How to Buy an Address Plaque

Address plaques increase curb appeal, increase a home's overall value, and help emergency responders identify your home easily. Purchasing an address plaque can be one of the most inexpensive and least time-consuming “home improvement” projects you can do. Besides being practical, address plaques are a great way to express your personality and the personality of your home, as they come in such a wide range of styles, colors, shapes, and materials.

Selecting an address plaque can seem overwhelming, because there are so many choices available. An easy way to narrow down the possibilities is to decide where you want to place the plaque. Do you want it to be mounted to the wall beside your door? Placed on a mailbox? Or staked into your yard at the beginning of your driveway? The next step in choosing the perfect plaque for your home is size. For safety purposes, we strongly recommend that the plaque be easily readable from the street. This helps emergency responders, such as paramedics, locate your home more quickly. If your home sits far back from the road, consider using a lawn-staking address plaque, a mailbox address plaque, or a combination of two plaques, to ensure optimal visibility. You could also have a second address plaque placed next to your front door, if desired.

Take into account your home's overall style when deciding on material and color. Quality cast aluminum address plaques, such as Whitehall plaques, offer the broadest range of color options which will match virtually any home exterior. Remember to select a color combination that offers a high contrast, if your primary concern is visibility. Antique Brass and Antique Copper, while beautiful colors, do not offer high contrast and are not readable from a distance. Slate address markers look wonderful on rural, rustic, mountain, and desert homes. Ceramic plaques are works of art in themselves and come in a variety of background settings, including coastal and tropical themes. Reflective address markers offer the highest level of nighttime visibility, further increasing your home’s safety by ensuring paramedics or other ERs can easily identify your home at night. All of our address plaques, regardless of material, are strong enough to withstand normal outdoor weather conditions.

Consider the information you want to convey on your address plaque. Do you want to prominently display your street number only? We have a great selection of one-line plaques that are designed to feature numbers only. Do you want both your street number and street name to be listed on your plaque? This traditional format is available in almost all of our styles and is the most popular choice among buyers. Is your address very long, or do you want to include your family name along with your address? Browse through our three-line plaques and see how we can fit name, street number, and street address on a single plaque.

In our busy society, time is always going to be a consideration when making a purchase. Because address plaques are personalized, expect to wait about 4 weeks before receiving your order (some materials ship sooner than others). Once you have your plaque, though, it should last for years to come! And if you are in a real hurry, check out our “ Quick Ship” address plaques. These stylish address markers, available in die-cast aluminum, solid brass, or ceramic, hold street numbers only and can be made in 2-3 days for extra-fast gratification.

Copyright 2006 www.OutdoorDecor.com
Audra Falk, OutdoorDecor.com Staff Writer