Hit the Mark With Creative House Numbers
Think beyond the traditional, and boost your home’s curb appeal with Cor-Ten steel, industrial DIY or oversize numbers
Think of house numbers as the frosting on the cake of your home’s exterior — a detail that adds the finishing touch to the front yard. Instead of settling for something ordinary, consider something that expresses your style and bumps up the curb appeal. These nine examples use unexpected materials and creative placement while remaining durable and easy to spot from the street.
2. Clean and contemporary. Thin-edged metal house numbers in a modern font complement the minimalist entry of this Phoenix home. The contrast between the color and material of the wall and the house numbers, as well as the landscape lighting, make the numbers easy to read from a distance.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to more traditional. For traditional-style homes, use the contrast of a modern house-number font to make a subtle contemporary statement.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to more traditional. For traditional-style homes, use the contrast of a modern house-number font to make a subtle contemporary statement.
3. Classic. There’s nothing wrong with completely traditional, understated house numbers in an easy-to-read font. Particularly for houses with more decorative exteriors, like this Houston home, keeping house numbers simple ensures that they’ll add to the overall design, rather than being a distracting detail. If your home has a porch or an overhang, positioning house numbers on a column can make them more visible from the street.
Great for: Traditional, cottage, Craftsman and other classic styles, as well as historical homes.
Great for: Traditional, cottage, Craftsman and other classic styles, as well as historical homes.
4. Rustic. A custom-designed metal house number, mounted to a fence made of vertical wood logs, provides a understated house marker to a hillside home in San Luis Obispo, California. Subtle uplights illuminate the marker in the evening.
Here’s a wider shot of the log house marker. The marker’s look and placement work well with the natural-style landscaping and the building of contemporary wood and concrete aggregate.
Great for: Rustic settings like country homes, farmhouses, cabins and lodges, of course. But such house numbers also work well paired with contemporary buildings made of natural materials.
Great for: Rustic settings like country homes, farmhouses, cabins and lodges, of course. But such house numbers also work well paired with contemporary buildings made of natural materials.
5. Minimalist. This large single-digit house number against a dark backdrop is elegant in its simplicity. To mimic this timeless look, consider generally limiting the colors and materials used for the home’s front exterior to one or two elements and choosing a house number to coordinate with the door or trim.
For an edgier look, consider painting the house number a bright color like lime green or vivid orange to stand out against an otherwise traditional exterior.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to traditional.
For an edgier look, consider painting the house number a bright color like lime green or vivid orange to stand out against an otherwise traditional exterior.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to traditional.
6. Oversize. Great for spotting from a distance, super-size house numbers can add a playful, graphic element to an entryway. This style works best with single- or double-digit, overly graphic house numbers. Longer addresses can take up too much space proportionally by the doorway.
Great for: Modern and minimalist homes, and those with relatively plain exteriors.
Great for: Modern and minimalist homes, and those with relatively plain exteriors.
7. Natural. House numbers set on a boulder, street-side wall or other garden feature, rather than on the side of the building, can make an interesting garden accent all on their own. The number for this Minneapolis home, for example, is set on a slab of rock to form a natural focal point at the top of a water feature. A spotlight illuminates the number at night, so it’s still easy to see in the landscape.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to more traditional, depending on the materials and font used.
Great for: A wide range of house styles, from contemporary to more traditional, depending on the materials and font used.
8. Mediterranean style. Charming blue-and-white tile numbers and a potted red geranium make a cheerful entryway to this home in Tel Aviv. If you’re choosing a colorful house number, reinforce the theme with entryway accents, such as containers, throw pillows on a bench or a painted chair in the same hue.
Great for: Mediterranean-style adobe homes, beach cottages and vacation houses.
Great for: Mediterranean-style adobe homes, beach cottages and vacation houses.
9. Industrial. From a distance, the house numbers on this garage conversion in Portland, Oregon, look like beaten metal. However, up close, they’re revealed to be made from tightly packed screws.
Homeowners Bryan and Jen Danger looked for ways to repurpose as many building materials as possible during the garage’s transformation to a studio apartment, and this included making house numbers out of a box of leftover Robertson screws. The result is a unique house marker that complements the studio’s modern-industrial feel, can be easily seen from the street, and cuts down on cost from purchasing new materials.
Great for: Urban buildings, and modern and eclectic styles.
Watch on Houzz TV: See how this couple turned a garage into a home
Great for: Urban buildings, and modern and eclectic styles.
Watch on Houzz TV: See how this couple turned a garage into a home
Your turn: What do your house numbers look like? Show us in the Comments below.
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17 Ways to Increase Your Home’s Curb Appeal
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17 Ways to Increase Your Home’s Curb Appeal
Browse house numbers
Great for: Contemporary, midcentury modern or more traditional-style homes. The Cor-Ten material tends to swing more modern, but it could be used to add a bit of edge to a home with a traditional architectural style.
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