We have heaps of gorgeous and decorative door plates in our range, that are usually called fingerplates. Many of them were made, are were most frequently used, back in the days when soap was a bit more a luxury than it is today, and less of a necessity! I know a few people who’d like to bring back these glory days, actually.

The point is though, that fingerplates are not generally used anymore. However, especially on interior doors, a lot of people kick their doors open. When you are carrying a screaming child to their bath… when you have a huge basket of washing in your hands … when you have been greasing your motorbike and you know you’d be shot for spreading it all over doorhandles (!). Kicking a door open is a common thing, inside your house. So, why not just transport your fingerplates down, and use them as kick plates?! They will screw in exactly the same as they would above the door handle, to be used as a fingerplate.

To decide exactly where to position your kick plates, just look at the pre made marks on your door. Not by the manufacturer …! Just check out the scrapes and marks from where you already kick the door, or perhaps where little peoples’ sticky fingers push on the door, or where dogs’ noses always seem to land…

All of our fingerplates come with screws included – either pre-drill the hole or just use a screwdriver, depending on what you door is made of and the state of your muscles! And you can kick away with pleasure 

Photo credits: Don’t kick this door! by Tina

These are on the entrance to the Anatomy / Biology building at a London university, although we really think they would be better placed on the Psychology building :)
Now these are not only door handles, but a form of simplified Rorschach test. You see, one handle is a nude male and the other a nude female … surely even if you are quite definite about your inclinations, there is a lot to be revealed, psychologically, by which handle you choose to grab!
You couldn’t possibly clean these door handles. Doesn’t the patina do a gorgeous job of highlighting the valleys and peaks in both of their bodies? They would be a little two-dimensional if it weren’t for that natural development of colour.

Photo credits: Medawar building door handles by Xtina Lamb

This gorgeous door handle is a truly interactive experience! It comes from Naomi Thellier de Poncheville’s portfolio, and while it is definitely clever, we think one of its best aspects is the way it turns cleverness into a very visceral experience of feeling welcomed! Beautiful.

We often see the hand motif in older knockers, where a fist grasps the ring for you to knock with, and we also have seen various fist shaped knockers … which we imagine would feel a little like countering a punch in a martial arts class … or even a pub brawl. This hand-le has a lovely welcoming feel though. The hand is also very modern … much of the detail in the hand’s shaping would most likely not have been possible to recreate in the times where many of our knobs and knockers were made.

Although, to turn this knob, I’m sure you might still feel as if you were in a martial arts class … or perhaps back in primary school, giving ‘Chinese burns’!!

Photo credits: Naomi Thellier de Poncheville

Putti are a recurring motif in old hardware – they symbolize a lot of things, including divinity, fertility, and bounty. And this horn playing little putti certainly has been living in bounty – as we would say in Australia, “He’s certainly been in a good paddock!”. He would be a quite obese child by today’s standards, and at greatly increased risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
But he just wouldn’t look as happy and comforting as a thin little rake, would he?!
This gorgeous knocker would be lovely with a little bit of spit and polish.

Photo credits: Door knocker Rhodes by angi_rh

Considering that you’re reading a blog on a classical hardware and lighting site, there will probably be many of you that have a home which is classical… or to put it more bluntly, old! And old houses have old doors. And you know what happens when things get old… they stop working properly, they can’t hear like they used to, they get a tiny bit cranky … oh right, we’re talking about doors!

Doors which don’t work properly can be both a pain in the backside, an embarrassment and a waste of money – doors are the number one form of controlling which parts of your house are heated or cooled. So if you’ve got a problem with a door—what’s your problem?!

It won’t open!

Aside from checking whether it is locked when it doesn’t open at all, if your door doesn’t open easily, there are a couple of solutions. You may have too many coats of paint on your door and frame, making both thicker than they were intended to be. Or, you may have doors made of wood which is susceptible to swelling with water, and if it has rained a bit recently, the humidity may be swelling both the door and the frame. On some doors, you may have a loose hinge which drops when the door opens, putting it out of alignment and making one corner or edge hit the frame.

If you have too many coats of paint on your door, you have a couple of options… which one you choose is actually a personality test, too! You can choose to go the slower more methodical way of using paint stripper and either a brush or a scraper to get the paint off. Or you can go the one hit, get right down to it method, which is to grab a sander (or in severe cases, a grinder), and manually remove all that paint. Which is actually quite satisfying! (more…)