We create a mailbox with our own hands: types of designs and an example of creation. How to make a mailbox DIY mailbox for a private home

A mailbox is an integral part of any home. How to make your own mailbox, unique in design and having a notification function about the arrival of mail, is described in this article.

If you have a house, then you have your own address to which you receive mail - press, letters and other notices. To receive correspondence, you can buy a mailbox at any appropriate store and hang it on the front door. This solution, in addition to being expensive (high-quality mailboxes are quite expensive), is also bad because the ready-made options are faceless and, accordingly, are not able to decorate your home. We will tell you how you can make a unique mailbox with your own hands, which has two undeniable advantages over purchased ones:

located on the inside of the fence, that is, located on the territory of the personal plot, and having a decorative appearance, it will serve as a decoration for the garden;
the box is equipped with an autonomous mechanical mail arrival alarm, that is, the box will have a simple, reliable and fail-safe mechanism that is triggered when mail arrives, thereby informing the owner that the mail has arrived.

In the end, such a mailbox will cost you less than a purchased one, and you can make it yourself in one day.

So let's get started.

Tools and materials

To make a mailbox house we will need:

Circular saw or hand saw.
Drill or screwdriver.
Tin sheet or any other sheet material. A cut tin can will do just fine.
Lumber trims.
Wooden skewers. We will use them as dowels.

Manufacturing instructions

1. We start by making the base platform. To do this, we use a rectangular piece of plywood 20 mm thick. We cut out a rectangle according to the dimensions indicated in the photo, sand it with sandpaper and cover it with primer.

2. We cover the edges with decorative coverings.

4. After painting the platform to the bottom using self-tapping screws, we fix the stand and the slope, which are made of a profile pipe.

5. We fix the platform at the place where the mailbox is installed.

6. We make a damper on the outside of the fence. We cut a vertical hole in the corrugated sheet of the fence. From a metal plate 1.5 mm thick we make coverings for the gap and the damper itself. We fix the damper using a self-tapping screw in its upper part to the coverings on the crack. The flap moves to the left or right, thereby opening the entrance to the slot through which mail enters.

7. Let's start manufacturing the mailbox parts.

8. Assembling the frame. We additionally secure the parts at the gluing points with wooden dowels.

9. We fix the left side wall to the frame and begin to make the signaling device. It consists of two metal plates connected to each other by a metal axis and located in relation to each other in perpendicular planes. We fix the plates to the axle using metal rivets. On the plate that will be located outside the mailbox, we apply a thematic design (postman), use metal scissors to cut along the contour of the design and paint with acrylic paints. The second plate should cover the entrance hole from the inside of the box. Thus, the empty box is made ready by lifting the right plate. When placing mail in the box, the plate falls, raising the left plate with the postman drawn on it. It is its appearance that signals the presence of mail.

10. The signaling device axis is fixed using corner metal hinges to the platform with self-tapping screws.

11. Fix the front wall and insert a thematic drawing into the opening of the future window.

12. We make parts of the window frame. Before installing the frame, we insert glass into the opening.

13. Glue the right side wall. In the center of the wall we make an imitation of a door and decorative cashing from fiberboard. We also make a back wall from fiberboard with a vertical slot into which mail will flow into the mailbox.

14. We decorate the outer corners of the house and the lower part with wooden corners.

15. Let's start making the roof. Glue the roof base frame together.

16. Glue a piece of fiberboard to the bottom part. Next, we glue two pairs of rafters onto the frame. All connections must be additionally secured with dowels.

17. We attach the roof frame to the house using small hinges, since the roof will serve as a mailbox lid.

18. We make the roof gables from fiberboard and glue the ebb on the front side.

19. We attach a rough roof from scraps of boards or clapboard to the rafters.

20. Using small nails, we fix tiles cut from tin onto the rough roof.

21. After fixing the tiles, we make the ridge and wind strips.

22. Making a porch.

23. We install the structure in place. Your unique mailbox is ready.

Evgeny Dubinin, rmnt.ru (based on materials from user Valley)

Owners of their own houses or summer cottages still receive letters, subscribe to newspapers and magazines, and there is also a need to deliver bills or parcels. And in order for all this correspondence to be delivered to the addressee, he needs to have a special cell at his place of residence. Of course, the modern market offers a wide variety of models and variations of this product, but it’s so nice to make a mailbox with your own hands, put a little of yourself into it, and even thanks to the unusual design, decorate a residential building or summer cottage. This article will talk about how to make a mailbox.

There are plenty of options for creating a mailbox with your own hands. They may differ from each other in shape, size, color, design and material of manufacture, as well as in design style. What types of mailboxes are there?

Types of mailboxes for a private home

Most of the models discussed are quite easy to do yourself, and you do not need to purchase expensive materials or equipment. So, what kind of mailboxes can you find today? First of all, it should be said that the style of the post determines the overall appearance of the site or the exterior of the house.

