Residential Signage Company in New York

Velement makes address numerals, house plaques, entrance signage and interior lettering for private homes, townhouses and brownstones across New York. Cut, formed and finished in our own workshop in metal, and fitted to the building you already have.

We work with architects, interior designers and homeowners, including on properties in landmarked districts.

Send Us a Photo of Your Entrance

The smallest sign on the street, and the one people look at closest

A house number is four inches tall and it is examined from two feet away, in daylight, by everyone who comes to the door. There is nowhere for a poor edge, a soft corner or a cheap fixing to hide. That is the whole difficulty of residential signage, and it is why it is made rather than bought.

The second difficulty is the building. A brownstone facade is soft and irreplaceable, limestone marks, a landmarked front cannot be drilled casually, and a modern glass entry gives you nothing to fix into at all. The sign has to be designed around what it is going onto, which is the opposite of how catalog house numbers work.

We cut, form and finish in our own workshop in New York, in solid metal and in plated stainless, and we design the fixing before we design the sign.

From the sidewalk to the front door

Where	What it is	Usually made in	Product page
The street facade	Address numerals, house numbers, building name lettering	Cast or fabricated bronze and brass, plated stainless, blackened steel	Metal letters
The entrance	House plaques, name plates, bell and intercom plates, date stones	Engraved or etched brass and bronze, solid metal plaques	Custom plaques
Gates and boundaries	Gate numbers, estate and driveway signage, privacy and access plates	Weather-resistant metal, powder-coated steel	Architectural signage
Glass and vestibules	Privacy film, etched and frosted glass, manifestation on glass doors	Applied film and etched vinyl	Window film
Inside the house	Feature lettering, room and wine cellar plates, wall graphics, neon pieces	Acrylic, metal, LED neon, printed graphics	LED neon, acrylic letters, wall murals
Custom one-offs	Anything specified by an architect or designer that has to be made rather than ordered	Whatever the drawing calls for	Signage fabrication

If your house is in a historic district, the rules reach the front door

A large share of the brownstone and townhouse stock in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenwich Village, Harlem, the Upper West Side and dozens of other neighborhoods sits inside a designated historic district. In a designated district, work affecting the exterior of a building is subject to review, and that can reach things people do not expect it to reach, including what is fixed to the facade and how it is fixed there.

The practical consequences are simple and they are all about the fixing rather than the sign:

Where it is drilled. Mortar joints rather than the face of the stone, wherever it is possible. A hole in a mortar joint can be made good. A hole in the face of a brownstone cannot.
Reversibility. Stand-offs and concealed fixings that can be taken off and the wall returned to how it was.
Material and finish. Bronze and brass age on a New York facade in a way that reads as correct on an old building. A bright modern finish often does not.
Approvals. Where approval is required, it is required before the work and not after. It is worth finding out at the start of the conversation rather than the end.

Tell us the address and we will tell you what we think you are dealing with before anything is designed.

Choose for ten years, not for the photograph

Everything on the outside of a house in New York gets rained on, salted in winter and handled by strangers. Finishes that look identical in a workshop behave very differently on a north-facing facade after three winters, and that is the decision worth spending time on.

Material	How it behaves outdoors	Right for
Solid bronze and brass	Develops a patina. Can be lacquered to slow it or left to move. Heavy, and priced accordingly.	Traditional facades, landmarked fronts, anywhere the aging is the point.
Plated stainless	Reads as brass, bronze or copper, with the corrosion resistance and the weight of stainless underneath.	The same look at a workable price and a fixing that will not stress old masonry.
Stainless steel	Brushed or mirror. Stays as made with very little attention.	Modern entries, glass doors, anywhere a warm metal would fight the building.
Blackened and powder-coated steel	A hard color coat with a long outdoor life. Repairable.	Contemporary facades, gates, and high-contrast numerals on pale stone.
Acrylic and applied graphics	For interiors and for glass. Not a facade material in this climate.	Vestibules, glass doors, interior lettering.

We will show you the finish before it is made. Holding two samples next to your own door in daylight settles the question in about a minute, and it settles it better than a rendering will.

