|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Photo by Thomas Owen Jenkins “I always refer to hardware as jewelry for your house.”
Photos by Greg Roller |
Home&Garden web only feature article spring 07
Searching for antique doorknobs, knockers, pulls or hinges to spice up your décor? Here are a few great places to poke around and find that perfect piece. By Karen Mitchell The next time you contemplate making big changes to your home, think small. Replacing ordinary hardware—doorknobs, pulls, hinges and knockers—with antique pieces can dramatically transform a room, personalize a tired piece of furniture, add class to an entry and give a cookie-cutter home a unique look for a modest investment. Picture a chest of drawers brought to life by pre-Victorian Eastlake knobs, or a plain door dressed up with glass doorknobs. “I always refer to hardware as jewelry for your house,” says Sue Gustafson of Grandpa Snazzy’s, the 40-year-old Denver antique hardware store she owns with her mother, Berdie Hupper. Their emporium’s vast collection spans the years, and was amassed in Denver and the East Coast, when many old homes were demolished in the 1970s to make way for new construction. Hupper also bought out seven hardware dealers over the years, storing goods to sell at a later date. With a warehouse full of carefully logged inventory, Grandpa Snazzy’s collection ranges from plain antique doorknobs for $22 to dragonhead doorplates priced at $1,200. “Women love oval doorknobs,” Gustafson says, “and men seem to like the fancy iron knobs.” Before beginning a hardware hunt, Gustafson advises people to choose a particular time period. “The hardware should appeal to you, not just because you saw it in a magazine,” she says. Period pieces, like clear-glass doorknobs, are currently a popular style for Arts and Crafts homes. “Of course, the purists will want to change the hinges as well,” she says. Gustafson has one caveat: If there are men in your household, make sure their fingers can fit inside antique drawer pulls. “Remember, people were smaller then.” Rebecca Leslie, owner of Boulder’s Good Use Inc., a secondhand furniture store that refurbishes pieces to a glory they may have never known, is a pro at using hardware for form as well as function. “We often get furniture that’s missing a pull from one drawer, so we pull off the rest and collect pieces over time,” she says. “Sometimes, we mix and match, using a variety of colors and hardware styles to tie furniture together, such as cutting an old art-deco vanity in half to create a pair of high nightstands.” Flea markets and garage sales typically harbor a wealth of hardware accessories. “It’s such an easy way to spruce up a favorite piece that’s seen better days,” Leslie says. “It’s interesting to put contemporary hinges, pulls and hooks on older pieces, and antique hardware on modern furniture. I like to mix the two together.” Sometimes a single antique piece is all that’s needed. For example, art-deco pulls with a tortoiseshell motif are not always easy to find, but if you use just one piece to accentuate a center drawer and pick simple round brass knobs for the remaining pulls, you’ll showcase your find. “People often limit themselves because they may have six great pulls, but need eight, so they won’t use them,” Leslie says. “That’s unfortunate; you can even put glass-bulb pulls on a top drawer, and use silver and brass on the others for a great look.” Another mistake, she says, is spending thousands of dollars on new or resurfaced kitchen cabinets when a simple staining or painting, and new hardware can do the trick. “For kitchens with plain cabinets that have just a slot at the bottom to pull it open, you can add hardware that will totally change the cabinetry’s look.” Try burnished copper hardware or choose terra-cotta pulls that match your floor. “A kitchen is a wonderful spot for an eclectic mix of hardware,” she says. “It’s the place to have fun.” And if there’s a baby in the house, don’t forget the nursery. “A plain pine dresser with round knobs can be wood-burned with little rabbits or other animals to make it special.” Out of the Ordinary Sometimes the best uses for antique hardware are uncommon ones, such as coat or towel racks and birdhouse perches made from doorknobs or pulls, says Marj Sater, co-owner with Vicky Andrew of the Front Range Mercantile and Indoor Flea Market in Longmont. “Some people come in here looking for old keys and keyholes to frame,” she says, adding that ornate antique doorplates make nice picture frames. Sater says her customers are often on the lookout for brass, wood and metal pieces, including teardrop pulls from men’s dressers dating to the early 1900s. “We have a dealer with an entire table of old hardware,” she says, “including round glass balls and claw legs from piano stools, which can be used for decoration or on other stools to give them an antique feel.” Sater particularly enjoys antique pulls. “I like the patina of an old piece, because when you pull it open, it makes you wonder what the [former owners’] lives were like. It’s heartwarming to think of how many women have tugged on that little piece of hardware over the years.” Estate sales are another great place to find antique hardware. “We do estate sales, so we have lots of hardware, including locks, knobs and other pieces,” says Brandon Toohey, whose family owns and operates the 30,000-square-foot Tables to Teacups in Longmont. Particularly popular at the moment are cabinetry knobs and hinges, he says. “You can buy a reasonably priced, new piece of rustic-looking furniture and make it into more of a collectible by adding antique hardware. One-inch white porcelain knobs from Hoosiers and small buffets are also highly desirable.” Because Old Town Longmont has so many homes built from the 1890s to the 1920s, a lot of glass hardware is available from those that were demolished. “We see a lot of glass doorknobs,” Toohey says, “including German lead crystal that sells for $120 per knob and plain glass that sells for a lot less. The price depends on the style.” Tables to Teacups also offers antique hinge collections in a variety of materials, including brass, pot metal and cast iron, that sell from $10 to $50 apiece. “Many are regal, with beautiful detailing,” Toohey says. “It’s a phenomenal way to give your home identity.” His best advice: “Keep your eyes open, don’t overlook the little things and don’t try to match hardware 100 percent. These old pieces were handmade, so they’re going to be unique, no matter how you use them.”
Karen Mitchell is a Boulder freelance writer who adores small things, particularly antique keys and drawer pulls.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
