The Mailbox
Upon moving to a rental cottage in Townsend, Tennessee, I only needed to install a mailbox in order to receive mail delivery at home. I considered the various options, and ultimately chose to construct a mailbox post of my own design. Sure, I could have purchased an ordinary, prefabricated post of some sort, but that just wouldn't do. Instead, I envisioned an elegant, hand-crafted structure that would glow at night, and the results can be seen in the photos below:
Below, the underlying structure of the post stands without any frills, after sinking it 18 inches into the ground:
With the addition of a black mailbox, hand-crafted address numbers, and a candle-lantern, the final product takes shape:
Below, left: Seen from directly behind, the post has a slim profile that you can see straight through.
Below, right: I carved the address numbers with the use of a dremel tool with cutting and sanding heads.
Every wooden feature of the post is coated with several layers of spar varnish, a heavy-duty marine waterproofing varnish, to protect against the elements.
The candle-lantern (a Pottery Barn purchase) hangs from a hook arm that I carved from a single piece of wood:
The post is best appreciated at dawn and dusk, when the glow from its candle can be seen:
Back to "Construction Projects"