Mailboxes that deliver personal style

Mailboxes usually blend into the landscape of a residential neighborhood. But for those obsessed with curb appeal, the requisite bill receptacle is a central part of your yard's visual equation.

We asked readers to send in pictures of their creative mailboxes. Some crafty folks made their own, while others received theirs as gifts.

If you'd like to make your own mailbox from scratch, you'd need approval from the local postmaster, according to usps.com. But it's probably easier just to tweak a Postal Service-approved mailbox found at the store.

Mailboxes are required to have numerals at least 1 inch high on the side visible to the carrier.

Here are a few of our favorite local mailboxes.

Beach glass

Lana Abrams, of Mount Baker, decided recently that she wanted to do something with all the beach glass her family has collected over the years.

Abrams, a graphic designer, glued on glass beads to form the house number and used the sea glass in muted greens, blues and whites to form the backdrop and cover up the plain black mailbox.

"I'm always doing artsy stuff," Abrams said.

Wood car

The wood-car mailbox that serves as an inbox at Robert McLaughlin's office is impressively similar to the real vintage version he keeps in his garage.

His sister had the mailbox made in the likeness of McLaughlin's restored 1931 wood Ford station wagon.

"I'd really love to use it as a mailbox, but the weather's not conducive," McLaughlin said. "People at work see it. It gets a lot of comments."

Orca, excavator, state ferry

Bothell resident Caroline Atwood doesn't decorate mailboxes professionally, but her work can be seen all around the state.

Her grandson received a mailbox in the shape of a bulldozer that looked just like his father's real one. After it was stolen, she made him another mailbox, this one resembling an excavator.

Her sister, who lives in Eastern Washington, received a reminder of their childhood growing up in the Seattle area — a ferry mailbox.

As for Atwood, she made herself an orca mailbox, adding fins and a tail to a standard mailbox.

"It's just a west side of the mountain type of thing," she said.

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com