My house just got repainted, and for a week my packages were misdelivered, a stranger came to the door looking for someone who lives two blocks away and my food delivery person wandered around until dinner was almost cold.
It finally dawned on me — there was no number affixed to my house. The painters had removed it to do their job and it lay, discarded, on the arm of an old Adirondack chair in the yard while the paint dried. For that first week, my home had no identity, no fixed place in the world. I was off the grid, in a numberless limbo. It reminded me how those little numbers make a big difference.
“House numbers are one of the most often overlooked elements of establishing curb appeal,” says Becky Ducsik, principal interior designer at The Phinery, a home store in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood.
Let’s take a look at the impact of our house numbers and their various styles from three different perspectives: a homeowner, a designer and a local artist who makes them.
Homeowner perspective: Making a house a home
House numbers were the very first housewarming gift Lourdes Orive received for her new home in Lakewood. The midcentury modern, acrylic address sign from Atomic Avocado Designs was a gift from her best friend. It made her feel seen and set the tone for the home she’s since made.
“I read an article recently that talked about your house number, mailbox, door hardware and porch light as ‘jewelry for your house.’ I loved that idea!” says Orive, a senior director at Microsoft. “For my house, it was especially important, because my style and most of my furnishings are definitely midcentury, yet the house I bought isn’t. It was built in the ’80s, but it has a lot of midcentury modern ‘bones’ that I wanted to play up to fit the aesthetic I was looking for.”
To get the exterior look she was seeking, Orive removed some decorative shutters, and replaced the mailbox, front door and doorbell. Then she added her new house numbers to get “the fun look I wanted while also being extremely functional,” she says.
“It’s kind of surprising how much of a difference new house numbers can make,” says Orive. “When I bought it, the house had no house numbers, just the numbers on the mailbox. I get comments from my Amazon delivery drivers and UPS folks on the numbers all the time.
“Orange is my favorite accent color, so the new doorbell, mailbox and house numbers all blend to create what I think is a playful, Atomic Age feel,” she says.
Designer perspective: Expressing a home’s personality
Ducsik’s design team at The Phinery considers house numbers a fixture. She says the font and size impact the home’s personality: “It’s an opportunity to put your own personal stamp on your home,” she says.
Ducsik helps clients pick the font and scale of their numbers. She sees a large range in Seattle, where homes feature many different styles: tall modern structures, Tudors, ranches and brick homes.
“Most design inspiration really does come from the architecture of the home,” she says.
Large sans serif fonts modernize the front of a home, while smaller serif numbers suit more traditional homes because they’re not as dramatic, Ducsik says. Some customers opt for custom plaques, featuring the year the home or family was established.
“One thing we’ve been doing quite a bit is working with vinyl to create custom house numbers in a font of our choosing,” Ducsik says. She considers this a fun, whimsical application that’s practical, too — the vinyl stands up to Seattle weather and is easy to remove.
The Phinery recently created spelled-out script numbers for a Craftsman in Greenwood.
“The previous house numbers were under the porch and not as visible from the front,” Ducsik explains. “We had creative freedom to have fun.”
Artist perspective: Home art as unique as its inhabitants
Galina Panov Kreymer, who goes by Kupava, is a ceramic artist in Seattle who makes beautiful platters but is also known for the ceramic home address signs in her Etsy shop, Kupava Art Home. Her creations adorn homes not just in the Seattle area, but across the U.S. and in Canada, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia, India and the United Arab Emirates.
“I began working with ceramics about seven years ago when I was forced to move from Tel Aviv to Seattle and leave my career as a jewelry designer behind,” Kupava says. “Before, I was decorating people, and now I get to decorate their homes! Our homes reflect our individuality, our spirit and our style.”
Kupava says the house numbers she makes are a depiction of each person or family.
“Some love bright colors and strong florals, while others are calmer and more reserved and prefer a mosaic-like pattern,” she says. “I do my best to try and help each home be a better reflection of its inhabitants and be just as unique.”
Kupava’s mosaic style is the most sought after, and is a popular choice for beach homes. Tropical patterns are also big sellers.
“In the spring, people buy poppy designs, while in the fall, hydrangeas sell a lot more,” she says. “My customers trust me to make the numbers to match the color scheme of their house and are always very happy with the results.”
Kupava’s art is a one-woman show — she makes every item by hand, from start to finish.
“Working with clay is a magical, yet a labor-intensive and meticulous process,” she explains. “Clay is almost alive and changes with every touch.” Each piece is “cut to shape, carved with a design and left to dry for days or weeks at a time. Then, it is fired in one of my electric kilns for about 12 hours. After it has cooled back down, I bring it to life with the touch of my brushes and many colorful glazes. Another firing or two follows that, and it is finally ready for the world to see.”
Kupava says she is drawn to ceramic’s endurance. “Nothing is eternal. Despite that, we find ceramics that were made many hundreds of years ago and still marvel at their beauty in museums. Maybe the same will happen with my numbers.”
Kupava finds inspiration in many sources: her family, which includes three children; her library of books from all over the world; and her garden, where she grows flowers year-round. But her own roots are what provide “not only individuality, but strength and motivation to create,” she says: Israel, where she spent half her life, and Ukraine, her birthplace.
“Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian fairy tales, Ukrainian language,” she says. “The war that is now happening in my country is a tragedy that has brought pain, horror and terror. Our entire Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. is working hard to help as much as possible. We organize charity fairs and educational events. There is no limit to my gratitude to my American customers. These are strangers who become relatives, understand this pain, find the right words, and with their purchases, support my business. And with that income, I support Ukraine. I am very, very grateful to all of them for this.”