The numerals should agree with the door hardware

On a well-detailed entrance the house numbers, the bell plate, the mail slot, the letterbox and the door furniture are all the same conversation. They are the pieces a visitor stands closest to, and when one of them is a different metal or a different weight from the others, it is the thing the eye goes to.

So the useful version of this job is not “make these numbers”. It is “make these numbers so that they belong with everything else already specified”, which means matching a finish rather than choosing one, and working from the drawing rather than from a catalog page.

From drawings. Send the elevation, the door schedule or the hardware specification and we will work to it.
From what is there. If the hardware is already fitted, a photograph in daylight and the manufacturer’s finish name is usually enough to match to.
Drawn to the opening. Type, spacing and size proportioned to the door and the facade rather than to a standard product range.
Kept on file. We hold the specification, so a matching piece made later for the same house matches.

Photograph to fitted

Send us the door. Send a photograph of the entrance and the address. We will tell you what the facade will take, whether the district is designated, and roughly what it costs.
Drawing and finishing. Type, size and spacing drawn to your opening, with the material and finish proposed. Samples on request.
Made. Cut, formed and finished in our workshop, with the fixing method designed for your wall rather than supplied in a bag.
Fitted. Set out on the facade, checked from the sidewalk before anything is drilled, and fixed. Into mortar joints wherever the building allows it.

A fabricator, not a supplier

Capability	What it means for your house
We make it	Cut, formed and finished in our own New York workshop, so the size, the type and the spacing are yours rather than a catalog’s.
We plate in house	Brass, bronze and copper finishes on stainless, which is the same look without the weight or the price of solid.
We design the fixing	Into mortar joints and with reversible fittings wherever the building calls for it. The wall matters more than the sign.
We match what is there	Working to your architect’s drawing or to the hardware already on the door.
We keep the specification	A matching piece made for the same house in five years still matches.

Frequently Asked Questions About Residential Signage Company

What is residential signage?

Residential signage covers everything identifying or lettering a private home: address numerals and house numbers on the facade, house name plaques, bell and intercom plates, gate and driveway signage, privacy film on glass, and lettering inside the house. For apartment buildings and managed communities, which need directories, wayfinding and unit numbering, see our multifamily signage page.

How big should house numbers be?

Large enough to be read from the street by somebody who is not looking for you, which in practice means bigger than most people first choose. Many municipalities set a minimum height and require the numbers to be legible from the road and to contrast with their background, and local rules vary, so it is worth checking yours. Beyond the minimum, the size should be drawn to the door and the facade, not to a standard product range.

What material is best for house numbers in New York?

Bronze and brass age beautifully on a traditional facade and are the traditional choice for a brownstone or a townhouse, but they are heavy and expensive. Plated stainless gives the same brass, bronze or copper finish with stainless underneath, which is lighter on old masonry and better behaved in salt and rain. Brushed stainless or blackened steel suits a modern entry. We will show you samples against your own door before anything is made.

My house is in a landmarked district. Can I still put up numbers?

Usually, exterior work on a building in a designated historic district is subject to review and that can extend to what is fixed to the facade and how. The practical answer is to fix into mortar joints rather than the face of the stone, use reversible fittings, and establish what approval is needed before the work rather than after. Send us the address and we will tell you what we think you are dealing with.

Will it damage my brownstone?

Not if the fixing is designed for the wall. We fix into mortar joints wherever the building allows it, because a mortar joint can be made good and the face of a brownstone cannot, and we use concealed or stand-off fittings that can be removed later. The fixing is decided before the sign is designed, not after it is made.

Can you match the finish of my door hardware?

Yes, and it is worth doing. Send the hardware specification, or a daylight photograph and the manufacturer’s finish name, and we will match it. The numerals, the bell plate and the door furniture are seen together from two feet away and a mismatch is the first thing a visitor notices.

Do you work with architects and interior designers?

Most of this work comes to us that way. Send the elevation, the door schedule or the hardware specification and we will work to the drawing, make samples for approval, and hold the specification so later pieces match.

Do you work outside New York City?

Yes. We regularly work on private residences across the New York metro area, including Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut.