Before and After- Mailbox Spiffer-Upper
Our house was born one hundred and ten years ago with cuteness infused into its soul. It lived hapilly adorable for 59 years before something horrible happened. I’m talking about The Sixties. A lot of the cuteness got replaced with flimsy wood paneling. Then The Seventies, The Eighties, and the ugliest parts of The Nineties happened and a little more cuteness got replaced with side-opening aluminum windows, florescent box lighting, and cloudy-day-colored vinyl siding. So we’ve got a lot of re-cutification to do! Some ugly bits I can live with temporarily. Like the carpet . . . we’re just gonna have to deal with that one for a while. But the sad, sad porch and it’s even sadder mailbox had to be put right asap. The poor mailman has had to see that every single day for who knows how long. Read on for a How-To at the end of the post!
Ooh-la-la so official and fancy!
BEFORE- Dusty, lidless, crooked, and cheap looking- blegh!
How did I do it? Although it took me a while to figure out the best way to get the lid to attach, this project actually cost me $0!!! Pretty fancy for zero bucks, huh? I used materials that I just had laying around, but you could certainly purchase everything you need for under $15- minus the mailbox.
1.) Remove all ugly bits from your mailbox. The fleur-de-lis just popped right off with a knife. Measure the widest part of the mailbox and cut molding(s) to size. I used baseboard molding that had fallen off, plus added some cute scalloped molding left over from another project.
2.) Paint your molding, and spray paint the mail box if necessary.
3.) Embellish the front of your mailbox using wood bits (from Michaels) and E6000 glue. I happened to have some vintage 3D sign letters laying around, which I spray painted black.
4.) Attach a small brass hinge to the back of the mailbox lid. Double check that it will open in the right direction. Then attach the rest of the hinge directly to the inside of the back of the mailbox. Hang your mailbox and voila- postal cuteness!
HMPH! MAKES ME MISS YOU GUYS EVEN MORE!
It’s even cuter in person . . .
Very nice . . .