Have you ever gone to a party at a house you haven’t been to before and driven slowly up and down the street squinting at all the front porches trying to spot the right house numbers? I always appreciate visible house numbers in situations like that, but I figured there must be a better way to display your address than the standard format. I came up with this house address DIY and tried it out on our studio space. Now we have the cutest address on the block (at least in my opinion…)! Ready to add a little personality and fun to your front porch?
Supplies:
-house numbers (I used these)
-faux grass (I bought mine at Michael’s but this
is similar)
-3/4″ wood* (you can also use a shadow box display case of the right size instead of making your own box)
-2 1/2″ wood screws
-wood glue
-exterior paint
-multi-surface glue
*Like I mention in the supply list, you don’t have to make your own box from scratch for this project. A shadow box with the glass removed will also work, but I’ve been practicing my woodworking skills, so I wanted to make the box myself too.
If you are also into making the box yourself (yay!), you’ll want to cut your wood into the dimensions above to create the back panel and sides of the box. These dimensions worked perfectly for the size of my house numbers, but you’ll want to adjust the size of box you make (or shadow display case that you buy) to fit the numbers you want to use.
Once your wood is cut, put some wood glue on the bottom inside edge of each of the side panels, place them up against the appropriate side of the back panel, and nail into place (either with a nail gun or with a hammer once the glue is dry).
Once your box is put together, fill the nail holes with wood filler. Sand flat when the filler is dry. Now you can paint your box your desired color. I would suggest using an exterior paint since this is an outdoor project, but if your house numbers will be under a deep porch like ours are, you could probably get away with interior paint instead. If you bought a shadow display case, remove the glass and paint the frame at this point if you want to.
While your paint is drying, cut your grass mats to fit inside your box.
Put some multi-surface glue on the bottom of the inside of the box and place the grass on top of the glue. Allow the glue to dry.
Arrange the house numbers on top of the grass and drill screws into the box that correspond with the holes on the back of the numbers. You want to use screws that are long enough to be just a bit shorter than the height of your grass when screwed in so that the numbers will look like they are nestled into the grass when you hang them on the screws.
Once your numbers are in place, you can either place hangers on the back of your box and hang the house number sign using vinyl siding clips (or use brick clips on a brick house), or you can place screws directly through the box into the siding. We had several holes in our spot already from an old mailbox that used to hang there, so we figured we may as well add two more since they would all get covered up by the sign anyway.
If eyes are the “window to the soul” of the face, then front porches are something equivalent to that for the rest of the house. Porches really show the personality of those inside, and I think these house numbers are the perfect compliment to our bright teal door. They let the outside world know that this is a fun house on the outside and inside too. Think you’ll spruce up your home numbers as well? xo. Laura
Credits // Author: Laura Gummerman, Photography: Sarah Rhodes and Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Beautiful Mess actions.
45 Comments
this is so cute!!
I agree with your statement about porches and personality. I always like to scope out people’s porches when I drive by…in a non creeper kinda way of course!! 🙂
Lovely! It’s as though you’ve brought a piece of the outside onto the walls of your home, like grass peaking through the cracks in the pavement.
Great project, I’ve never seen anything like it. The numbers look so good against the bright green grass.
OMG! I love this idea! I may have to do this! It’s so fun and friendly.
That looks fantastic, great idea!
SO AMAZING!
We’re renters and our landlords are SO laid back about what we do to the house but the caveat is: we can’t do anything to the exterior because of the HOA rules. BOO.
Pinning this to come back to once I buy!
would you be permitted to use a post, if you are not allowed to fix something to the house…why not make a post to add your number box to instead?
SO fun! Definitely a unique project!
http://juliettelaura.blogspot.com/
Love this SO much!
I absolutely LOVE this, Laura! The exterior of our house is still a huge mess, but next year when we landscape, I’m definitely going to make something like this! -Mandi
That’s beautiful. We’re living in a rental, but the landlord said we can do whatever we want, so long as we don’t burn the place to the ground. It’s an old house, so I’m tempted to do that, to help it look more unique (and so the pizza guy can see where we live. You can’t see the numbers on the faded brass that it has!).
We’ve DIYed the house numbers at pretty much all of our previous houses, but I never would have thought to use faux grass. I love this idea.
This is one of the most creative DIYs I’ve seen in a long time and it looks great! Laura comes up with the best ideas!
Love this idea and I am still dying to know what that paint color is. I just adore it.
Cheers!
I love this look!!
Such a fun idea! I love this!
As an EMT we have driven past a place several times because we couldn’t read or see the address. Sometimes it’s a matter of life or death
This is so beautiful and unique! I love it | Kali’s inspiration board |
Aww I love this! I’m with you about the street numbers– it’s so helpful to know which house is which!
Always, Anita
I absolutely LOVE this DIY project! This is so beautiful and unique and really makes a house stand out from the rest. Your photography is truly the best I’ve seen. Great project and I will tell others about it. Thanks so much!
Great unique idea! I was wondering how you got the numbers to stand up so nicely. The white and green look nice together.
M.
this is so cute!
xxoo,
nikki
http://www.dream-in-neon.com
LOVE this idea. Really makes the numbers pop!
So cool and great idea!
http://bluecoastofdreams.blogspot.com/
this is super cute, love it!
Totally adore this idea! An unrelated question: did you paint that blue door or it came in that color? And if you did paint it, can you share the color? Love it!
Xx, Marketa
Hi Alexa! It’s Valspar Laguna Green 🙂 -Jacki
Hi Marketa! We painted it with Valspar Laguna Green 🙂 -Jacki
This DIY is awesome! So unique, love the faux grass, its really so beautiful, and totally elevates the front porch in so many levels.. Love this DIY..
xo
http://bit.ly/1qRKdmB
I absolutely love this DIY! I live in an apartment and we aren’t allowed to do anything to our door, but I cannot wait until we move into a new place and are able to make fun stuff like this for the outside of our house!
xoxo
Taylor
This is such a cute and super unique idea!
Tamara
http://www.trulytamara.com
Amazing! This makes the house seem so much brighter and alive! So in love… and that door colour is beautiful 🙂
Absolutely love it!
erin / http://www.beingerin.com
I really want to know how to re-create that crate bench in the photo!
I love this twist on the house number. It’s something different and unique. The DIYs that you guys put out are always fabulous. Keep ’em coming!
Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! I love this DIY Project! We need a new housenumber long time ago… what a great idea! Thanks for sharing this! I’ll make this next weekend for our house!
Greetings from Germany ♥
Tanja
So cool! Love the idea x
http://www.wild-cherrytree.com
I’m just amazed that the house number go up to the 1000s in the USA! I think the highest I’ve seen in the UK was in the 300s!
I love this! Great idea!
http://www.lesley-kim.com
such a fun idea! Gave me a great idea for a future renovation. Thanks for sharing.
-Mimi
http://www.littledwell.com
I LOVE this idea! So clean and fresh looking, plus the numbers are easily visible in a creative way.
This is so cool! I got some awesome numbers from dropcapstudio.com and I am trying to figure out how I want to hang them. This is such a good idea!
Where I can buy the same sing? I need 1, 2 and 6.
Here’s a link! https://rstyle.me/n/c45gnbb64yf
Just checking on the size of the numbers in this project. They look larger than 6 inches on the finished product hanging on the house. I Love this concept!! Thank you for the idea. I want something large enough to be seen from the street. Any more ideas?