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This Old House: New Numbers!

I've been meaning to replace my house numbers for like 11 years now. It's been on the list. It's a pretty long list, and included This Old Staircase, but I am knocking a few items off it, one at a time.

My old address numbers were just the ugly plastic ones you get from the hardware store. They were so old and faded the numbers were hard to read from any distance, so needed to be replaced, but since I had it in my head to make the new numbers out of stoneware, I kept putting off replacing them.

This project, like so many others, refused to do itself.

The old numbers

Making the stoneware numbers was not at all difficult. I am a potter in real life, all the materials - not to mention the kiln - were readily available to me. As you can see in the photo, I broke one of the numbers in transport; I went ahead and used it anyway. I had already waited 11 years for these numbers, I didn't want to wait one more firing cycle.


I am thinking of taking orders for these! $10 per number, choice of purple, yellow, blue or black...whaddaya think?

This Old Staircase: Final Steps, Probably

Ooops, I arted

In the last installment of This Old Staircase, I was deciding whether the stairs needed a pop of color - scarlet maybe, or gold .Those of you who know me will be unsurprised to learn that the answer was yes, both.

Several people suggested that I paint the rail and balusters to match the treads, and while I don't disagree that the project might look better as a whole, I couldn't bring myself to paint over the patina of 100-year-old wood. The stairs were different - they'd already been painted, and the wood underneath was badly scarred and discolored. I might spiffy up the surface of the balustrade a bit, but the natural wood color stays.

I didn't know when I painted them, but the posies are stylized Egyptian Star Flowers. Or, wait, perhaps they are Asiatic Lilies. Yes, that's it. I'm ready to put down my brushes (and stencils, and paint pens) now, until the next painting project, which is threatening to be: These Old Cabinets.

Followed closely by This Gross Peeling Countertop, and then This Laughably Dated Backsplash.

Stay tuned.

This Old Staircase: Am I Done?

I kind of want to be done. This project is entertaining but I've got other stuff to do, you know? Doug thinks it's done. But...

But, damn it...my aesthetic intuition says it is not yet done. Specifically, the contrast between the white stencil and the teal of the riser is too stark, and needs either a balancing contrast - some accents in gold, maybe, or scarlet - or to be stencilled over, in kind of a double-exposure effect, with one of the lighter teals already a part of the design.

In any case I am done for today. I'll sleep on it and look at it fresh tomorrow.