It is also important when creating a mailbox to take into account the amount of correspondence sent. That is, if the owner receives a lot of letters, magazines, newspapers or advertising booklets every day, then a more capacious product will be needed, but if there is a minimum number of letters, then you can build a small box with an original decoration. Very often, a mailbox is used not for its intended purpose, but as a decorative element. The product is installed in a visible place and perfectly complements the overall appearance of a private house or garden area.
There are several style solutions for designing a mailbox. The most famous American and English designs for receiving correspondence. The traditions of Europe and America are somewhat different from domestic ones. For example, in American cities, postal boxes are needed not only for receiving letters, but also for sending. If there is correspondence in the box, the postman takes it and takes it to the post office. But how can you determine that a message needs to be sent? It was for this purpose that special flags were invented on every mailbox in the states. If the flag is raised, it means the postman needs to look inside; if it is lowered, it means the box is empty.

Another feature of such structures is that they are installed not like the usual structures on walls or a fence, but on lawns or areas near paths leading to the house, and are fixed on vertical supports (metal, wood and even stone). In shape, such products resemble a small container or house, which has a semicircular hinged lid at the end.
This is a standard look, but in many states there are often competitions for the most original letter box. That is why near some houses you can find unusual structures in the form of fairy-tale characters, animals or any abstractions, as well as mounted on various stands. In addition, very often purchased products are simply decorated in a special way and thus stand out from the crowd of others.
A slightly different tradition exists in UK cities. Here, mailboxes are installed directly on the ground near the front door or near the path with the entrance to the property. In appearance, this design resembles a small cabinet, which may have brick or stone walls. Of course, other materials are also used - wood, metal and even plastic.

Such a structure should be compatible in style with the house and the site, that is, if the walls of the building are made of brick or have it in the design, then the mailbox will be made of this material, or a stone gate, usually complemented by stone structures for receiving letters and press . To make it easy for the postman to put the correspondence, and for the owner to easily retrieve it, the boxes are installed as if on a stand, which is an inseparable continuation of the structure. That is, this product is stationary and does not involve moving from place to place.
Still, the most common type of mailboxes in our country are traditional ones, or otherwise called standard mailboxes. Their main feature is that they are rectangular in shape, and correspondence enters through a small slot. In order to remove letters or newspapers, you need to open the door or move one of the walls. Such structures are very often installed on apartment doors. These products are slightly larger than American mailboxes and more mobile than English ones. They can be made from a wide variety of materials, and also have different shapes.
Of course, modern mailboxes are no longer just a rectangular box; there are decorative elements and an original appearance. It is these products that are the easiest to manufacture, convenient to use, and at the same time can perfectly decorate any building, be it a multi-level cottage or a small country house. They are installed on fences, walls of homes, and even on a free-standing stand.

How to make a mailbox with your own hands

So, if standard, commercially available products are not the ultimate dream and you really want to create something of your own, original, then it’s time to get creative. First of all, you need to decide on a specific idea, the appearance of the future mailbox. Then, you should decide what materials will be needed to implement the plan. Let's look at how to create your own wooden mailbox. This is the simplest option, and at the same time it is possible to create a real masterpiece from which it will be so pleasant to take letters out.

Assembling the structure is somewhat reminiscent of creating a birdhouse; many people were probably involved in this type of activity in childhood. To build a mailbox, you will need a simple set of tools: a hammer, a saw, a ruler, a pencil, a screwdriver, hardware or glue. The materials you will need are wooden boards, boards or sheets of plywood, chipboard, MDF, etc.
Next, determine the size of the mailbox. Specific parameters are selected based on what you plan to receive. If these are only letters and small advertising booklets, then a small product will be enough, but if the box is designed to receive large-sized magazines, then its dimensions should be appropriate. In any case, it is always better to make it a little larger than the standard one, then you won’t have to worry that not all printed materials will fit inside.

The next step is to define the design. This concerns not only the features of the form, but also what elements will be needed for decoration. After all, the box for the press and letters must be combined with the exterior of the house, which means that some details must have something in common. This stage also involves the selection of a specific material and future color scheme.

When the choice of shape, materials, colors and decorative elements has been made, you can begin to manufacture the parts.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a mailbox

For work you will need blocks of wood, plywood, preferably moisture-resistant (or use special impregnations that will help make the parts sufficiently resistant to precipitation and other weather conditions), metal corners, wood glue, a screwdriver, self-tapping screws and a hand or automatic saw or jigsaw will also be useful . In addition, depending on the design of the lid, it is necessary to prepare a hinge device, as well as a lock with which the door will be locked.

