Decorative Hardware gets forgotten about at times because many people seem
to think that details do not matter - but they do. Decorative hardware lets
you surround yourself with beautiful jewel-like accessories that you touch
every day. It is a chance to truly create something beautiful in your house.
All decorative hardware (including decorative knobs
and decorative pulls) introduced on
this site are hand-crafted in USA and are guaranteed for life against flaws in
craftsmanship. Exceptional quality decorative hardware is designed for
application on fine cabinets and furniture. This decorative hardware is perfect
for kitchen cabinets and custom built-in furniture.
Most of the designs throughout the collections come in both knob and pull forms.
You do not have to settle on solely using a pull or a knob - but you could, for
example, use knobs on the cabinets and pulls on the drawers. Another option is
to use a pull on a cabinet door, but installing it in a vertical position. You
have a great selection from which you choose multiple styles that you could mix
and match to create an incredibly unique design. While you can mix the styles
just to add something interesting to the overall design or it could be done to
tell a story or to continue a theme from the overall design of the room.
There is no doubt that you will have absolutely no trouble picking out a wood
knob to suit your style as well as your needs—the only trouble you might
actually run into is choosing from our wide variety. You can complement any
style from the Early American to Arts and Crafts style. You might decide, as
many people do, to draw the inspiration for the room from the hardware itself.
You have to then think about the overall style of the room that you will like to
end up with.
Think of hardware as jewelry on a cabinet. Adding or changing
hardware is a high-impact way to
transform your kitchen cabinets.
Just by adding some decorative hardware you can create a whole new felling. But
decorative hardware, like jewelry, can look cheap and if it does, it will
detract from the look and feel of your room. Pick the best quality hardware you
can afford. Be sure to measure the length and width of your cabinet's stiles to
make sure the hardware will fit.
Decorative hardware comes in thousands of styles, sizes and finishes. When
choosing a decorative hardware always go with the felling you are trying to
create - elegant, rustic, traditional, or contemporary for example. Decorative
hardware finish should coordinate well with all elements in your room - paint,
appliances, tile,
countertops. You should also try to harmonize your cabinet hardware with
door hardware in the room, but they don't need to match.
A lot of homes have cabinets without any decorative hardware at all.
Addition of decorative hardware can truly transform potentially handsome bones.
Decorative hardware as well as wood molding can change a mundane cabinet into a magnificent one.
The following descriptions of the different styles is to give you inspiration
for picking out hardware. If you will understand the basics of the style, you
will be able to bring the essence of that style into your home through
decorative hardware.
Early American Decorative Hardware
In the Early American Style hardware the essential principle was to have certain
pieces of hardware harmonizing with the piece of furniture itself, as opposed to
the whole building. The early American wood knobs and other hardware were simple
and the only concern was the function of the knob or pull—not the actual look of
it. The simplicity of the designs was copied from the British designs, but after
the Industrial Revolution, the hardware designs would change dramatically.
During the Industrial Revolution the Eastlake style was born. The Revolution led
to the mass-production of many products—including pulls, wood knobs, hinges, and
other hardware. It was much easier for people to posses something with an
elaborate design than before. The name of the style itself is quite ironic due
to the fact that the man whom the style was named for, Charles Locke Eastlake,
was an architect and author who criticized the very style he was named for. He
published a book in 1872, which was published in the U.S. in 1883 in which he
criticized the overbearing, elaborate designs that were very prominent at the
time in England. He was trying to explain why the simpler styles had a more
hand-made feel to it than any mass-produced knob with overly-styled designs. It
was an illustrated book and apparently the words were simply ignored.
Due to being behind in the Industrial Revolution, the United States was just
beginning to become industrialized. All of the decorative details were
incredibly expensive prior to the Revolution, but mass-production made
everything very easy to get for the middle class. The Eastlake Style is thought
to be an embellished version of the Queen Ann style.
