RETRO PAST
Wooden letter racks decorated with naïve art are as anachronistic as the handwritten correspondence they kept in check, but remain as charming
Celebrating the beauty in humble household objects
Letter racks
were extremely popular DIY projects in the 20th century, and they must have been made in the thousands. Homes around the country would have a letter rack standing on the kitchen bench or perhaps hung on the wall, waiting to receive the day’s mail and ensure the inward correspondence was kept tidy and out of the way. All it took was some rudimentary skills to cut out the pieces of wood from a template and assemble them with nails, and then another relatively simple process to paint the front panel to create the illusion of flowers in a planter box, or a fantail perched on a branch.
No doubt there were different templates available to suit every level of ambition held by the keen home handyman (and woman). If you were less confident, you could follow the instructions to the letter, but if you held your abilities in high regard, there was plenty of leeway to add your own flourishes to the end result. Letter racks like these remain charming today precisely because they dance along this line of sameness and distinction. They represent a world in which making things by hand for everyday use and to decorate the home, no matter how humble or reliant on a model, was a valuable thing to do.