Since our box has a more complex shape than just a rectangle, it is recommended to first create a frame from beams. For this purpose, it is enough to use slats with a cross section of 20-10 mm. The length will depend on the specific model, but approximately 20-40 cm is sufficient. The resulting base for the product will be shaped like a cube, but will have a small triangular roof.
The next step is to secure the walls. Durable plywood is perfect for this purpose, but ordinary boards of small thickness can also be used. You will need two pieces for the side walls, two for the front and back panels and two for the top and bottom, as well as two pieces for the roof. Of course, we should not forget that all parts should be treated with impregnations, which will protect the finished structure from natural factors and extend the service life for a longer time.

The plywood is screwed to the frame using corners and self-tapping screws; for greater reliability, the bottom of the mailbox can be additionally glued with adhesives, and all joints of the finished structure can be coated with moisture-resistant sealant. Don’t forget to make a cut on the front or top panel. Through this gap the postman will place letters and press inside. It is also necessary to make an opening door. It is possible that the roof of the house will serve as the opening part. To do this, attach this element using hinges.
In cases where it is difficult to make a gap in plywood, for example, with insufficient experience, you can use a little trick. Use not a whole piece of plywood, but two halves that will not reach each other at a certain distance. Usually, a 1-2 cm slot is enough for these purposes, but when you plan to receive larger correspondence, you can leave more.

Having completed all of the above procedures, we can assume that the box is almost ready. All that remains is to paint it or decorate it in any other way and install it in a permanent place, and also take care of protecting letters, magazines and newspapers from rain. Indeed, in cases where the slot for incoming correspondence is located at the top, moisture can easily penetrate inside. This is why you should install a special canopy over the box. It is best if it is made of metal.

The described method involves creating the simplest version of a mailbox, which you can do yourself even without special skills. Of course, in cases where it is possible to make more complex shapes and designs, you should not deny yourself such pleasure. After all, a mailbox is not just a box for receiving letters, it is also a wonderful decorative element.

Mailbox decoration options

There are several fairly common ways to decorate a mailbox. First of all, you can use paints and apply any patterns, ornaments, and sometimes entire paintings to all structural elements. Even without artistic skills, you can accomplish this task yourself. Stencils made of paper, cardboard or plastic can help with this.
Acrylic paints are best suited for painting on materials such as wood or metal. In order for the image to last for more than one season, it is first recommended to cover the entire surface with a layer of white primer, and apply a moisture-resistant varnish on top of the image, which will also protect the structure from damage caused by rain or snow.
The next decoration option assumes that the mailbox will be decorated with a type of creativity such as decoupage. This is also a fairly simple method that does not require special skills. It is enough to select the required design depicted on a napkin or decoupage card. Next, the surface of the structure is painted white (this is one of the standard solutions), and then small fragments or the entire design are glued to the walls of the mailbox using PVA glue. When the glue is completely dry, apply several layers of varnish on top.

Another solution that will help make the mail original is to attach several decorative tassels, beads, shells and other elements to the box. In order for such decoration to hold securely and last for many years, you should choose good glue.
Even an unusual coloring will make the mailbox an original decoration for the entire summer cottage or private house. And if you turn on your imagination, use improvised materials and various artistic techniques, you can get real works of art. With the right approach, you can even decorate the box with fresh flowers, which will grow in small containers on the sides of the structure.

Original solutions for creating mailboxes

Not only can decorations add originality to a mailbox, but it is also possible to use unusual items to create the design itself. Old interior items or unnecessary things are suitable for these purposes. For example, a product made from a plastic bottle or large-diameter PVC pipe will look very unusual. This option is perfect for people who do not subscribe to a lot of newspapers and receive correspondence in small quantities. It is enough to attach a round door to the tube, which will serve both for delivering letters and for removing them.
A similar option would be a box made from a round log or thick log. Here you should remove the core and place a suitable container inside; it can be a metal pipe, sealed on one side and with a welded door on the other. At the same time, this lid can be decorated with tree bark so that the feeling of naturalness is complete.

If a more spacious design is required, then an empty system unit would be an excellent option. This product can be installed on any support and can even be screwed to a fence. All that remains is to build a door and decorate the box accordingly, so that the postman immediately understands that this is a box for letters and newspapers.
In general, making a mailbox that you won’t be ashamed to install in your own home is not that difficult. You can use plexiglass, metal, wood and even cardboard using gluing, welding or assembly technologies. In addition to choosing the material and shape, it is equally important to properly secure the finished box or install it in a permanent place.
The installation location can be a fence, a gate, a house wall, or even a separately placed support. It is important not to forget when designing a product to think in advance about the method of fastening. For example, in cases where mail is placed on a gate (wooden or metal), it is necessary to make small holes in the back wall and secure it with nuts and bolts. If you plan to install the structure on a stand, then the fasteners should be in the bottom panel.

