Micro Update: DIY Frosted Glass House Numbers

When I painted last fall, I stripped off the mailbox, lights and house numbers.  I’ve got the new box and lights in place but was having a hard time deciding on the right kind of numbers.  The commercial options were either blah, or a little pricy for my budget.

Here’s how I split the difference and created my own solution.  It highlights the original mid-century front door, enhances privacy, simplifies the entry and glow cheerily at night.

Of course, my first preference was to be designerly with Design Within Reach’s Neutra font numbers in snazzy aluminum.  I LOVE THESE but in the end I couldn’t quite pull the trigger on 100 dollars to make my house identifiable from the street.  The obvious alternative was the Home Depot version but … I didn’t love them.

I came really close one morning to just running over to Home Depot and picking up their least fussy version at a fifth the price.  But then I was derailed when they didn’t have one of my three crucial numbers in stainless steel.   I wasn’t willing to compromise to black so … I went home almost empty handed.

I had, however, just picked up another roll of window privacy film this time to free my sister’s bathroom window from the scourge of mini blinds.  When I cut it down to size I had two 6 x 24″ strips leftover.  At the same time I had solved my front door’s privacy problem by hanging a remnant piece of fabric over the back side of the three little windows.

Rather than simply cutting rice paper film for the front window openings I decided I could get a two-fer by increasing front door privacy and having the exact classy font of house numbers I desired for (nearly) free.

I mocked up the door layout in the computer and played around with several fonts.  Then I printed them out to size, trimmed my stick-on rice paper to match the windows, centered my mockups by eye and cut two layers with a handy-dandy exacto.

These can last forever or be peeled back off in an instant.  For the moment, though I’m thrilled with the result, which cost me only time and really stands out, and have no plans to change it.  Now I’ve come all the way from there to here.  Next step, matching the door color to the mailbox and updating my drafty old storm door.