A well-designed house number can make a significant impact on the overall look and feel of your home. While house numbers can sometimes be an afterthought, they make a big impact on the impression that your visitors have – particularly when they visit your house for the first time.
I chatted to the team at House Numbers for their three key tips for finding or designing the perfect house number to complement your house design.
1. Colour and Finish
The colour or finish is one of the first things that you need to keep in mind when selecting the perfect house number. It’s both the colour of the number as well as the colour of the mounting surface where the numbers are being hung that need to be considered. How these two colours / finishes work together can make a big difference in how impactful the numbers are.
Numbers ideally require a high contrast to the area where they are hung. This helps them stand out when viewed from a distance and can also make them appear more striking when you are up close. You’ve no doubt carefully chosen a colour you like for the external of your home or fence eg Dulux Monument. Rather than matching this colour for your house number, the recommended approach is to contrast it – in this example with a matt white powder coat.
Ensure you choose colours that you like, but that are going to help differentiate the number from the place where they are hung. A related consideration is also taking the finish into account – house numbers are available with a gloss finish, matt finish, or in the case of aluminium metal numbers – a brushed aluminium finish.
2. Font Style
The next element to consider in the design of your house number is the font. Though you might be tempted to use the same traditional number font that your neighbours use for their house numbers, you can also have fun with the font. You want to choose a font that is going to stand out, one that is bold and easy to read, and one that is going to be impactful.
Like many considerations for your home, the font should match the design of your house. A more traditional house – more traditional font, modern house – more modern font, mid-century house – mid-century font. It seems simple, but when there’s a disconnect with these elements they can really stand out and impact the cohesiveness of your overall house styling.
While it can be interesting to go with fonts that are unique, a house number they are also serving a very practical purpose, so they still need to be very easy to read.
There are plenty of fonts out there that can make locking one in difficult. If you are unsure about what might work for you and the design of your house, it’s worth taking the time to print out a few different fonts and stick them up on your intended mounting surface. You want to make sure that the font fits the house, and is impactful, while also ensuring that you generally like it!
3. Size
The last factor to consider when deciding on a house number is its size. This is an area that many people can get wrong and end up selecting a smaller house number than would be ideal.
A house number should be sized and positioned in such a way that it’s easy to view from the street. It should also fit the space well where it’s mounted, not looking over or undersized. Your chosen size should be empathetic to the surface you’re mounting to. If it’s a large beam where you’re mounting the number for example, then for the size to look balanced it needs a large house number. Alternatively, something as small as a letterbox would require smaller letterbox numbers.
You can get away with selecting a font that may be cursive and a bit harder to read, as long as you choose a number that is large enough to be read from a distance and that is clear. With the size of the numbers, you want to make sure that they are large enough to read, but not so large that they are distracting or that they deter from the look of the home.
You can also use the printing tip to see how those numbers are going to fit and what size is going to fit your space. Print out a set of numbers in a font that you like and experiment with the size to see what fits best.
Final Tips
Above all else, when choosing your house numbers, you want to make sure you select numbers that you like and that you are going to be happy with for the long term – it’s a feature of your house that you’re likely to notice every day! Although it’s easy to lean towards more traditional or standard house number styles, this is your chance to add a design element that sets the tone for your house. Floating house numbers, black house numbers, and numbers that are fun colours are all great options to consider!
House Numbers offer a range of sizes, fonts and finishes to suit a variety of house styles. If you have something special in mind, they are also able to produce a custom house number for you. If they can help with any questions or advice, feel free to send them an email or getting in contact by clicking on the link above.
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