We just couldn’t wait another day to share this super cool house number idea that we spotted downtown a while back (hence the Christmas wreath):
Isn’t it a great way to make sure your guests can easily find their way to your door? We think they must have printed out oversized numbers on the computer, cut them out, taped them up on the brick, traced them with a pencil, and filled in their pencil outlines with a bit of two-shades-darker-than-the-house paint. Love it!
Although we hardly think our brick ranch is the right fit for this awesome street number application (somehow a downtown brownstone works a heckova lot better for this hip idea), it really made us wonder how you guys deal with your house number. Is it just on your mailbox? Do you have it above your door, next to your door, or even on your door? We’ve seen some great homes with house numbers on the front part of their front steps (not the part you walk on, the part that faces the street) and even some with a plaque that’s stuck into the ground in a garden. When it comes to the numbers game, how do you guys treat yours? Any house number projects you’re looking to take on in the near future? Dish the numeric dirt.
For another great DIY house number idea, check out how Lesley and Jeff added one to their cheerfull yellow front door in this House Crashing post from last year (p.s. they recently welcomed an adorable baby boy into their lovely home!).
Beth says
Hey guys – We stuck ours right under the light next to the front door.. that way it’s easier to see at night and guests still find the house when the door is open for a party!
kelly says
Unfortunately, we live in a townhouse communtiy that has fairly stern rules about the “cohesive appearance” of our townhouse exteriors. SO we can’t show a ton of creativity in that area, just some black iron numbers to the left of our door. BUT I just LOVE what those homeowners did… so artistic!
Kellie Alkayam says
Okay, now that’s just weird.
I’m having my house painted right now, and I asked them to remove my house numbers because they were just screwed to a painted block of wood and attached to the front of the house and I thought it looked silly. I wanted to hand paint them on, but I don’t know where to put them, and I’ve been toiling over it.
I currently have one porch light to the right of my door, but I want to replace it and install another one on the left for a bit more symmetry. The mailbox needs to go below them, so I’m afraid if I put the numbers back where they were (or a bit lower), it will look too busy. I was considering putting them to the left of the left big window at the risk of having them blocked by the tree. I had also thought about painting them on the front of the front step (which will be brick red), but if I don’t mow the lawn religiously, they’ll be blocked. Plus I’m planning to pour a concrete path, so they might get covered.
Any suggestions? Here’s a pic of the house.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v309/kelliewrx/?action=view¤t=HouseFront1.jpg
YoungHouseLove says
Cute house! I love the front of the step idea- that would definitely look charming and inviting. I also like the idea of somehow painting them on the arch above the door (or hanging store-bought numbers there, so they gently follow the curve of the framing around the door). It’ll be a tight squeeze but it might be super sweet looking in the end. You’ll have to send us after pics so we can see what you end up going with!
xo,
Sherry
:::Lyzz::: says
Like Kelly, we don’t get a lot of creative control over the exterior of our house since it’s in a community. Seeing things like these do make me long for a single family home where I can paint the exterior of my house, say purple? LOL.
bungalowbliss says
Currently, the house numbers are on the brick porch column, but I hope to find another spot for them after the siding is removed and the house is painted. I’m still undecided about placing them on the horizontal gable beam or next to the front door. I’ll be interested to see what others have to say about this–maybe I’ll go a completely different direction!
Amanda says
We have ours above the garage, on the mailbox, and last year when we went to Mexico we bought a really cute iron scrollwork number holder and some gorgeous hand painted Mexican tiles with the numbers on them. We only use it in the spring and summer because we’re afraid it wont fare well in the chicago winters!
Christina says
Oh, you’ve done it again! I’m cooking up a plan for my front porch right now and had no plans for #’s– must think of something cool!
Right now they are just boring #’s over the garage- nothing exciting at all.
I was having a ho-hum day; this is JUST the kind of thing I needed to get my wheels turning. Thanks!
heather s. says
I don’t like the numbers painted on the house – it looks too modern and just wouldn’t work for a ranch house in a nice neighborhood. ;)
I recently posted my front porch update project on my blog. I had brass house numbers on a black plaque that was hard to see from the street. Since I don’t want the big holes from the plaque visible I decided to keep the plaque but I removed the house numbers and painted them a bright white. I also spray painted a clear, reflective paint on them so you can see them better. Around my town people offer to come out and paint your house number on the curb in front of your house for around $50. You can easily do that yourself with some number stencils so I’ve never had it done (though I’ve also never stenciled it since that takes backseat to my other projects).
