Artful Mailboxes

In the northeastern U.S., the life of a mailbox can be short; they have to survive snowplows and bored teenagers with baseball bats. (A couple of years ago I wrote a blog about mailbox casualties after an especially snowy winter.) My philosophy is that it is not worth spending much time or money on them, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the artful efforts of those who don’t agree with me.

Some people give their mailboxes personality by painting them with an individual design.

Others show their personality by “creating” something: here are a couple of trains, one made out of metal and one made out of wood.

Others try to send a message: the owners of this “bus” mailbox have a van and limo service.

Some people like to craft a mailbox that looks like a “house” for their mail. Notice the base on the red barn one. Cement can help fortify the mailbox for battles with the plows in winter.

Lastly some people turn them into a kind of urban artform; they repurpose items that are difficult to get rid of. This “stove” does both.

But none of these beats the microwave one recently posted on Jo’s blog for the Weekly Photo Challenge a few weeks ago!