Where to Fit Door Numbers

Where to Fit Door Numbers – Considerations Before Installing House Numbers

Decorative and functional, door numbers work to differentiate your home from other properties on the street, allowing visitors and deliveries to find you easily. More importantly than this, they are essential for emergency services to locate you as quickly as possible. Since time is of the essence in such situations, hanging house numbers where they can be easily read from the street is crucial.

Visible and Legible

Given the primary role of door numbers is to identify your house to callers, there is little point in fitting them if no one can see or read them. Bushes, garden walls and the angle at which they are viewed from the street can all obscure house numbers, so need to be taken into consideration. If your front door is set back from the street, it may be worth considering also hanging house numbers at the very front of the property, on a garden wall or gate perhaps.

Good lighting is ideal, especially during long dark winters, so placing your door numbers close to a porch light is advisable. If this isn’t feasible, choosing numbers fashioned from a reflective material can help. Contrast is also key, so if for example the backing surface is dark brick or a black door, light silver or high shine copper numbers would be a good choice to show up well. Backplates can also help distinguish numbering, should your heart be set on a particular finish of door numbers that otherwise might not show up so well.

Font type and kerning (optimal spacing of characters) should also be taken into account when considering legibility. While arty typefaces might look beautiful, from a distance they can be difficult to read. Similarly, space the numbers too closely and they can run together for the reader; too far apart and it might be unclear that it is all one number.

Durability and weatherproofing are paramount in ensuring your house numbers stay looking their best for years to come, and our solid brass door numbers tick all these boxes. With a range of finishes from heritage brass copper to nickel, as well as classic black and heritage brass, we have options that will shine wherever you decide upon hanging them.

A picture of a brass door number on a blue door.

Positioning and Style – For Aesthetics and Ease of Use

Ideally your door numbers should be at or slightly above the typical viewer’s eye-line, so they don’t need to search to locate them. If the property is on a corner, hanging house numbers on the side facing the road that pertains to the address is advisable, to avoid confusion. Positioning in relation to other door and porch furniture such as letterboxes, locks, handles and door knockers is something else that should be considered.

Whether you prefer having your door numbers a symmetrical distance from such features or artfully offset, it helps to see how they will look before you hang them. Printing out and taping up pictures of the style of door numbers you like in a range of sizes and fonts can help. Viewing them from a distance at a range of angles allows you to ensure their visibility and legibility before you commit to purchase and installation.