I spent a few hours on the internet Sunday, researching mailboxes suitable for a midcentury home — including modern and more traditional colonials and ranches. Like toilets, many decorator mailboxes today seem to be “Victorian on steroids” or otherwise just too precious. But — I did assemble a good group of choices, at a variety of prices. I also stumbled upon a few mailbox posts with the decorative 50s scroll work we like so much.
The mailbox at the left , and the one at the top are from a New Zealand company has a wonderful selection of nicely designed modern mailboxes. They do appear to be quite expensive, noting that I did not look up the exchange rate. Thanks to Jenn Ski, I first saw mention of this company on her site.
I purchased the mailbox (left) for my colonial-ranch from Rejuvenation, and I like it quite a lot – especially with the decorative newspaper hooks attached. These give it a bit more style. Home Depot offers some similar styles that cost less.
In fact, Home Depot had some other good choices as well. This “Metropolis” mailbox:
This Florence mailbox: 
And traditional mailboxes, but heavy duty: 
Another alternative: Vintage, from ebay and places like hardtofindhouseparts.com (as pictured below). Hmmm. Another business opportunity here? To find old mailboxes, powder coat and re-sell them? Perhaps not a lot of money in it – but a labor of love.
Finally, if you need a post for your mailbox, it looks like that is another research afternoon altogether. A post post tee hee. But to start, how about this scrolled design from Home Depot. Might work also as a post for an outdoor light although I do not know whether electric code would allow for exposed conduit. You certainly see style of vintage lighting posts still around today.
1964 split level time capsule – great midcentury mailbox and kitchen 
Meet Garth and Martha: Intrepid retro renovators in Dallas 
Midcentury modern post lantern from Besa Lighting 
41 midcentury lighting ideas – post lanterns, lamp posts, wall lanterns and landscaping lights 
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Maureen says
This post hit the spot ~ on my front deck/root cellar, that is! We need a new mailbox! Thanks for doing some of the leg work!
Juju says
I love the top one. I know it sorta looks like a smoker but it’s cute.
JAVA says
My grandma’s house (built 1960) still has the original wall hung mailbox. Its a shape I never really have seen before and it has a super cool door pull too (chrome under the paint.) I will have to get a photo of it soon. Pam, I will post it to the flickr Retro Renovation page.
Laura says
Love the mailboxes from New Zealand! Of note, there is a box in the upper corner that lets you choose your currency. They are not cheap, but the U.S. price is not as bad as I thought ($106 for the round one featured at the top of this article).
Laura says
Ugh! Updated to my post above – the shipping is terribly expensive! I was going to get the mailbox and post for $160 – shipping was $117! Scratch that for now….
angie says
I have the original mailbox from 1960 still hung on the front of my brick midmod home;
nothing special, just a black box with the “j” hooks underneath for the newspaper
(today I have to go out to the street and look around EVERYWHERE for the paper)!
It gives me a sharp pain to think that when I moved here I was possessed of the
“tear it out/tear it down” mindset!
Ginger Finley says
I just stumbled on this great website/blog. The numbers on the round “smoker” mailbox are designed by me! Unmistakably mine. My company is houseArt, website http://www.houseArt.net. Check it out. I call my designs classic contemporary, and many have gone to mid-century homes. I’m also working on designs that would be MORE mid-century….{edited due to *u-word* being used}. So far, I have not found a mid-century architect designed mailbox to emulate. All of the pictures of famous architect-designed homes show NO mailbox anywhere. So – take a look at houseArt. We’ve been in Dwell aslo, so it was very irritating to see Dwell showcase an Australian company for the question about modern mailboxes, rather than showcase our Michigan, made in America mailboxes that they know about!
Marianne says
Hi,
Love your site!
I’m not sure what mailbox we’ll end up with, but there’s a certain kind of mailbox flag that I really like. It’s similar to the flag on the ModBox.
Where do you think I can find replacement flags like this:
Thanks!
http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8p3SwCFUxloAESKJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIyaWxxZmJoBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZANkNzE2NDM5OTM1MTczNDA3ZDVjNmI4YTA2NDVhNWU0MQRncG9zAzUEaXQDYmluZw–?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dmailbox%2Bhardware%2Bflags%26fr%3Dipad%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D5&w=300&h=300&imgurl=www.homehardware.ca%2Fproducts%2F300%2F54409401.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwayanadnoticeboard.com%2Fadmini%2Fmailbox-red-flag&size=14.8KB&name=%3Cb%3EMailbox%3C%2Fb%3E+Red+Flag&p=mailbox+hardware+flags&oid=d716439935173407d5c6b8a0645a5e41&fr2=piv-web&fr=ipad&tt=%3Cb%3EMailbox%3C%2Fb%3E+Red+Flag&b=0&ni=21&no=5&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11likpk3j&sigb=13ai1otie&sigi=11dun83na&sigt=10n577i69&sign=10n577i69&.crumb=vYBFlJ9rXVG&fr=ipad&fr2=piv-web
pam kueber says
I found one at an estate sale. I don’t know whether and where you can buy them new…