Happy Mail Home.

November 24, 2013 Courtney Foster Shearer

I love happy mail. Non junk mail. Non-bill = happy mail.

There's nothing better than fetching your mail after a long day of work to find an unexpected piece of mail that instantly makes you smile. Over the last few years my mailbox has been inundated with all kinds of said happy mail - between engagement parties, baby showers, graduation announcements, wedding invitations and birth announcements my mailbox often smiles.

As much as I love receiving these announcements and invites, the question quickly becomes what do I do with them? Because these pieces typically include pertinent information regarding RSVPing, times, directions, etc... I need to keep them in an easy to find place that doesn't include laying on my kitchen counter or collecting dust on my nightstand. I know a lot of people hang these invites on their refrigerator but my refrigerator is panelized, A.K.A. has wood cabinet panels instead of stainless steel, thus no magnet will adhere.

What to do, what to do? Then it hit me. The pantry! The house came with a built-in pantry in the hall, right off the kitchen.

This piece has been huge for us. As I've mentioned before, our kitchen, while much improved from it's original state is by no means large, and storage space is tight.

We keep most of our food in the upper part of the pantry and all of Luke's food, medicine and bones in the bottom section. With the insides of this bad boy being so useful, why not allow the door to work for the cause too?

To kick off project transform plain pantry door into the holder of all fun mail, we picked up some supplies at Home Depot including Rust-Oleum's Magnetic Primer.

Once home, we taped off the center panel of the door.

Next we poured the paint into a tray and mixed it up really well. The magnetic component is super thick so it's very important to mix it up thoroughly and often.

Once everything was mixed together I applied one coat of the paint using a small foam roller.

The directions said to apply a coat, wait 30 minutes and apply another. So, we did just that and applied 5 coats total.

The next morning we tried to attach a magnet to the door and....nothing. It didn't work. RAGE!

Disappointed and annoyed, I did what any normal person would do and googled this dilemma. Turns out this has happened to others and the suggestion was to paint coat after coat until the magnets start adhering. Different number of coats worked for different people. So...back we went to paint and wait, paint and wait. Luckily the surface we were painting was small so this wasn't a huge time commitment.

During the intermission between painting I went to town creating my own magnets. My supplies:

A few corks and some magnet tape.

What happened next gets very technical so pay close attention to the details...I cut small pieces of the magnet tape and stuck it to the bottom of the cork.

I know you're tired from just reading about the work that went into that one....tough DIY, right there. :)

With my cork magnets ready to go and the happy mail gathered I was ready to get this party started. Sadly, 12 coats later and the magnets are still not adhering. We've been working on this project off and on for 5 days and while we can feel the magnetic pull getting stronger it's still not strong enough to hold the magnets. This was supposed to be a fast and easy project, but it has turned into a bust. We are going to continue applying coats so I will keep you posted on the status in the coming weeks. But as of now, 5 days and 12 coats later, I wouldn't recommend Rust-Oleum's Magnetic Primer.

So, that's that. There is no pretty finished photo on this one. Sorry folks, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles sometimes. It's frustrating, but I'm determined to make this idea or some form of it, work for us. I know this pantry door is the perfect place for this type of organization, now it's game on to figure out how to actually make it work. Stay tuned....I'm on a mission, I WILL HAVE MY HAPPY MAIL HOME!

All photos and frustrations are my own, and Brent's.