Posted in Clothes, Collections, Cottage Style, Hats, Projects to Make, Storage | 5 Comments »
Mailbox Storage
June 10th, 2006
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I admit it – I’m a collector. I collect LOTS of stuff – wooden shoes, marble eggs, pin cushions, urns, hatpins, pottery, old garden tools, old sewing stuff, linens, plus a bunch of other stuff - like I said – LOTS of things. Other people’s junk, are ”gifts” to me.
Storage of these collections became an “issue” almost from the minute I started collecting – mostly because I like SO MUCH. Being creative with the storage and display of my collections was a MUST. I still struggle to repurpose and “multi-purpose” some of my collections. But one collection was easy, easy, easy to repurpose. That was my collection of (mostly) old maiboxes.
This is one of my favorite types of repurposing, too. because it was SO EASY to do. I just hung the mailboxes in an interesting display in my mudroom. That room gets a lot of traffic, and that traffic is coming in and going outside during all kinds of weather. Storage was REALLY needed in that room.
Enter my malboxes. In this room they hold the following things:
* Keys are stored inside one mailbox
* Umbrellas hang off the hooks originally used for newspapers and magazines
* So do stylish hats (They look great as decorative accents, too!)
* And sweaters and raincoats
* Gloves are stored inside another mailbox
* There’s a flashlight inside one, too
Sometimes, for decorative purposes, I use some of my pretty scarves, and drape them so they hang a tad outside a mailbox or two.
This display has gotten accolades from every first-time visitor to my home. That always makes me smile…the best part to me, however, is the STORAGE. Now, what to do with those wooden shoes?
Your Frugal Decorating Diva,
Nancy
Rose B, mother of three, in NC on 2 Jan 2007 at 11:23 am: 1
What to do with those wooden shoes? I’m surprised you had to ask! Obviously to me, they are accessories for your gardens, indoors and out.
Indoors, they can either go between the flower pots, or they can hold smaller pots, giving them extra height and importance. It goes without saying that you will put any pot headed for a shoe opening into a plastic cup that will contain any water overflow.
For outdoors, you can protect wooden shoes with a good waterproofing treatment. Again, it shouldn’t need to be said, but might not be obvious to some, that one should not use waterproofing or in any other way alter the finish of a genuine antique. One could then display the wooden shoes as stand-alone decor amid the plantings, on places like porch rails, along the edges of stairs or a simulated path (perhaps humorously set out like footprints), beside a water feature, and other places. Small pots can be set into the shoes. Or, one might build a wooden shelf that sits into a pair or two pair of shoes. Even a small low shelf done this way would lend height and importance to the modest-sized pots displayed there. I would not suggest nailing the shelf to the shoes. For even more humor, use the shelf-on-shoes to hold another pair of shoes!
Frugal By Design : Wooden shoes and scarves on 4 Jan 2007 at 4:27 am: 2
[...] If you are a subscriber to my ezine, you may have gotten an issue of it from me talking about my many collections. The collection included in the picture in that issue was my collection of wooden shoes. I had previously mused in this blog, about what to do with those wooden shoes and had gotten some great suggestions about them. (You can read that blog entry at http://www.frugalbydesign.com/blog/2006/06/10/mailbox-storage/ .) [...]
Daniel on 19 Aug 2007 at 4:24 pm: 3
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Bulletin News on 25 Nov 2007 at 6:33 pm: 5
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