House signs

[JoceAndChris]

So what house signs have you all got then?
Is there a material or style that's considered nicer for period homes?
How and where have you mounted it?

I'm leaning towards having one on a post outside the holly hedge, where you park your car. You can't really see the house much from there, but that's the point at which people would really like to be reassured they've come to the right place. It might look a bit guest-housey - what do you all think?

 

[Penners]

I don't think you can beat engraved slate for an elegant, classic house sign. We've had three such signs, and they've always outlasted our time in each house, looking as good as new on the day we left. The oldest of these was 12 years.

But avoid embellishments, fancy fonts, little flowers.... etc. (as I'm sure you would!). A fine key-line around the edge is all the decoration you need - or nothing at all except the house name.

Slate benefits from an annual oiling (I used linseed oil), which restores its blackness and makes the sign look wonderful.

I pinched the above image from: http://store.welshslate.com/welshslate-store/products/7-housesigns-slate.aspx

 

[philpjuk100]

Some can be quite classy!

 

[JoceAndChris]

I don't think you can beat engraved slate for an elegant, classic house sign. We've had three such signs, and they've always outlasted our time in each house, looking as good as new on the day we left. The oldest of these was 12 years.

But avoid embellishments, fancy fonts, little flowers.... etc. (as I'm sure you would!). A fine key-line around the edge is all the decoration you need - or nothing at all except the house name.

Slate benefits from an annual oiling (I used linseed oil), which restores its blackness and makes the sign look wonderful.

I pinched the above image from: http://store.welshslate.com/welshslate-store/products/7-housesigns-slate.aspx

That's lovely Mr P, and what my own taste suggests too.

If you were mounting it here, how would you do it?

(The "eggs for sale sign" has now been removed due to the continuous problem of demand exceeding supply)

Would you dismiss the idea of mounting there as too difficult and go for the house instead? It isn't very obvious where to put one, I guess that's why there isn't one.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hmm, to the left of the left window, in the middle, might be a possibility. The curve of the wall is not so extreme as to make a flat piece of slate really stick out.

 

[Keith Bowman]

We have one as well, and since we put ours up, three near neighbours have followed suit. That could mean they are becoming a bit common! We ordered ours on-line from Atlantic Signs in Cornwall: http://www.housesignsonline.co.uk/index.php
In your place, I would clear a bit more holly away from the right hand gate post and put it there somehow. Could the wording fit on a vertical oblong shape?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Mr Keith Trend-Setter, very helpful! I think we might copy you too.

A good idea to use the gate post for mounting - maybe some kind of a bracket. I t would be nice if it could be flush with the holly, and look like the holly is holding it up - oh, a job for Chris, who unerstands these things better than I. Don't think "Beacon Cottage" would fit vertically.

 

[MdB]

 

[philpjuk100]

This is the sign above our front door,I think it is some kind of pottery and has survived the last two bad winters.The wheel pattern has been used in the the rear crazy paving as well.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I agree woith Penners, unembellished lettering on slate, by far the best. I too have left a slate sign on the house we had here 12 years ago, it still looks good!

 

[Penners]

If you were mounting it here, how would you do it?

I think it has to be beside the gate. Given the distance from the gate to the house, people might not see it if you put it beside the front door.

I think I agree with Keith's suggestion - clear away some of the growth on the wall beside the gate. If you want the sign to project forwards a bit, I'm sure Chris could devise some sort of spacer to fit between it and the wall.

 

[AMc]

Our house has 3 numbers and two street entrances and 5 external doors

I opted for slate signs at both main entrances with the original house name, the numbers allocated in the 1990's and the street name.
I found out the best size available then mocked up the sign in Word and printed it out to get an idea of spacing and visibility.
I then worked out where I was going to put the signs so they were most visible.
They came from http://www.maricraft.co.uk/ who did a beautiful job for a very fair price (£55 each). They don't seem to have adjusted their prices since 2007. We got "House name 3" with 3 lines of text in white Times Roman no border.

Speaking as a former daily news and media delivery courier if you have a name and number please show both prominently where they're visible from the road. I spent a very confusing first morning many years ago trying to work out which anonymous house was which and where they might keep their front door on my round. Some had lovely names like "Holly cottage" and "Dunroamin" but my list had their numbers and most houses had nothing at all.

I get delivery drivers knocking on my door looking for the "stealth" houses that are behind the church down a long drive that just says "Private. No entry" on the gatepost. I wonder how many deliveries never turn up - if they can't find the house they can't even leave one of those annoying cards?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Very helpful indeed, many thanks for all the posts.

