Choosing New Hardware For an Old Door

Clients typically order our work because they appreciate it’s unusual and unique quality. Occasionally customers turn to us for help finding door hardware that will work with an existing door’s bore and screw holes. I recently received an inquiry from a customer who had repainted her entry door and now was searching for a  handle set that would compliment her entry and  either conceal or make use of the existing holes. What she discovered is that most hardware manufacturers have set dimensional choices with no leeway for customization.

Doors are generally made with preset drilled holes, typically one for the keyed cylinder and one for the lever or knob. The distance between these 2 bore holes is referred to as the “center to center”. When retrofitting a door with a new entry set these existing holes can be difficult to fill and conceal if the door is natural or stained wood. Some doors may have more holes to deal with as would be the case with the Hedgerow entry thumb latch set shown here which requires 4 holes to be drilled.

The Hedgerow set however has a large backplate and at 20” in height and 3” in width would cover most pre-existing door holes. Our backplates are machined after they are cast giving us the ability to customize the center to center to work with existing bore holes. The additional holes that this set requires for the mounting posts will be drilled into the door when our handle set is installed.

We also have the flexibility of changing the location of the mounting posts as we cast these separately and later weld them onto the back of the plate.

Fine Details Define Luxury Door Hardware

I have recently been tasked with organizing hundreds of photographs we have for our door handles, cabinet pulls and bathroom accessories and so have been revisiting some of the close -up shots of our more detailed unusual handles and decided to share some of the images in a post.

The phrase “the devil is in the details” sums up perfectly our view on fine door hardware but where did the phrase come from and what does it mean when applied to door hardware? A google search brought me to the site; phrases.org.uk which is devoted to the origin of sayings, and is well worth bookmarking. The phrase probably dates back to the 1800’s and is attributed to several likely authors and originally was expressed as “the God is in the details” and like the modern version suggests that whatever one makes should be done well and with due regard for the finer points or details.

The Willow Collection

As hardware artists this has shaped our door hardware in 2 distinctive ways;

When creating the original pattern Martin Pierce spends hours, days and often weeks carving fine details into the wooden pattern to achieve an intricate piece that will become the parent of all the castings that are made from the mold. Devoting the time it takes to create these artistic details jettisons our work into the luxury market.

The mantra also impacts the lengths we will go to achieve the completeness of a style. In our lizard collection it was important that the ancillary trim for the door lock followed the lizard theme, so we spent time planning and designing a very natural accompaniment.

Similarly, when tasked with a commission for a Willow style cremone latch while the commission did not specify a custom trim for the bolt, this was a detail we felt was needed for completeness.