In the 1950s, walls of homes often had shadow boxes. These were a box on the wall with mini shelves, maybe a mirror, often small and you displayed your small trinkets on them.
The above pictures are different shadow boxes from the 1950s. I was able to purchase something similar and put my own style on it. (Not the atomic shadow boxes- I am working on creating those with my partners help. I will let you know how we go). You can choose to style them differently or keep them original.
The Atomic Shadow box is more fancy and is a real wall feature. Many are star shaped with mirrors, lights, wire and various decorative pieces. You could also get them as plant boxes. I adore them and aspire to one day get my hands on a vintage one.
Now back to my project, I purchased the three square shadow boxes from Kmart, see below:
Kmart Shadow Boxes
They come separately so that makes them easy to paint. I chose to paint each box a seperate colour to make it stand out. For all my projects, I like to use White Knights Squirts Spray Paints. I love the colour range and finished look. I choose to use purple, orange and pink. They are available from Bunnings Warehouse.
I gave them two coats of paint. Once dried they just slide into each other, with the slots on the box. They provide the screws to attach to the wall as there are two holders at the back of the middle box.
I think the finished product looks like great. What do you think? So the shadow box was $30 and each spray can was $10. So the full cost of the project was $60 (there is plenty of spray paint left for other projects, too) but you could use one colour for a cheaper project or even leave them the natural colour.
I also, painted this one for my daughter’s room. I had purchased this one quite a few years ago.
This is another one that I had previously purchased. It is painted in the interior. It holds my Holt Howard and Lefton collectables.
Do you have any shadow boxes? I would love to see them! Send me some photos.
Back soon….
Ridiculously Retro Xx
Images sourced from:
Ridiculously Retro 