Hardware: chapitre deux

I was in a really great older home today. It was a Tudor built in 1922 and it's in a historic neighborhood in Tampa. Older homes are great places to do a little research when I'm trying to put together a plan for someone who's building a new home. Although I was in the Tudor to put together a color plan, some of the photos I took this afternoon will be put to use as inspirations for the newer places I work on.

It is no longer 1920 and houses that are built in 2008 shouldn't try to make it seem like it is. So when I see an older home up close, I'm not looking for ways to imitate it in a newer home. Rather, I look to them to see what lessons I can learn from the people who built them. In 1920, architects and builders had a completely different idea about scale and proportion than most of what you see today. There are lessons galore.

So many times, contemporary homes are built with the idea that more is always better. When in doubt; increase the scale, slap on more ornamentation, and lose whatever sense of serenity a structure has in a sea of more crap. Enough already. Most great vintage homes don't do that. Exceptions abound, but for the most part, an older home that feels like a home does so because of the human-ness of its scale and design. When my 1920s Tudor was built, times were simpler in the sense that people had lower expectations and ornament was expensive and beyond the reach of most people. Too, there was a civic modesty people subscribed to and its demise is clearly evident to anyone who passes through the gates of any suburban enclave in the nation.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Scale is not a difficult thing to demand or get. Even in a gated enclave. A house should fit its lot and not frighten passersby. Proportion isn't subjective and it's not subject to the winds of change. It's also not too much to ask. For more information on this and related topics, our friends over at Taunton Press have dedicated a publishing company to the call for more reasonable building practices. Check them out at http://www.taunton.com/ Pay close attention to the books written by an architect named Sarah Susanka. The woman changed my life and she can change yours too.

Now how does any of this relate to door knobs? I'm not quite sure, but let me try to pull off a graceful segue here.

When I was in the 1920s Tudor this afternoon, what struck me more than anything were the door knobs and hinges that were original to the house and were everywhere. They were simple and elegant and beautiful. When that house was built, the hardware for the doors came from a foundry where men toiled in wretched conditions and they cast bronze using the "lost wax" method that you learned about in social studies in grade school.

The hardware you're going to find in your friendly neighborhood home center is going to be mass produced in China under reprehensible conditions. The conditions there are probably worse than they were in a foundry in the US a hundred years ago, and the artisanal qualities are nonexistent. So what you get for that bargain price is poorly designed dreck and increased trade imbalance with China. So what's somebody with a taste for simple elegance and a social conscience to do?

It's easy, log onto the website of Sun Valley Bronze (http://www.svbronze.com/) or Rocky Mountain Hardware (http://www.rockymountainhardware/) and feast your eyes on the offerings of two companies who still cast bronze using the lost wax method. Minus the horrible working conditions. The door hardware to the upper right is from Rocky Mountain and proves that contemporary settings can still benefit immensely from some old world craftsmanship that doesn't look like a cartoon of old world craftsmanship.

To the left and right are the inside and outside faces of a set of door hardware from Sun Valley Bronze. To feel hand cast bronze is to touch the face of God. Bronze has a tactile quality that's unmatched by any other metal. It been popular since, well, the Bronze Age for a very good reason. It looks good and feels better. I even like the way it smells. Who knew that an alloy of copper and tin could bring such joy to the world?

To the left and below slightly is a set of hardware for French doors that whispers odes to your good taste. To the lower right is a lever handle, and each of these sets is from Sun Valley Bronze. Of course, these photos can't begin to do them justice, so do a little research on your own and find some of these things. You'll be happy you did.

Hardware musings

As I sit and write this tonight, there is a small box in the back seat of my car. That small box has a thousand dollars worth of cabinet knobs and pulls in it. There are 44 individual pieces in the box and that averages out to around 22 dollars per piece. $22 for a cabinet knob doesn't strike me as exorbidant, but then again, I do this for a living and I'm used to seeing prices like that. Add it all up though, and a thousand dollars speaks to me very loudly. That's a lot of money. But good hardware isn't cheap and cheap hardware isn't good.

There was a time in my life when I thought buying three dollar handles at Home Depot was all I needed to know about cabinet handles. I thought that the two-for-one packages of Stanley door knobs was all anyone needed. I had a vague idea that there were more expensive options out there, but they struck me as overkill.

If you are someone who still thinks that way and wants to continue doing so, stop reading now.

