How to Make Your House Numbers Stand Out

We have a very welcoming home…

That is, if you can find our front door!

OK, it’s not that bad, but our front door is actually on the side of our house. So that means that the house numbers are also on the side of our house. Which makes finding our house numbers on the house difficult (they are on the mailbox, but if you’re looking at the house, you can’t see them from the road).

I decided that we needed house numbers on the front of our home. The problem is that we have dark brick and I was afraid that the numbers wouldn’t stand out.

Problem solved!

A piece of scrap fence board and some stain and now our house numbers stand out against the dark brick!

Here’s how I made it.

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Materials:

House numbers (duh). I got my house numbers at the Country Living Fair last year; they are made out of wood.
Piece of wood big enough for your house numbers to fit. I had a scrap piece of cedar fence board from my DIY Pumpkin Stand and I used that (free! Free is good!). Cedar fence boards aren’t expensive if you go and buy one – $1.50-2.50 per board, usually.
Saw, if you need to cut down your board. (Or, you can ask them to do it at the home improvement store.)
Sander or sandpaper (180-grit or less will work fine here).
Paint or stain.
Masonry bit if you need to drill into brick. I used a hole already in the brick, which was perfect. Look before you drill – you never know if someone has already put a hole there (for a flag bracket, trellis, etc.).

Let’s get started!

First, decide what size board you need. I just laid out the numbers on some wood scraps I had in my shed until I found the right size board.

Using the scrap cedar fence post is great for a number of reasons.

It was free!
The cedar is naturally bug-resistant and durable. It’s a fence board – it’s meant to be outside. Also, it will age naturally and beautifully.
Did I mention it was free??

Even if you buy a cedar fence post new, it won’t cost you more than $3. Can’t beat that!

Next, sand down the board. I wanted a more rustic look, so I just sanded lightly to take off the rough spots. If you want a more modern look, then use a smoother board to start with (like white wood or pine) and sand it until very smooth.

Wipe down the board to get all the sanding dust and bits off.

Time for paint or stain!

I used Rust-Oleum Ultimate Wood Stain in Weathered Gray. The picture above shows the board with one coat of stain on it. I ended up only using two coats because I knew the cedar would age naturally to a gray tone anyway. I just wanted a bit of that gray to start and a color to contrast with the dark brick on the house.

Second coat of stain / how to make house numbers stand out / thediybungalow.com

Two coats of stain applied. Obviously still wet!

Two quick notes about stain:

Before you start staining wood, STIR the stain. Do not shake it! You will end up with bubbles which will make your finish look bad.
Once you’ve applied the stain to your wood, wipe off the excess. You can always add another coat later to make it darker. You don’t want globs or pools of stain on your wood or the finish won’t end up even.

For a more modern look, paint the wood with gloss paint or stain it a dark, rich color. Just depends on your house color and your style.

Once the paint or stain is dry, attach the house numbers to the board.