This old mailbox was my grandparents for many, many, many years before I came along and used it as long as I could before it was finally time to retire it. I didn’t have the heart to toss it though and its been literally sitting in our flower garden, by our front step, for all the years since. I thought about bringing it in and hanging it on the wall or placing it above one of our hutches as decoration but it was just too big for either of those things. It finally dawned on me where it would be perfect this spring when we started working on the vegetable garden!
(Teaming up in our DIY Blog Hop this month with the outdoor projects, check out all of the projects following my post. If you’re interested in joining us click here for more info!)
Its weird how many years it took me to realize that this mailbox would be perfect for the vegetable garden. I ended up with soggy gloves and a pile of gardening tools just sitting out there all summer long.
I really needed a cubby of some kind for sure!
Our vegetable garden is a good hike from the garage so I knew I would never manage to walk to the garage, get my gardening tools, walk out to the garden and then also manage to get my tools back to the garage only to have to retrieve them daily for the rest of forever.
It was just never going to happen.
I absolutely needed a place in the garden for storage.
First I hand sanded the old mailbox down with sand paper and then steel wool to get the old stickers and grime off of the galvanized steel.
Then I decided to paint the mailbox. This was actually a tough decision for me because for as long as I can remember my grandparents’ always had a steel mailbox at the end of their driveway.
But my garden has been crying out for some color and bright red just felt perfect! (And this certainly is not the last of the additions to the garden this year – we really want to give it some character!)
A couple of coats in Rustoleum’s bright red high gloss spray paint and my Grandparents’ old mailbox looks practically brand new!
It easily stores all of my gardening tools and a couple of extra pairs of gloves too!
What a great idea! A perfect way to keep everything you need in one place. Keep taking pictures “as your garden grows”.
Thanks Marybeth!
I’m all about recycling and upcycling when I can.
This will be great and no more soggy gloves
Thanks Cindy, its working out perfect!
Love this idea and it turned out so cute. Useful is always nice too!
Thanks Amy!
This is such a great idea Tarah. I need something like this in my garden, I get tired of walking back and forth to the shed all of the time. I’m inspired!
Yep this worked out great for me!
This is such a clever idea! I love that it is super useful, and a great way to save a sentimental keepsake from your grandparents’ home!
Niky @ The House on Silverado
Thanks Niky!
I’m absolutely in love with this idea!! I’m such a fan of upcycling something old into a completely different something new and it’s even better when you can incorporate an item with some sentimental history into a daily use item! Love it love it!
Thank you Allison! These are my favorite projects too, something that’s important to me and yet I can use it for real every day!
That’s wonderful you were able to revamp your grandparent’s mailbox. A great idea that serves a new purpose and keeps the memories, too!
Thanks Allyson, its been really working great for us!