Kayduh says
I got solar house numbers that light up at night. They are amazing, you can see them from down the street. I got them at target.com
http://habitatforkris.blogspot.com/2008/11/house-numbers.html
http://habitatforkris.blogspot.com/2008/11/house-numbers-at-night.html
Sierra Nething says
I have an idea that I’m going to try with my new house. I want to get a large stone/boulder maybe 2-3 ft in diameter and set in on the grass in the front yard. I want to find someone who can engrave stone and have them engrave the numbers into the stone. Then I’ll paint a darker color into the engraving. I’ll put some kind of uplighting in front of it to light it up at night. My house design ideas are all very natural and botanical, so I think this idea will flow nicely with the rest of the house.
Alison (New Wife) says
I may have to steal this idea for my new house (as of next week .. eekkk!!)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerison_curley/3375214051/
Tracy says
Funny you should ask this since it was part of our lastest project. We rebuilt our front porch and replaced the siding on our 1920s craftsman bungalow. I wanted house numbers that fit architecturally and stylistically with the house AND wouldn’t have to be drilled into our brand new EXPENSIVE siding. We found inexpensive nickel, yet stylistically appropriate , numbers at the depot (as we affectionately call it since we’re there multiple times a week/day) and installed them vertically alongside our door. They “float” above the frame so they get a nice shadow, 3-D effect.
It took forever to pick out the numbers and even longer to decide how to mount them, but I *heart* them! They really perked up the front door. We also installed a new door bell that REALLY freshened up the door. Now it’s not all rusty and tired looking. It looks like a whole new house/door for about 10 bucks (not counting the $20,000 for siding).
nikkisnacs says
Love this!
Southern says
I’m trying to grow a vine around my front steps and they are starting to cover my house numbers and their current location, so I’m trying to brainstorm some fun ways to do house numbers. You can find some cute ideas on Etsy too.
Christa says
I’m itching to put mine on our door using a stencil – but waiting to choose new exterior colors first. My inspiration was found in BHG magzine, but I can’t find it online.
I don’t have a front porch, but here’s how I would incorporate our house numbers, if I did! http://decoratinggallery.bhg.com/RoomDetail.aspx?RIID=4c5c24d9-7066-4cb1-9688-95c63ecf3afe&RoomTypeID=803c797d-52d0-46a1-8fd6-7b2e8ff7cff8&IID=df56054b-b7b3-47a8-8ccf-d5f11453ba32
Liz says
On our last house I painted them on the door. Our front door was a black 6 panel door so there was some room at about thigh level for some house numbers. I had originally purchased some screw-on numbers from HD but realized when I got home that I had a metal door. OOPS. So I found a font I loved, sized it appropriately, cut out the stencil and used metalic paint from HD in gold. We loved the effect because no one else had the same numbers!
Sunny says
We’re in a community with an HOA as well, so we’re limited on what we can do to the exterior of our home. Our house numbers were just on the mailbox, but I found a cute solar light that lights up behind the numbers so I put that in the landscaped area of the front yard in front of our kitchen window. It’s cute and serves its purpose… plus it’s solar, so no waste there! :)
Shannon says
We found a great piece of driftwood on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay and knew it would be a great piece for our garden. When we took it home we realized it would also be a cool place to put our house number. We bought classic silver numbers at Home Depot (of course) and nailed them to the driftwood and then stationed it right next to our front door where it is illuminated by solar powered lights! We love how it looks and separates us from our almost identical townhouse neighbors.
Pamela says
Our house came with brass numbers on the porch column so they are pretty visible during the day from the street (although we don’t ever use the front door). At night though I don’t think anyone can see them….should do something about that.
And the look in the picture is a bit too commercial for me, but I guess it might work in a very urban area.
Jeremy says
@Kellie Alkayam
I would second your idea of balancing things out with matching lights on both sides of the doorway. I’d then put the house numbers at the same level as the mailbox, but on the other side of the door. To make the numbers, I would have a strip of 1×4 wood painted the same color as the house, and then use black paint to make the house numbers in whatever font you want.
As for my houses numbers, my wife repainted our basic black mailbox with semigloss black spray paint, and then took a brush and some white paint and hand painted the numbers on. Simple, cheap (already had the paint), and looks 10x better than the sticker numbers at the hardware store.
