Since we’re having the house painted (in two days!), I’ve been thinking about what to do for a house number. Here’s the standard issue that came with the place.
That was ripped off nearly immediately during initial demo. Then we went without a house number for a while, relying on the prominently displayed numbers of our immediate neighbors and the deductive reasoning of our guests. But I knew exactly what I wanted to do whenever I could find the time. I wanted the numbers frosted in the door’s bottom three window panes. Or rather I wanted the windows frosted and the numbers cut out.
That’s actually what we have now, but it’s pretty tough to see. Which makes it not as awesome or functional as I once hoped. Here’s the best picture I could manage:
It does show up more in person than in pictures, but it’s just not working as is. I’m pretty sure it could be made to work if I took the time to do it properly, i.e., with actual window frosting material rather than clear contact paper. I’ve always intended to do just that, but now I’m considering other options, too. Here’s why:
All those lovely dents are courtesy of the local fire department. Just before we moved in –the very day the living room was painted, thereby completing the must-do-before-moving-in list– there was a fire in the house next door. And let me remind you that “next door” in our case means attached to our house. The fire was at night, so we weren’t there. The fire fighters didn’t know that of course, so they did some pretty firm knocking on the door before ultimately climbing through the living room window. That’s what we deduced from the scars in our fresh paint anyway. It was all very dramatic, I’m sure. Thankfully nobody was hurt next door and there was no sign of fire or smoke whatsoever at our house…except the door dents and smudged paint.
[Sidebar: The burned house was boarded up and empty for months. It was kind of nice not having neighbors, except when the smoke detector over there started--ironically and loudly--chirping it's low battery warning every twenty minutes or so. I'd love to know what brand of batteries they used because those suckers held on and on for a couple weeks. WEEKS!]
No complaints about the dents on our door, of course, since they were a result of someone getting in harm’s way to save us and/or our property. We’ll give that a pass. But I wouldn’t mind hiding or distracting from the dents, especially since they may stand out more when the door gets a glossy coat of ‘Citrus.’ (Sneak peek here.) That’s what I was pondering when I came up with this.
It’s just a piece of chalkboard contact paperthat I stenciled, trimmed, and slapped on the door. Couldn’t be easier. And since I didn’t remove the window numbers, you can check out this side-by-side (er, top-by-bottom) comparison of functionality. (True in the above picture, too–did you even notice?)
Well that’s pretty resounding: the black number plate actually communicates our address with no squinting or special effort required by guests or passersby. That’s an improvement. But I worry that it’s too much, especially since we may add a kick plate to the door and don’t want it to end up feeling cluttered. I could tweak the number plate design–simpler font, less background. This contact paper job is just a mock up after all; it doesn’t look so hot up close.
Hello, bubbles and dents. This will have to be executed differently if I decide to go this direction. But if YOU have a smooth door that could use a little non-permanent style injection (renters and commitment-phobes, I’m looking in your direction), contact paper could get the job done very easily. I highly recommend. I’m actually considering a different option using white contact paper. Here’s a digital mock up:
Our sad little mailbox looks better in this edited picture than it does in person. I think we’ll replace it with something similarly plain and black; maybe vertically oriented though. Whatever mailbox we go with will be moved over to align with the right side of the porch light. This option obviously does nothing to mask the dents on the door, but I’m sure the white-on-black contrast would make this equally visible from the curb as the numbers on the door.
So these are the three house number options I’m considering.
There’s no clear front runner for me at this point. My heart lies with the frosted window numbers, but they don’t hide the dents and I seriously dread the window film process for some reason. One thing is for sure: I’ll have my hands on some contact paper again soon, either replacing the clear stuff on the windows, adding black to the door, or white to the mailbox. Come to think of it, I’m also working on a totally separate contact paper project that I’m hoping to share with you soon. Hmm, I may have an addiction. Anybody want to start a support group?