Burning Question: Let’s Address This
When it comes to your casa’s house numbers, where exactly are they located? Does your mailbox boast your address? Or does your front porch wear its numbers proudly? Are they on a pane of glass above your front door or even your front door itself? Or do you have one of those fancy little customized plaques for the yard or next to the door?
If your numbers look anything like this cover of the now-defunct Blueprint magazine, we totally covet your door. And speaking of curb appeal, here’s how we switched out our front door hardware and even added a spiffy little door knocker while we were at it.
Psst- looking for a magazine to fill the void left by Domino, Blueprint and Cottage Living? Check out Lonny, the new online magazine.
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we just scored some majorly cool black sort of frank lloyd wright looking numbers when the home depot expo near us went out of business. they were 70% off, so we got all 4 numbers for about $15! they are on the front of our house at the corner next to our window. (our porch runs along the front of the house and our door doesn’t face the street, so that’s the best place for them to be seen.)
We have a GORGEOUS *choke* large rock (small boulder) in the middle of our grassy front yard with the house numbers stenciled on in black spray paint. I’m not kidding.
Even before we bought the house, I always thought, “Man, that is ugly!” Now that we’ve been here for over a year, it’s about time to take some action, don’t you think? But with 4 young kids, it’s been back-burnered thus far. The magazine pic is inspiring. Maybe I’ll do that :-)
We have super-slick and modern numbers for our mid-century low slung ranch house. They beat the heck out of the countryfied yellow and brown wood plaque that used to hang above the garage. Man, that thing was u.g.l.y.
I just finished a house number project oddly enough. See what you think:
http://sunnyslifeinrehab.blogspot.com/
I actually do have some numbers like the Blueprint ones. They make me smile every time I see them. They are custom vinyl wall “words” and cost about $12.
Our house numbers are on the trim above our front door. We got them from Restoration Hardware (Mission style) for $10 each.
http://rehabitat.blogspot.com/2008/12/recession.html
I ran across this the other day – http://secure.wonderfulgraffiti.com/products/detail/1/617 and thought it was very cool. I think it would be a good DIY project!
Really cute! We love Wonderful Graffiti!
xo,
s
Thanks for sharing the link to that magazine! I have been DYING since Domino left!
We still have the house numbers that came with the house. Some day, we’ll do something funky.
I really miss Domino and Blueprint…
We have a bank of four double hung windows (living room) on the front of the house–the house numbers are on the trim of this bank of windows. The house is a 1929 Milwaukee bungalow which you enter via the sun room so the front door is perpendicular to the street. The front elevation is the bank of windows in the living room and the bank of windows in the sunroom–so the placement of the house numbers is the most useful place for them to be. We ordered the numbers when we signed the contract for the house–they are craftsman style and in oil rubbed bronze–they fit the house well.
Hi John and Sherry!
Just wanted to say thanks for the Blueprint love! That’s my cousin, Jeremy, and his real-life wife, Holly, on the cover. My husband and I are firm believers that cool house numbers are one of the best investments for the front of the house. They can make such a cool statement with such little effort!
I look forward to your posts every morning. Gets my day off to a great start!
No way Amanda! I can’t believe you know those beautiful people on the cover of our favorite Blueprint magazine! It’s such a small world!
xo,
s
Oh, Blueprint. I barely knew ye! I wonder where one can find those gorgeous home numbers!
I know! Blueprint left us far too soon. The good news is that you can find similar address stencils or vinyl numbers and letters on Etsy to spruce up your door Blueprint-style. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I recently found Fresh Home.
http://www.freshhomemag.com/FreshHomeMag/index.html
It’s a pretty good sub for our defunct design mags… mixed up with a lot of DIY projects.
I inherited one of those big plastic one piece mailboxes (think “Little tikes”) when we bought our home eight months ago. So ugly, but sturdy and impervious to teenage high jinks. Visually, I would love to be rid of it; philosophically, it would take up so much room in a land fill. Any ideas to make it less … blech?
Hmm, good question. Maybe you could try growing a vine or some shrubbery around it to obscure the plastic exterior but still keep the function (and keep it from a landfill)? Hope it helps! Anyone else have an idea.
xo,
s
Our house numbers are engraved into a decorative brick that is a permanent part of our house’s facade next to the garage door. It could use a little touch-up paint to make the black numbers stand out against the sandstone, but it is easy to see from the street and matches the look and feel of the exterior of our home. It’s not something that could easily be added to a house that’s already been built, but a great idea for anyone who’s currently laying brick.
I handpainted my numbers on our front door just like this image from Blueprint above. And I absolutely love it. Not only is it extremely readable from the street, but it adds a certain charm to our front door. It was tricky to hand-paint them, but totally worth the time and effort it took.
Photos here — http://rachelshingleton.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/house-numbers/
The front door..our topic of conversation for the past 2 weeks! I am totally pushing for the numbers (as seen featured on Blueprint)We’re trying to pick paint color for the door(currently white), our house is one dull shade of tan or “maple”..shutters to match. We’re thinking a rusty orange or fresh bright green. To Betty: We also inherited one of those plastic mailboxes. I’ve actually seen one spray painted, Krylon Paint for plastic at Lowes.
We live on a rural property, our driveway is 4 km’s long so we don’t really have a need for ‘street cred’ or a house number as we are the only people on our road. My mail gets addressed to our property name, ‘Ythanbrae’ and our town and that is all. I do however have a black and brass sign at our cottage’s front door which reads ‘Ythanbrae Cottage’ – I don’t have a house number so it fills the gap! I plan on posting photos of my sign soon over at my blog…
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we live in a 97 year-old building in Germany. The building’s number is molded into a crest in the concrete block that is over the center of the front door of the building and the digits are painted gold. This is how most of the buildings in our neighborhood are identified, some more elaborately than others. On building has a art neuveau figure of a woman holding the crest. I love walking through the streets and admiring the great architectural details here. I don’t know of any neighborhoods in the states like ours here.
One neat thing we’ve found in our travels, in the oldest part of Prague, Czech Republic, the houses weren’t numbered. Instead, they have a unique animal symbol that identifies the building (i.e., lobster, fox, duck). Their brightly painted and look great! I want to live in the lobster house!
Oh goodness, what beautiful ideas here. I wish I could utilize one of them but I’m renting a rowhome covered in formstone that had the house number etched into it over 60 years ago! BLECCCH. You can barely see it if you’re standing on my stoop, so there’s no hope for people driving past!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formstone
My house numbers are displayed next to the front door in a font that resembles Futura (which makes this graphic designer happy) purchased from Home Depot.
As for LonnyMag: Thank you for introducing us! I mourn the loss of Domino with each Glamour I receive in its place. Lonny definitely appears to exhibit a fantastic array of design styles and price ranges in a beautiful format. I’m so happy to ad it to my faves.
The previous owners of our home left a wonderful wrought iron sign with white reflective numbers that sits near the curb.
However, the same previous owners used the cheap-o stick-on numbers near the front door. Said door was painted the same shade of fading cream as the rest of the trim. We painted the front door w/ black enamel, re-installed the existing brass door knocker and brass kick plate, added a front door handle kit and brass numerals in roughly the spot where the number is on the door pictured on the magazine cover.