After the Eastlake style, came the Victorian style. The style was embraced with
the growth of suburbia—from the outside of the house to the inside. The houses
were usually irregularly shaped with very large porches and large picture
windows. The houses were elaborately decorated inside. Most of the decorative
objects were mass-produced, but still retained the authentic charm. During the
boom of the Victorian style, it was thought that if a family had good taste,
then they had good morals and solid virtue.
The Metallic Compression Casing Company of Boston found a technique of casting
hardware in 1870. Two years later the company was bought out by an English
hardware company which hired a professional designer for the hardware patterns.
The competition decided to hire its own designers, which made hundreds and
hundreds of different styles available.
During this time, there was also a new technique that was developed called
“plating”. It is a process in which a less expensive metal is covered and
finished with a more expensive metal—such as gold or silver.
Before this time, only the working-class women and the servants would do the
cooking. The wealthy people did not care what the kitchen looked like because
they never had to see it and the working-class people did not have time to care
about what their kitchen looked like. The middle-class suburban wives took pride
in doing their own cooking as well as their own house work. Cooking multi-course
meals took quite a bit of time, so making the kitchen beautiful was almost a
necessity. The mass-production of the hardware made it much more affordable to
get.
The Arts and Crafts style followed, making a full circle back to the time where
there is a plea for simpler and more organic forms. For hardware which looked
hand-made and one-of-a-kind. The style embraced the shabby-chic looks, the new
antiquing processes, and straight and clean lines.
Gustav Stickley was one of the most popular and famous Arts and Crafts furniture
designer. Due to the “Victorian-style overload” in terms of the hardware—Stickley
opened his own hardware manufacturing. He became very well-known due to his
claim that each one of his pieces was hand-made. That claim has been disproved
on many occasions, but that statement was disproved on many occasions with
multiple facts. It does not, however, take away the beauty of the furniture nor
its hand-made quality which adds warmth to any interior.
The Revival style took the themes from the past and made them work in the
contemporary space. The styles were driven by the aesthetic, not the function.
The style drew upon romantic, rustic, and old world feels. The overall thought
behind the Revival style is to look back to the past for comfort. It took many
influences and ideas from the Spanish style and integrated it into the suburban
American home.
The faster the suburban homes were built, the more prevalent the Revival style
became. The style became so popular that even the chain department stores
integrated it in their lines of furniture and hardware. It gave a sense of
ownership and warmth to the house. The Revival style was not as overbearing as
the previous historical styles which looked to the past. The style, though, came
to a very abrupt end when the Great Depression hit.
After the Great Depression the public stopped looking to the old and the
familiar, but started to look into the future with optimism and a new style—Art
Deco. The Art Deco style was first used in commercial interiors and custom-built
housing while many still lived in their Revival homes. The Art Deco movement
began in France. The decorative artists felt as if their arts have been
overlooked in the modern revolution, so they decided that they would form their
own organization—Societe des Artistes Decorateurs.
While the wealthy class embraced the Art Deco style head on, the middle class
kept their Art Deco interactions to movie theaters and their kitchen hardware.
Most of the hardware that was used was either brass, bronze, or nickel-plated
with elaborate zigzag patterns and sunbursts.
The Streamline Moderne style began with the construction of the Bauhaus in
Germany. It had a new look to it which people have no seen before—glass walls
supported with steel beams. Two years after it was built, the Bauhaus was shut
down by the Nazis and the professors and directors fled to the United States,
bringing the style with them. The style took off immediately in the U.S.
starting with multiple art exhibits and with the prominent furniture companies
re-thinking their predominant furniture output.
While all of the styles are incredibly bold and make a rather loud statement,
you shouldn’t think solely on following the style to a t. Maybe you ought to
think about the essence of a style which seems most attractive to you and the
easiest way to do so is through hardware. It is the perfect way to not go
over-board with the style of your choice and you will make the space look
comfortable and not like a museum.
