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I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for more storage in my house. You can never have enough! What I really wanted was a vintage card catalog, but I couldn’t find any locally. When I posted my search in a local Facebook buy/swap site, a woman sent me a message with a picture of this vintage mailbox cluster. Bingo! Not only was it unique looking, but it was storage! I knew I could somehow repurpose it into something fabulous. I bought it for $75, which was a steal!
After buying it and sitting on ideas for awhile, I decided I wanted to wrap it with wood and give it some fun, pretty legs.
Here’s a before of what the mailbox cluster looked like:
It even came with all 30 keys to each box. The back is completely open, which does make it easier to get things in and out so I don’t have to dig for the right key every time I want to get into a box.
To start, we used 1×4’s and cut them to size. The depth of the mailbox cluster was 14 inches, meaning four 1×4’s side by side fit perfectly (did you know the actual size of a 1×4 is 3/4″x3 1/2″??). We cut the wood to fit on either side of the mailbox cluster to be exact, and so that the ends of the wood pieces are flush with the top and bottom. We cut the top and bottom wood pieces to be a tad longer to cover the ends of the side pieces.
I then stained all wood pieces a dark walnut color. It’s my favorite!
After everything was dry, my hubby drilled a bunch of holes through the wood and the metal sides of the mailbox. There were a couple of holes already in the metal, so he also used those in addition. We used nuts and bolts to secure the side wood pieces onto the mailbox cluster instead of dealing with any messy glue or adhesive. Unfortunately that means some of the boxes have a bolt and nut inside leaving less storage space, but it’s totally worth it!
We used used nails and hammered them right into the tops of the wood sides to attach the top pieces.
I sealed all the wood with a polyurethane. I also covered the screw heads with some wood putty and stained it to match.
Once dry, it was time to attach the pretty legs! I found these hairpin beauties at Osborne Wood. Aren’t they ahhhmaaazing?! They were incredibly easy to attach, too. We just measured where we wanted them, drilled a few holes, and screwed them on! I decided on the flat black, 18″ height legs which was perfect for this piece.
They’re my favorite part of this repurpose! So sleek and sexy.
Yep, I just called table legs sexy.
While the little mailboxes are small and won’t be able to store much, it’ll be perfect for little craft supplies like stickers, paints, brushes, etc.
And since I have all the keys, it will keep little toddler fingers away from anything I put in there. Baby proof!
This was such a fun repurpose project! I’ll be honest, I had my doubts. But once we got the wood on, I was in love. The hairpin legs just sealed the deal. I can’t wait to do more like this, I’m hooked!
Pin it for inspiration:
Have a great rest of the week!
