Peter and I have been casually looking for coat hooks to help reduce the piles of coats that we inevitably throw over the back of chairs or leave on the couch. In our search, I found a simple row of mounted coat hooks at Home Depot. The board and its color mimicked the lines and color of the trim in our house but it was obviously different. Wanting to avoid the I-tried-to-match-and-failed look, we decided to keep looking. Soon after an idea magically appeared in the inbox of my email account via Martha Stewart’s Organizing Tip of the Day. Martha recommended using mailboxes with magazine hooks to hang your hooks and hold your accessories. We found the mailboxes at Home Depot for $13.99 each. After grabbing a can of Kilz and a can of spray paint we were ready to begin!
Here is one of the mailboxes after priming it. We were originally planning on painting them white but after seeing them primed we decided we needed something with a bit more color.
We chose Krylon’s Indoor/Outdoor Paint in Celery. I love the way it turned out. I think the color looks really nice against our walls.
Before mounting the mailboxes we attached the magazine hooks. I’m not the greatest spray painter, so painting their small curved surfaces was a bit of a challenge. I skimped on the parts that you can’t see when they’re hanging up, but the end result looks great. To attach the magazine hooks you simply insert the hooked end through the bottom of the mailbox and bring it through the opening in the back.
Once the hook shows through, you pull it downward to lock it firmly into place.
Here is the end result. We decided to stagger the mailboxes to give them visual interest. The added bonus is that the taller one is perfect for Peter to drop his wallet and keys into and the shorter of the two works great for me.
So, what do your coat hooks look like? Do you have an eclectic array of Anthropologie hooks or did you manage to find some awesome vintage coat rack? Maybe coat hooks are something that you never bothered with. Let us know!
This is so clever! I have a boring coat hook from Target, but it doesn’t help too much when it comes to mail.
Thanks Kasey. I love this setup because our place lacks an entry hall or mudroom. This allows us to hang up our coats and settle in. Then when we’re ready to leave, everything we need is right there!
That celery hue is perfection. It makes me want to go home and paint my mailbox. The whole idea is so clever! Love it!
Thanks Meg! Peter actually picked the color. I was leaning toward a lighter blue but I have to say he was definitely right. These go with our room so much better than the blue would have.
And I do encourage you to paint your mailbox. I don’t know what color it is now but if we had something other than one of those huge shared silver boxes then I would definitely do something fun with it.