LauraC says
Great question. Our new house (ok, it’s 60+ years old, but we bought it all of a month ago!) has TWO house number sets: one on the left and one on the right of the door! Neither can be seen well from the street, and neither match. We plan on taking the round, ceramic number plate on the right off, and painting the brass numbers (on the left) white to stand out from the brick. That’s one thing that’s tough, I’d like to replace the brass numbers with new ones, but we don’t want a bunch of holes in our brick house! Anyway, that’s the plan . . . eventually.
Candace says
I was actually thinking about this yesterday. Our house numbers are on the wood porch post and on the mailbox. These are both things I’d like to improve. I just don’t have any ideas, so I too am going to wait and see what everyone else does with theirs.
Lisa says
Sherry, funny you should ask. I’ve been pondering this very question on how to dress up my naked numberless house. Walah!I found Karla’s blog, http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/2009/02/house-numbers.html. Just what I have been looking for, since those silly metal numbers won’t fit on my house. I love it so much, I even shot her an email asking to “borrow” her idea, even down to painting my door red. One dilemma, though.I need to find a replacement color for Behr’s Cherry Tree since I cannot locate it on the Behr website. Any suggestions?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Lisa,
The great thing about places like Home Depot and Lowe’s is that they have every paint formula (even expired ones) stored in the computer. So even though you can’t find Behr’s Cherry Tree on their site, you can easily saddle up to the paint person and ask them to whip some up for you. Hope it helps!
xoxo,
Sherry
Kellie Alkayam says
Thank to everyone who gave a suggestion. I think I’ll test out a few combinations with the numbers I already have and see what works best. I’ll have plenty of before and after pictures to send in soon, along with (hopefully) a mood board of my own. Soon…soon…
Jaimee says
It looks very commercial to me and not residential.
Devin says
Our’s is currently on one of our front porch pillars (they are white and the numbers are black)… I’m wanting to do something creative w/them but as it stands, that’s the best we can do. I’ve seen a few people (in my parents neighborhood) that have a square in their driveway that has their house number carved out and darkened so you can actually read it… it’s actually pretty cool! :)
Carla T says
How interesting!! If I could just add that everyone needs to make sure that the numbers meet your city requirements. Some are strict to make sure any emergency vehicles can find the house quickly.
Melissa says
Our house numbers are just on our mailbox. It would be pointless to put them on our door as we have so many trees surrounding our home that you would never see them and we are also a pretty good distance from the street.
Blayne says
I think its cool! All the houses in our neighborhood have a white brick on the house with black numbers carved in it. Not too original but effective!
Rebekah says
This is really cool! I would love to do that on our building.
Emily says
When people think of putting numbers on their house, they think of friends stopping by, and that’s all good, but when being all chic and fun, please remember that house numbers are also there for things like deliveries and emergencies! I am constantly shocked by the number of homes that have no markings at all!
Devon and Steve says
We’re a year late on this one, but that’s how long it took us to get to house numbers…. Anyway, you can see our fabulous, custom Ravenstone Tiles (www.ravenstonetiles.com) house number tile on our blog at http://casabijansky.blogspot.com/2010/06/notice-anything-different.html. Hope you like it!
Kasey Befeler says
First, you guys are amazing! I’m reading from day 1 of your blog so I’m not quite caught up yet, but you are already a household name in our family. My husband knows exactly who I mean when I say “Sherry and John did this this way….” as we’re tackling another home project together! My husband and I just spent the last year of our lives building/renovating/creating our dream home. I had to share one of my favorite pieces – the house numbers in our “transom” window above our front door. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjvrzFLk. I designed the numbers in Illustrator (mimicking the font Kaptiva) and had them printed on vinyl. We applied the black vinyl numbers to the outside of the glass, and a piece of frosted vinyl to the inside of the glass. We’re so happy with how it turned out. The house too! Of course it’s still a work in progress, and will be for years to come.
YoungHouseLove says
They sound awesome and I’d love to see them but your page is marked private. Rejected!
xo,
s
Kasey Befeler says
So sorry – I’m new to Flickr. Should work now!
YoungHouseLove says
Holy cow- that’s amazing!
xo,
s
Sarah LaClaire says
Another idea for high-visibilty numbers (I think someone mentioned them earlier), are that they actually have solar house numbers that have the lights built in right above the numbers! It makes it much easier for people trying to find our house in the dark!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that’s amazing!
xo,
s