Custom Letterbox Faceplate Guide

Heatlie Letterboxes has a unique ability to custom make letterbox faceplates to your liking. This is due to our in-house water jet cutting machine which we can program to cut out a piece of aluminium or stainless steel. 

How does water jet cutting work?

Water jet cutting is basically a sped up erosion process. The same way a river cuts away at its banks and creates wild and crazy shapes, our water jet cutting machine uses water and sand to slice through pure metal. The difference is it's way quicker and we can control what it actually cuts out through a computer program. 

How do I order a custom faceplate?

If you've seen our custom faceplate page, you'll know that there are lots of options to pick from.

To get started, simply select one of the preset template options. From here you will need to select all your customisations which we will go in depth on below.

Once we receive order confirmation and payment, we will do a concept drawing based on your desired design. We then email this to you. This is your chance to reply with any tweaks or changes. Once you're 100% happy with the design and give us the go ahead, the job will go out to our workshop.

The lead time for custom faceplates is generally in 3-4 week range, however nothing is guaranteed and it could be a lot shorter or longer depending on how many jobs we have lined up.

What customisation choices do I have?

It wouldn't be right calling it a "custom faceplate" if we didn't give you options. Basically every element is customizable within reason.

Size and Letterbox

Our preset templates give you a multitude of options for the size of your faceplate. Some are elongated horizontally, some square and some rectangular vertically. These options that we provide as set templates on our website are by far the most popular designs we have. 

The type of letterbox you get behind the faceplate also dictates the size. We offer the Superior and Telescopic in Landscape widths, which will fit an A4 sheet of paper at landscape orientation, as well as the Telescopic Portrait which is a bit narrower, accepting an A4 sheet of paper at portrait width. 

Check out our blog on custom faceplate options for more ideas and inspiration. 

Horizontally long stainless steel faceplate

Material and Colour

We offer our faceplates in two materials, stainless steel or a powder coated aluminium. Stainless steel can't be powder coated but gives you a nice shiny, modern style. Our aluminium plates can be powder coated in any Colorbond steel colour, enabling you to match your faceplate up with your fence, garage door, gutters or roof if you wish.

Most people don't stray far from the basic colours like Satin Black and Monument Grey blue, so be adventurous!

Stainless Steel faceplate with black backing plate. 

We are able to supply faceplates in other materials including but not limited to...

• Brass
• Copper
• Corten Steel

These are not available on the website but feel free to contact us for a quote if they interest you. 

 

Brass 

Copper

 

Corten Steel

Numbers and Street Name

Here's the part where the water jet actually gets involved. You can choose to have just your street number, your street number and name, or just your street name if your number is already displayed elsewhere. You can then choose how it is written, ie. capitals, no capitals, it's up to you. The alignment is up to you too. We align the text in the center as default, but can place text to the left or right too. 

Monument with Surfmist backing plate with street number and name

Font

Select one of our three tried and tested fonts, Arial, Century Gothic and Times New Roman. We know these look good, and that they work well on our water jet machine. Arial is a nice basic, simple font. Century Gothic is a more modern, stylish look and Times New Roman is a classic, heritage styled font. You can see examples of the fonts littered throughout this page but here is a link to our font examples as well. 

Font Examples

Shale grey with Times New Roman Font

Backing Plate

Since the water jet machine literally cuts the shape of the number or letter out, it leaves an empty hole that may not be visible on every backing. That's why we offer a coloured backing plate so your numbers and letters stand out amongst the faceplate, and your wall or fence. These backing plates are available in Satin Black, Monument and Surfmist, giving you options for any coloured faceplate. You can also have no faceplate if the colour of your wall is already contrasting enough. You just need to ensure that no text is cut out over the front of the empty box. For example, the image below would be able to have no backing plate on the "60" but the "KINKAID AVENUE" would need a backing plate. 

Satin white with Black Backing Plate

Rain hood Direction

This dictates which way the rain hood on the mail slot sits. External is generally the more popular option, but the choice is up to you. 

External Rainhood

Internal Rainhood

Lock

Choose between a key lock with two keys, or a latch that a padlock can be attached to. 

Your new custom faceplate and letterbox will be supplied as one piece ready to install into your wall or fence. 

Australian Made Custom Letterbox Faceplates

There you have it, all the details on how to customise and order your own letterbox faceplate. Hopefully, this has given you some inspiration for how you'd like your letterbox faceplate to look.

If you're in the market, head over to our custom faceplate product page to place an order or give us a call, or email to discuss the options further.