To summarize, we can say that despite the fact that technological progress in the world has reached unprecedented heights, paper letters and the press have not gone out of fashion to this day. This means that products such as mailboxes are still needed. And not always things bought in a store can perfectly complement the style of a private home or summer cottage. That is, if you really want an original decorated and designed place for receiving correspondence, then the best solution would be to do this element yourself.

Each type of house or housing has its own unique address, to which various letters and telegrams are received in a timely manner. To ensure that your correspondence does not scatter across the fence or area, you need to properly equip the postal device. Typically, such a product can be purchased at hardware store: their prices are very affordable, and the choice of material is very diverse. However, many people like to make their own letter box.

Types of mailboxes

In order for your beautiful mailbox to not stand out in the overall picture of the house, you need to choose the right design and size, as well as determine the place where you will install it. You need to take into account its accessibility and convenience for receiving letters. When choosing a box, you need to decide how you will use it: will it be decorative element or a functioning device for letters.

There are several main types of boxes:

Traditional.
American.
English.

If you don't know how to make a mailbox with your own hands, then the traditional type is ideal for you. Name of traditional letter boxes speaks for itself: this is the simplest and most convenient type, which is made from available building material. They can be made of cardboard, plastic, wood, metal and have the most unusual shapes.

The appearance of American boxes is very similar to traditional ones, however, they have one feature that helps to find out whether there is a letter in the mail. The fact is that in private areas of America, when delivering letters, the postman himself raises special checkbox, which indicates the receipt of the letter.

The English view is significantly different from the previous two. More often it is made of a metal pipe. Accordingly, special doors and a hole for letters are cut into it. After which she is painted and decorated original pictures, and is installed as a cabinet.

There are also special, unique and extraordinary types of mailboxes. They are made independently not only from improvised means, but also from any unnecessary materials. So, using an ordinary plastic bottle, you can make an excellent postal device. The main thing is that the bottle has a large volume, ideally from 5 liters. This material will not leak or get wet, which will keep your letters dry. And if the box is well decorated with decorative material such as paper or decoupage, then it can easily replace the usual store-bought one.

You can make your own box from slats. To do this you will need tools: a hammer and a saw. With accurate calculation and correct drawing It will take very little time to make such a box. The main thing is not to forget to install waterproof material on top of the box to protect the letters.

Making a metal mailbox with your own hands is much more difficult. At a minimum, you will need the skills of a welder or tinsmith. When creating a letter box from thick metal, you will definitely need a welding machine. And to decorate the product you will need tools that allow you to process metal. Thick metal is usually used to make forged postal items that look very elegant.

Making a homemade tin box for letters is a little easier. However, the skills of a tinsmith will greatly help in such production. Usually this type of look is not particularly decorated, unless you can apply paint in an unusual way.

Making at home

On the Internet you can watch a special master class on how to make a mailbox out of wood with your own hands. However, there are certain subtleties of this work.

First you need to decide what tools and materials you will need. Basic materials include:

Plywood and wooden blocks.
Nails or screws.
Hammer or screwdriver.
Wood saw or circular saw.

Once everything you need has been collected, you can start making a drawing or searching for it on the Internet. In all drawings, a box for the workpiece is initially made, and only then the lid and bottom are assembled. The main thing is not to forget about the hole itself for the letter. The hole should be marked and made before attaching the cover, so that it would be convenient to process it on both sides.

Once the product is ready, you can proceed to decorating it. Decorating mailboxes is not limited to anything. You can use everything that your ingenuity and imagination are capable of. Any paint color, decorative elements, construction supplies - anything can be used in decoration. There have been cases when mailboxes were decorated various toys, dolls. But that's not all - lovers of bright lights can decorate them with electronic bulbs and backlights.

Installation Features

So, when your invention is ready to use, you need to immediately think about how to position it. It is better to install an outdoor mailbox on a fence. It can be installed both from the outside and from the inside, but do not forget that when installing from the inside you will have to make a hole in the fence. This option is the most practical, but it is worth remembering that the letter box should be clearly visible not only during the day, but also in the late evening.

A mailbox is an integral part of any home. How to make your own mailbox, unique in design and having a notification function about the arrival of mail, is described in this article.

located on the inside of the fence, that is, located on the territory of the personal plot, and having a decorative appearance, it will serve as a decoration for the garden;
the box is equipped with an autonomous mechanical mail arrival alarm, that is, the box will have a simple, reliable and fail-safe mechanism that is triggered when mail arrives, thereby informing the owner that the mail has arrived.

In the end, such a mailbox will cost you less than a purchased one, and you can make it yourself in one day.

So let's get started.

Tools and materials

To make a mailbox house we will need:

Circular saw or hand saw.
Drill or screwdriver.
Tin sheet or any other sheet material. A cut tin can will do just fine.
Lumber trims.
Wooden skewers. We will use them as dowels.