I loved my rental home but the house number was built into the stone work over the garage and was not easily visible from the road.
One year I created a plaque and hung it on the chain it came with by the front door.
Unfortunately, during the winter, the wind kept blowing it off the wall. Then I saw that Dollar Tree had garden flag hangers of the kind that stick in the ground like a garden hook. I took my battered wood plaque, repainted it, dressed it up a bit and attached it to the garden flag hanger.
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Supplies Used and Recommendations:
Here’s what you need to make an easy house number sign:
- garden flag holder
- spray paint (optional)
- wood plaque (approx. 9 3/4-inches long by 6-inches wide) (Dollarama)
- stencil of choice (Dollar Tree)
- acrylic paint
- poster numbers (Dollar Tree)
- Mod Podge
- paint dauber (set of two at Dollar Tree)
- bamboo or other wood garden stake (painted to match flag hanger
- eye hooks
- two small lengths of chain (from Dollar Tree garden decor piece)
The poster numbers are 2 1/2-inches tall. The stencils come off the sheet separately, making them easier to use.
Step 1: Re-Paint
The first thing I had to do was to clean the plaque and give it two coats of paint. I used a blowdryer to dry the paint in between coats just to speed things up.
Step 2: Determine Number Placement
Next, I determined how I wanted to arrange the stencil and numbers. These stencils are self-adhesive to hold them in place. I just made sure that all of the central parts were completely flat.
Later, I added another small stencil to the upper right-hand corner to balance things out.
Paint Stencil
I used a paint dauber to apply paint to the stencil. As I’m fairly new to stencilling, I was a little heavy-handed with the paint which blurred some of the edges of the finished design, but it looks alright from a distance, which is all it needs to do.
Adhere Numbers
The poster numbers are self-adhesive, but they weren’t really made for this purpose, so you’ll need to glue them down to ensure they lay flat and stay in place.
Mod Podge Entire Sign
After adding the numbers, I applied a layer of Mod Podge over the entire surface of the sign. If your sign will be out in the open, you will want to seal the entire sign, front, back and sides, with a coat of clear acrylic, to help protect it from the weather.
Attach Eye Hooks
I had lost the original chain and eye hooks from the plaque. The eye hooks are easily replaced with some from a dollar store picture hanging kit.
Attach Chains
This length of the chain is about 1-inch long. It’s one of a pair I got by taking a Dollar Tree metal garden sign apart. These chains turned out to be just the right length for my purpose. Dollar Tree sells metal plant hangers that can be taken apart and used for this, too.
Strengthen Flag Hanger
As the flag hanger was never intended to be used to hang a wood plaque, it wouldn’t stand up as straight as it should. To remedy that problem, I used a bamboo garden stake that’s approx. 25-inches long, to stabilize the hanger. Any piece of wood of the appropriate size would do. I just happened to have the bamboo stake in my garage.
I had previously spray-painted the black flag hanger with brown spray paint, so I painted the stake the same colour and attached it to the metal hanger with zip ties.
The Finished Sign
In order to make the hanger stand straighter with the weight of the plaque, zip tie the stake to it at the very top and at the very bottom. A couple of extra zip ties in the middle will help to keep the stake in place. I may touch up the zip ties with the same paint colour later, so they don’t stand out so much.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way my new house sign turned out. Putting it front and centre in my front garden should help delivery people and new visitors find my house more easily.
Similar items to the ones in this post are available on Amazon
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