Yes, I know, we’ve already used this blog title! But this time, we really, really had to. That is because we are talking about the actual song, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, first written by The Freewheelin’ (Bob Dylan), and later, covered, by many, many people. I have had several arguments during my lifetime over who actually wrote the song (with some claiming that of course it was Guns and Roses, or no, it was Eric Clapton), but Wikipedia (bless its reliability) proves me right that it was a Dylan song originally. The phrase itself sounds a lot like it is, was or should be a saying, for...

If door knobs had a god, Architectural Classics would be at church every Sunday… there is, however, the next best thing. Janus is the Roman god of doors and doorways, as well as beginnings and ends. He is easily recognisable, as he is always depicted with more than one face – usually two, looking in either direction. Earlier representations of Janus showed him with four faces … can we draw the conclusion then that revolving doors were in use much before swinging ones, do you think? Janus was, in his time a very versatile and much worshipped god. Doors have a beautiful romance and symbolism,...

Although probably the most common material for our hardware to be made of is brass, iron is definitely the most individual, the most romantic, and the oldest and most generally used metal of olden days. The iron, and ironing have been the bane of many a mum and housewife. Iron horseshoes are said to bring good luck. Burying an iron knife under your door can keep witches out, and iron fences keep the souls of the dead in. It was traditionally known as ‘cold iron’… although ‘cold iron’ really is just ordinary iron that isn’t warm! Ah, they had a sense of drama in the old days… So, we...

Now, we are sure that if you have Architectural Classics handles on your door, you’ll be standing there holding it open for people who haven’t even entered the room yet (!), just for the pleasure of touching the gorgeous antiques a little longer. A different proposition entirely though, are shop and public doors. In many things in life, there are two types of people in the world – those who will hold open a door for somebody behind them and those who simply let the door go as if the person weren’t there. This used to be a gender-assigned task – men were completely responsible for holding...

Before we go any further into this post, can we just say that every single one of our door knobs is meticulously cleaned before it goes anywhere near a postage box! Something you’d take for granted, I know, but you’ll be glad of it before you finish reading about this… Earlier this year NBC’s Dallas office reported on a Texas invention that saves people from touching public toilet doors with their hands. It is basically a foot pull that allows you to open doors without touching them with your hands. We know, nearly everyone in the world has been touching bathroom doors all of their lives,...

Far from being only a boring old simple noun, the word ‘door’ is probably one of the most metaphorically-used words in the English language, and is loaded with symbolism and meaning. It brings with it a sense of poetry, and a door can be your safety and protection, your captor, your privacy, your ticket to a different place, or all of the above at different times. With that in mind, we’re going to look at doors through the blog with all of their different meanings, in all of their associated clichés, look at their namesakes and what they are famous for. Many of us use the word in clichés...

Thank you to Period Living Magazine for featuring our Art Nouveau Style Table Lamp and few of our traditional cupboard knobs in their October Issue.

How many door and drawer handles or knobs would you guess you touch in the average day? Well, the internet is a wide and wonderful world unto itself, and one research oriented soul decided to actually find out! This seemingly simple, but actually very deep (and fun!) research project had only the criteria that every door or drawer handle or knob that the person used in a day, had to be photographed and recorded. Aside from the obvious quandaries of whether to count both sides of a door handle, and whether to count both getting in and out of a car, if you can not get caught up in the mathematics...