Mr Post Man! Mail Holder Tutorial, Guest
We have a problem in our home when it comes to the mail. We bring it in every day, but we don’t always have time to look at it right away. It ends up piling up on the kitchen table or on the counters.
And it drives.me.crazy!
Solution? A wall mounted mail holder!
Here’s a little background on how this mail holder came to be. I was perusing Pam’s blog, Sallygoodin, and was completely facinated with this post about various things made from old pallets.
I looked outside and what to my wondering eyes should appear??
4 pallets in my very own backyard!
I promptly demanded begged the hubs to pry apart some of these boards with me so I could start creating. But those darn nails in these old pallets were not going to let go of these boards so easily! The wood just splintered off into pieces.
Sooooo, the hubs used an electric saw to cut pieces of the boards off. So much for making super fun things with these long pieces of boards! But that’s okay, my little mail holder only needs to be 12 inches wide which turned out to be PERFECT with this wood.
I designed it. Hubs built it. We make a great team. 😉
I love the old wood, but I really wanted it to blend in with the furniture in my kitchen a little better. We haveBroyhill’s Attic Heirlooms furniture in the eating area in our kitchen. Its fabulous farmhouse style furniture that is distressed. Its GREAT! My son will never be able to hurt it, because what is another mark in already distressed wood?
This is the bench we have from this set to give an idea of the distress on the wood.
So, I needed to distress the mail holder because right now its silky smooth…
I attacked with this nail first…
I gouged and scraped. Mostly superficial, but some a little deeper.
Then I went at it with this…
The hubs wasn’t around for me to ask what it was. But it made some fabulous deep gouges in the wood!
(Example of fabulous deep gouge.)
Finally, I attacked the wood with this little hammer. Isn’t it cute?
Great! Now I’m ready to paint. I was pretty sure that I wanted to paint it black, but then I had an epiphany. Seriously, a craft epiphany!
But where is it?
I’m pretty sure hubs hid it back in this corner somewhere. I think my obsession with it scares him. (As it should!)
Oh, look! There it is! Yep, he totally hid it from me. Good thing I don’t give up easily!
2 coats of paint later and hubs had it hanging on the kitchen wall.
And an action shot…
I couldn’t be happier with it!
Now, my question to you is, isn’t there a dustless type of chalk? If so, where can I find some??
I think this is such a fun idea? What are your thoughts?
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>Hi martha
I love this idea, blackboard this and blackboard that is so in right now!!!
I want to make mini blackboard labels for wire baskets and so on 🙂
Thank you for stopping by, your always invited 🙂
xx
Dore
>I love it – great idea! You could even make small ones to go outside the children's bedrooms for when you want to leave them notes or items that belong in their rooms, and the kids could personalize them with the chalk. So cool!
>There actually IS a dustless chalk! 😉 They sell chalkboard pens (look like a marker)at places like Joanns and Michaels. I just picked up a pack this weekend!!
>I LOVE THIS and MUST have it because I cannot stand the mail piling up on my kitchen counter.
And dustless chalk pens? Brilliant!
>Very cute! We have the same problem, but mostly with magazines. Since I had our second…I'm steadily about 4 months behind on magazines… I'm starting to enjoy blogs so much more though, I'm thinking about canceling my subscriptions. (except MARTHA of course!)
http://www.thatredheadedstepchild.com
>Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for featuring my mail holder!! I'm beyond thrilled! 🙂
>WOW! Great work Michelle!!!