Every year my mailbox gets nailed. There is no point in getting upset, it's just one of those things that you accept when you live out in the country. In general, I simply call up the dept. of transportation, inform them that the snowplows nailed my mailbox and they usually send a crew out to fix it within a week. Legally they don't have to but they have for the 25 years I've been out here.
The year before last they really hit it hard. I called and they came out to replace it and ended up replacing the post only. Not really sure why this was acceptable
but apparently it was. I'm not going to get upset, after all, I am so grateful that the snowplows come out every year and dig us out.
I purchased a mailbox and was about to put it up last fall when I thought, "Wait a minute girlfriend.. you know how this ends..." so I kept the banged up mailbox through the winter awaiting the summer.
Then the thought came to me, why not make it pretty? At first I got really intimidated, I mean, what if it turns out horrible. But then the reassuring reality hit, I'm probably going to be replacing it next year so where is the problem?
I started with a mailbox I bought at my local Ace hardware. First decide on what type of design you want. this design is one I've painted before and really like, it came from a book that is easily obtainable from any library or maybe even used on Amazon.
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| Author: Marina Alexee Grant |
After choosing my design, I sanded the mailbox on both sides where I wanted to paint b/c the paint was unlikely to stick to the glossy surface of the mailbox. Then I painted a white oval (and I did this when I put on the design) until the surface was opaque. It will take at least three coats. This saves you from painting about 14 coats if you just go in with your paint colors-ask me how I know...
I then came in with my grey color and painted 2-3 layers of that to make it opaque and followed it with a band around it of black to make it as neat and framed as I could.
After that we start working on the design. Here is where I want to encourage you. These books came out years ago-like in the 1990's. Many of the paints can no longer be found. Don't fret! Look at the picture and choose the closest paint you can out of your stash or at the store. Acrylic paint choices are now dismal at most of your big box craft stores and absolutely ridiculously priced on Amazon. Do the best you can. I didn't use any of the called for paints and yet I bet you couldn't tell.
Now obviously the picture in the book does not fit the mailbox perfectly-it's way too big. How do we know how to resize it? Easy! Take the measurement of the height you want the image to be (or width if you have a different design in a small space), write it down. Then measure the height of the original image. If you are shrinking the image, divide the mailbox height by the original image height. It will give you a percentage to shrink it. If you need to enlarge it, take the mailbox (or whatever you are painting) height and divide it into the original image. It will give you the percentage to enlarge it.
After you have enlarged/shrink your image to the appropriate size for your surface, take some tracing paper and a pen and copy the new image. Position it on your piece where you want it and with some graphite paper (I had only black which wasn't as helpful as if it were white) and slide it under your tracking. Just make the outline of the image, no details.
Basecoat your image until opaque.
Shade your edges. We take the largest brush that will fit the area and damping it. Take your shading color and only place that on 1/4th of the bristles on the left. Then using a clean area of your pallet, "walk" the color out. The water in the brush will naturally shade the color as it travels down the bristles.
Then, just as shaded before, do shading on the now basecoated images. 
Add your name and address. Use outdoor varnish to protect your artwork and you've created the most unique mailbox on your road or block!
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