The terminally perky show hosts on HGTV call things like hardware "house jewelry," an expression I loathe. Loathe it though I do, it's pretty accurate. There is something about good hardware that broadcasts to the world that you thought about the details in your home. Thinking through the small stuff is what sets apart great homes. When I hear that stupid expression, my mind turns to the stuff at the left by Schaub & Company (http://www.schaubandcompany.com/) and I get over my bad reaction to that term and end up embracing it. That hardware over there is made with real black pearls and Swarovski crystals. It runs counter to they types of things I'm drawn to, but I cannot help but admire the craftsmanship. To see it in person is another thing completely. That "Branch Collection" as they call it, is transcendant. Schaub goes on to showcase some really glorious turns on the very idea of a cabinet knob. In the world of cast brass hardware, these guys rule the roost. In the image to the right is their take on sea creatures. That octopus is beautifully cast, perfectly patina-d and still has a sense of whimsy without descending into cute. This designer thanks them for the cuteness avoidance, even if no one else does.

What makes great hardware great and what separates it from the masses out there is a multi-faceted thing and it's difficult to describe very clearly. Price doesn't always guide you to quality, but quality will almost always be expensive. The hardware in the collection below shows a collection that you will have no difficulty finding knock offs of in a Home Center. Other than faint resemblances, the similarities stop there. The hardware from Schaub will cost more and I can almost guarantee that. But it will also weigh more, feel better in your hand, have a finish that will last for a lifetime and will be better designed. When you buy a less-expensive option, it is imitating things like the Charlevoix collection from Schaub and Company. If you're OK with a knock off, then go buy a knock off, but study the expensive thing they're knocking off so that you can buy a better knock off. However, be warned that the knock offs only immitate the good stuff that sells well. If you're looking for something truly distictive like the Black Pearl series I showed above, you are out of luck, they won't do it. Ditto the prismatic chrome series to the left here. This hardware really does look like jewelry and it is buffed to such a shine that the many facets on the surface of the hardware capture and reflect back whatever colors are in front of them. The first time I saw the hardware to the right I was wearing a light blue shirt. When I stood in front of the knob in question, it appeared to have light blue enamel all over the surface, then I moved and could see the taupe walls of the showroom reflecting back and it appeared to be enameled in taupe. What a great effect, and not something you're likely to find a Home Depot.

And it's late. I haven't covered half of what I wanted to write about. So tomorrow it's going to have to be more hardware musings. Tune in tomorrow and I'll go over some quick guidelines on where to put what and why doorknobs are important in the scheme of things. Trust me, they are.

Tomorrow's gonna be hardware kind of day

I Googled my name today and this blog came up as the number two hit. Wow, that was fast! I've been at this for four days and it's showing up in the search engine already. I feel like a movie star.

Anyhow, I have an appointment tomorrow with a client to whom I sold ten rooms full of cabinetry in a house that's under construction. Her cabinetry is being delivered next week and we're getting together tomorrow to pick her hardware. This is pretty late in the game to be doing this, and she wants to keep this appointment to under two hours, so this will be a pretty rapid-fire operation.

The hardware we sell at the studio is by Schaub and Company, and a better collection I have yet to find. They are unbeatable at their price point. They make and sell really beautiful stuff, yet at the same time it's priced at what I would considered to be a good value. Few things break my heart the way cheap knobs and pulls do. That's never a problem with Schaub. They handle the middle of the market really well. Their metals are of a high quality and their finishes are both varied and well done. As they start moving into the higher end stuff, watch out. Who knew cabinet knobs could be this gorgeous?

You need real cloisonne? They got it. Ditto shell inlays, semi-precious stones and hand cast bronze. Again, really nice stuff. While nobody would ever call it inexpensive, compared to who they are going up against in the market, the stuff's a steal.

Shaub shows its collections well on their website too. http://www.schaubandcompany.com/

Anyhow, the first question that will come up in my appointment tomorrow is going to be what goes where? To which I will respond the way I always do: "There are no rules," I'll say.

What there are though are general guidelines. This woman's kitchen is rather large, so her room can handle an assortment of hardware. Most hardware comes in a suite. That means that there will be one or two knobs, one or two pulls and a cup pull that have the same color and style. They are meant to be mixed and matched. I tend to like a knob on a cabinet door and a handle on a drawer, but that's just me. Same as anything else though, what's important is that you introduce a pattern and stick to it. If doors are going to get knobs and drawers are going to get handles, then use cup pulls on big pot and pan drawers. If a kitchen has wide drawers, mixed with narrower ones, introduce a new rule. My general rule is that all drawers 24" wide or less get a single handle. Any drawer from 25" to 36" wide will get two handles. If you want to use bin pulls, or what we call cup pulls; introduce a new rule. A drawer between four and six inches tall will get a handle. If a drawer is taller than seven inches then it will get a cup pull. So there are some basic rules and I just made them up. Well, not exactly, they are the rules I like to see applied when I'm selecting hardware.