Midcentury Modern House Numbers

This topic has been on ongoing one as long as I’ve been a homeowner and interested in MCM.  House numbers, like so many other things marketed to a discerning audience, seem to cost an INSANE amount of money.

Unfortunately, our most recent address has 5 numbers!  At the low end of the house number price spectrum (around $20 a piece), this means I’ll be paying $100 in  house number hardware.

Design Within Reach carries “official” Neutra house numbers at $50 a piece.  Are you freaking kidding me? Bead-blasted extruded aluminum should cost nowhere near this much.

The best thing going for a while was Chiasso’s numbers clocking in at $18 a piece.

 

Here are a couple more from Atlas Home Wares that are at that price point.

This would be my choice:

http://www.atlashomewares.com/avhonu.html

But here’s a Googie option as well:

http://www.atlashomewares.com/methousnum.html

 

Surprisingly, Home Depot has established itself as the clear winner when it comes to affordable MCM house numbers.  When I discovered this information online, I had serious reservations.  Surely these would be “ok” but not “good.”  But after heading to the local HD, I found they are in fact quite acceptable, if not great.  They even come with posts for “float” mounting.

 

There seem to be a bunch of sites that are more “custom” in their ordering process, but you actually have to CALL the company, and the websites look like they were design around 1993.  That combined with the $20+ per number price tag makes me wonder if they ever sell a number.

If you’re feeling handy, here’s a little how to for making numbers for yourself (approx. $20 for four numbers… and if you go this route you could then have the “real” Neutra typeface).