I so agree with AMc about the difficulty of finding houses, having been involved with the Census earlier this year. And the poor old delivery drivers really really struggle with our isolated place up an unmade road: I never order anything without insisting my telephone number gets put on the package with copious instructions. It's made worse by the fact our unique postcode, entered into Sat Nav, takes them to a footpath in the middle of town. It's true that if you walk from there you will find the cottage, but it takes 20 minutes. Sometimes some delivery drivers play tricks on the others, and try to get them to do just that. :lol:

A house sign is at least like a final prize after all the searching, otherwise they might find me out and never know if they'd found the correct address or not.

I love the plain slate ones with white writing and will order one as soon as this bit of shopping is authorised by His Lordship.

Mr P - there's no wall there behind the holly but your useful suggestion of the spacer could be attached to the gate post.

 

[Penners]

Ah - yes, that could be a problem!

Here are two suggestions for solving the problem - both of the signs of pretty naff but they might plant the seeds of an idea that Chris could build on. I think you'd have to be careful that the first one didn't look too much like a gravestone!

By the way, I can't remember whether you also have a sign on the huge metal gate at the bottom of the track. That would seem to be important for delivery drivers, too.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Interesting ideas. The first is a bit grave-stony, I agree. The second could work and be made a bit less twee. Thank you.

We've often discussed the pros and cons of labelling the big metal gate; especially with regard to whether it would decrease security. The gate is a trouble-spot of the town, hence it being there in the first place. Earlier this year the council put a sign there "CCTV monitoring in place" or some such thing. It was ripped down. I don't think a well-screwed on sign would be removed, but it might let some of the people who park there on a Friday night for their nefarious practices know that there's a house further up the track; I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Ideally, I'd resite that metal gate so that it occurred much further down the lane, just after the last cottage. This would prevent parking and many of the criminal activities including drug-dealing and dumping happening at that spot. It would also stop the dog walkers parking there when it was locked, resulting in less wear and tear on a track that ultimately only we maintain. Nobody owns this track, the council came out last month and said that as it's us who need it for access it's ours. The farmers have also disowned it, though they have legal rights of access along it. I don't think it existed until the previous owner made it with concrete and rubble and hardcore. Previous occupants had to walk or ride into town for their post. There was a horse tethered outside the house in the 70s.

If I could have my dream solution, I'd have electric, combination locked gates (with the house name on) and an Intercom system at the point the road runs out. It might look a bit odd against the rural setting though.

 

[worms]

... too much like a gravestone!

There is an alarming trend I've noticed for big new rural houses with long driveways to have what can only be described as a gravestone at the gate with the name (or worse the householder's surname) on it. Looks awful to my taste but doubtless is pleasing to the owners.

I'm afraid I am not with the consensus for a slate nameplate at Joce's gate. On the house, perhaps, but to my eye, that gate is far too rustic for the architectural neatness of the slate sign. I'd suggest a hand-painted wooden name board hanging from the top rail, or perhaps a cast one like this one (which is from the signcast.co.uk site):

 

[Coz]

We just found a great big stone and painted it with the words - "The Cottage circa 1750" It stands by the front gate and most people seem to spot it.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Do country houses have signs? If yours is the only place for miles around, and someone makes the effort to locate you, pass the lodges, progress up the avenue, cross the haha, enter the Cours d"Honneur and pull up under the Porte Cochere isn't it a bit too late for a sign to inform them that they are Chateau Penners when they they wanted to be at Palazzo JoceandChris? A discreet sign four miles away, when they have to turn off the public road onto the estate, might be more appropriate.

 

[robgil]

Why not do what everyone else seems to do? Dont use any sort of sign what so ever , or if you do put it somewhere dark where it cannot be seen,especially at nigh. Better still , obscure it with some over grown, thick vegetation with very little if no aesthetic value at all.
That way, when someone is looking for your house , they will end up driving up and down the road 20 times cursing at every nameless house they see until they eventually give in and go and ask someone local out of sheer frustration, usually in a proper moody voice with a nagging co driver and a squealing baby on board to whom ''Row row row your boat'' on the CD player lost it's novelty value 20 miles back, like I always seem to end up doing.

 

[AMc]

Robgil - that's the nail on the head but you missed the "Oh did you find the house OK?" comment you get from the owners followed by "Oh people do find it difficult to find us the first time." naively imagining you'll be coming back again. I particularly like it when it's a holiday cottage I've paid to rent

There is a serious problem with getting ambulances to houses with no signs and no street lights as time is often of the essence. Our house has 3 numbers because there was planning to split it into 3 dwellin's [sic] at the point when the emergency services demanded that the old house names on our road were supplemented with numbers.

Our next door neighbours house is completely hidden from the road. They changed the name sign at the end of the drive to a number as they have home care and the odd paramedic visit in the night. Next door to them is "The Old Vicarage" which is next to "The Old Rectory" (no numbers) - I'm sure that never causes any confusion at all