly-built vintage-style wooden toy chests come with full-front engraving. Optionally, you can engrave a custom message or design underneath the lid. What quote, memory, or aspiration do you want your little one to remember? Now that’s a message worth engraving!
Most of their larger treasure boxes come with a slow-closing safety hinge under the lid — an important add-on to keep children’s fingers from getting smashed.
→ Check out Country Barn Babe’s shop (Amazon & Etsy).
→ See more toys from Georgia.
Do It Yourself Toy Box Personalization (Simple & Affordable)
The most affordable way to personalize a toy box is to do it yourself. Before you shy away from the idea — let me reassure you it’s much simpler than you think. With a tiny bit of elbow grease and creative ingenuity, you’ll have a DIY toy box your kid will love (and your wallet, too)!
No, you don’t have to make a toy box from scratch. It’s as easy as sticking a sticker onto a surface.
The idea is simple and straightforward. You buy a non-personalized toy box, order custom vinyl decals, and stick the decals on yourself. It’s basically the same process Dibsies does in their own workshop — you just do it at home.
And by doing it yourself, you have complete freedom to personalize every aspect of your kid’s toy box. What design do you want? What colors and fonts? How big should the design be? Where you want to place the design on the toy box? It’s all up to you!
Most Popular Toy Boxes To Decorate Yourself
Intrigued by the idea of the simple-and-easy DIY wooden toy box? Here are two toy boxes I’d recommend for your project.
KidKraft Austin Wooden Toy Box (Amazon) – An affordable, sturdy, and safety-equipped wooden toy box — available in 9 attractive colors. If you want a solid color painted look — check this one out. With wheels and other fancy upgrades, KidKraft’s limited edition wooden toy box (Amazon) is worth a peak, too.
Melissa & Doug Wooden Toy Chest (Amazon: White, Espresso, Honey) – From one of America’s favorite toy brands, this toy box is comparable to the Kidkraft. It’s slightly pricier, but if you like the style and the colors available more — go for it!
One caveat here — both KidKraft and Melissa & Doug’s products are made overseas. If you prefer a wooden toy box made in the USA, I’d recommend Little Colorado (Amazon & Etsy).
→ See more kids’ furniture from KidKraft (Amazon) and Melissa & Doug (Amazon).
Where To Buy Custom Toy Box Decals
The two places I’d recommend for awesome custom name decals for your toy box are Tweet Heart based in Utah (Etsy) and Elite Vinyls based in Missouri (Etsy).
The world of custom decals is vast and diverse — but these two companies both specialize in name decals specifically for toy boxes. And when the company and customer speak the same language, you’re bound to get a better result.
→ Discover more toy box decals (Etsy).
→ Discover wooden toys from Utah and Missouri.
Custom Toy Box Shopping 101: What To Look For
To set you up for success — here are the most common things you’ll come across when shopping for a personalized wooden toy box.
Wood Type
To be perfectly honest, I was a little bit hesitant to recommend toy boxes made of wood composite and MDF (medium-density fiberboard), because they’re not bona fide natural wood.
However, I understand many families (like mine) aren’t made of money.
Higher cost materials mean a higher cost product — and the fact is, wood composite and MDF toy boxes are far less expensive than their maple and pine cousins. Do opt for real wood if your family has the means, but don’t feel bad about choosing a toy box within your budget.
Shipping & Assembly
Toy boxes are hefty items, so it’s no wonder shipping has its limitations. Before you buy, watch out for hidden shipping costs. Scoring free shipping on a bulky item like this can mean a big difference in the price you pay out of pocket. For example, Hollow Woodworks’ toy boxes are on the pricey side — but they ship free!
Also note, many of the companies I listed in this post will only ship to the contiguous 48 states — or charge a premium if you’re outside those boundaries.
Since some of us are handier than others — do note that some toy boxes ship unassembled — meaning you’ll be left with an instruction manual and whatever tools you have lying around the house to put the thing together.
These are just two things to keep in mind before you get out your credit card.
Personalization Options
I’m sure you’ve noticed — there are all kinds of different ways to get your toy box personalized.
For natural wood toy boxes, choosing the toy box color and letter colors is the most common option — and that can mean paint to cover the wood or stains to shade the wood while keeping the natural wood grains visible. Engraving into the front of the wood or underneath the lid is another less-common option.
For composite wood toy boxes, you’re typically buying a pre-made toy box and adding custom decals onto it. That means you’re limited to the colors and decal types the shop offers.
Safety & Add-Ons
Safety should always be a parent’s top concern. The number one toy box safety feature to look for is a child-safe hinge mechanism. If the lid were free-moving, you can imagine how fast the lid would close, and therefore risk pinching or smashing your child’s finger. Especially for large toy boxes, the slow-closing safety hinge is a must-have.
In general, look for a toy box with smooth rounded corners and edges to avoid accidental bumps and bruises. Since kids sit on, climb on, and jump off toy boxes in routine play — sharp edges are a no-no.
Finally — and this is one of those things you might never think of — look for a toy box with ventilated holes in the side. Not only do those serve as convenient handles for parents to lug the box around. But just imagine when your child climbs inside the toy box, or when your older child puts your younger child inside. Having those ventilated holes can be a breath of fresh air — quite literally.
Over to you!
Phew! There’s a lot more to personalized wooden toy boxes than most people think!
But remember — with a little personalization, life’s a lot more fun!
I’d love to hear all about your shopping experience, or answer any questions you have. Let me know in the comments below!
