What “Made To Order Mailboxes” Actually Means At Post & Porch

“Made to order” is one of those phrases you see all over the internet, and depending on the company, it can mean quite a few different things. At Post & Porch, it’s fairly literal. When you choose one of our custom mailboxes, you aren’t simply picking a finished post box from a warehouse shelf. The size, color, mailbox post, house numbers, locking option, door style, and other details you select help determine what our team in Utah hand-prepares for your order. 

With hundreds of possible post-mount mailbox combinations, there’s a good chance the exact setup you chose wasn’t already sitting somewhere fully assembled and waiting with a shipping label on it. There are certainly faster ways to sell mailboxes, but we’ve chosen this one because your mailbox is going to sit in front of your house for everyone to see.

Here’s what “made to order mailboxes” actually means here at Post & Porch:

A made-to-order mailbox is completed around the options selected by the homeowner rather than being produced only in a handful of predetermined combinations. 

At Post & Porch, the possibilities vary by model, but your order may include a particular mailbox size, powder-coated finish, coordinating mailbox post, locking configuration, wood door, magnetic house numbers, number font, number finish, mounting components, or other mailbox accessories. Those choices aren’t added to the shopping experience simply to give you more boxes to click – they’re there because houses are different.

A black post-mounted mailbox may look right at home beside one driveway, while brown, white, grey, blue, green, or a naturally weathering finish may make much more sense at another. One family may want a larger mailbox because they receive magazines and padded envelopes regularly. Someone else may care most about adding a lock. Another homeowner may spend more time deciding between house-number styles than they ever expected to spend thinking about a mailbox.

We understand that last one particularly well.

Post & Porch actually began with house numbers in 2017, when founder Danny Pilkington couldn’t find an option he liked for his own home. He began selling the magnetic mailbox numbers at Utah farmers’ markets and home-and-garden shows before mailboxes ever became part of the business. That original interest in small exterior details eventually led to The Malone and the larger collection of modern curb-appeal products we make today.

Giving homeowners a say in those details has stayed with us as we’ve grown.

Once a custom mailbox order reaches us, the choices you made online become the roadmap for what our small Utah team needs to build and prepare.

A member of the team reviews the order and confirms details such as the model, size, finish, mailbox post, locking components, house numbers, font, and selected mailbox accessories. From there, the right pieces move through preparation, finishing, assembly, personalization, inspection, and packaging.

Some popular components may already be prepared ahead of time so we can keep orders moving efficiently, but the final post-mount mailbox still has to come together according to the specific combination you chose. We could make that process simpler by offering fewer options and keeping a small selection of finished mailboxes boxed and ready to ship. 

But that would mean deciding for homeowners which colors, sizes, numbers, and details belong together before we ever see their order. We’d rather give you those choices and let the person who knows the house best decide what belongs in front of it.

Go more in depth into how a Post & Porch custom mailbox is made and shipped here →

A curbside mailbox is practical, but it also happens to sit in one of the most visible spots around your home. A post-mounted mailbox becomes part of the view from the street, while a wall-mounted mailbox sits alongside the front door, porch, garage, lighting, hardware, siding, and landscaping you’ve already spent time choosing.

You may pass it every day for years, which is why we’ve always believed homeowners should have more options than whatever happens to be stocked in a big-box store.

Customization gives you room to choose the details that make sense for your home. 

That might mean matching the mailbox and post to your trim, choosing brass magnetic house numbers that tie into your front-door hardware, or going with a larger size because your mailbox tends to collect a few days’ worth of deliveries at a time. None of those decisions are huge on their own, but they shape how everything works together.

And when the details feel right, the post-mount mailbox feels less like something added at the end and more like it was always meant to be there.

Post & Porch has changed considerably since Danny started selling magnetic house numbers around Utah. The team has grown. The product line has grown. We’ve moved into a larger Utah facility with more room for materials, inventory, production, assembly, inspection, and packaging. Those investments became especially important as more homeowners began ordering custom mailboxes from across the country.

What we’ve tried hard to preserve is the closeness between an order and the people responsible for completing it.

Our modern mailboxes are made with 14-gauge galvanized steel and, depending on the selected finish, architectural-grade powder coating. Components are prepared and finished before the selected configuration is brought together. If the order includes magnetic house numbers, those details are checked as well. Before packing, the team reviews the finished mailbox for things such as the correct style, size and finish, proper door and flag alignment, locking function when applicable, address-number details, hardware, mailbox accessories, and visible finish issues.

That quality-control stage can occasionally uncover something that needs to be corrected before an order leaves – we think it’s worth catching here. No one wants the exciting part of opening a new mailbox for their home to turn into discovering that a piece is missing or the finish isn’t right.

Dive into the changes we’ve made due to a year of rapid growth by clicking here →

One of the tradeoffs of offering made-to-order mailboxes is that the time between placing an order and receiving tracking information may be longer than it would be for a finished product sitting in a fulfillment center – that period is production time.

Depending on the post-mount mailbox and selections, it can include preparing materials, applying and curing finishes, assembling components, matching personalized details, checking the completed configuration, and packing everything securely for the trip to your home. Carrier transit begins after the finished order has left our facility.

The exact production window can change as inventory, order volume, finishes, and individual configurations change, so the estimate listed on the product page is the best place to see what applies to the custom mailbox you’re considering. We know waiting longer isn’t automatically a selling point, and we don’t expect anyone to pretend otherwise.

If you need a mailbox immediately, a made-to-order product may not make sense for your project. If you have an installer scheduled, a closing date approaching, or another firm deadline, it’s worth leaving room for both production and carrier transit.

We’d much rather help you plan realistically than make the process sound faster than it is.

See our production timeline and some other helpful information on our FAQ page →

Our made-to-order model has challenged us at times, too. When Post & Porch experienced a period of rapid growth, demand began moving faster than the people, space, inventory, and communication systems supporting production. Some customers waited longer than they expected or didn’t receive updates as clearly as they should have.

We took that very seriously.

Since then, Post & Porch has invested in a larger Utah warehouse, additional team members, more inventory, clearer production communication, greater customer-service coverage, and better systems for moving custom orders through the facility. One option would have been to solve the problem by dramatically reducing customization – we decided to build better support around it instead.

That choice says quite a bit about what we want Post & Porch to remain as the company grows.

We know a mailbox isn’t the biggest decision you’ll ever make for your home – that may be exactly why we enjoy making them so much. There’s something satisfying about taking an object most people have been taught to overlook and giving it enough thought that someone gets excited to put it at the end of their driveway. A color works perfectly with the house. The numbers finally look right. The old leaning mailbox disappears, and suddenly that small part of the property feels finished.

Those moments are where Post & Porch came from.

Our first products were created because Danny thought homeowners deserved better choices for one little detail outside their homes. Years later, that same idea still shapes the way we approach a custom modern mailbox.

Made to order means there’s some work happening between your click and the cardboard box arriving at your house. It means your selections travel with the order through our Utah facility, where real people are responsible for getting those details right. It means we’re willing to carry the added complexity that comes with offering homeowners more choice.

Most of all, it means we know the mailbox we’re working on is headed somewhere specific.

Build your custom Malone Post-Mount Mailbox here →