Upcycled Mailbox – A Storage Cubby for our Vegetable Garden!

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!

This Month’s DIY Blop Hop: GARDEN OR YARD PROJECTS! (Click here for our upcoming themes and more info on how to join us every month!)

Chas from Chas’ Crazy Creations – DIY Garden Sphere with Video

Amy from Health, Home, and Heart – DIY Mud Kitchen

Allison from Darling and Dapper Life – Outdoor Herb Garden Chest of Drawers

Mary from Life at Bella Terra – How to Build a Garden Obelisk

Niky from The House on Silverado – DIY Garden Bench Makeover