Decorative Hardware: Interior Designing with Knobs, Handles, Latches, Locks, Hinges, and Other Hardware

A beautifully photographed look at the creative possibilities of decorating with antique and contemporary American hardware: doorknobs, drawer pulls, locks, hinges, and more.

Suddenly, hardware seems to be featured everywhere: glossy magazines showcase glimmering arrays of cabinet handles and famous designers are creating door pulls. With the current focus on building and renovating houses, there's a great demand for hardware that is both beautiful and functional and that matches the particular design of the house, whether it is Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, Contemporary, or another style. Hardware can change the entire look of a room; the fine details on doorknobs and cabinet handles can become the decorative springboard for every room in the home. Compared with the expense of demolition and reconstruction, changing the surface details--replacing the hardware--is a small investment. And if the original hardware is intact, it can serve as a guide to the age and history of a house. It's a part of our heritage.In the first-ever comprehensive book written about decorative hardware, Liz Gordon and Terri Hartman, the owner and the manager of Liz's Antique Hardware, the nation's foremost antique hardware store, delve into this rarely considered aspect of interior design. They reveal the history behind the most loved styles of hardware during the last few hundred years and show you how to fit these decorative, historical pieces of art into your own home. You'll see exquisite homes that incorporate antique and contemporary hinges, handles, knobs, and locks--and find an incredible variety of ways to express your personal style through American decorative hardware.

Liz Gordon has been an antiques dealer specializing in hardware for twenty years. Her store, Liz's Antique Hardware in Los Angeles, offers more than one million pieces of original hardware dating from 1850 to 1950 and has been hailed by Matha Stewart Living as "perhaps the best supermarket for antique hardware in the country." Gordon lives in Los Angeles.

Terri Hartman, the manager of Liz's Antique Hardware, is an architectural historian who has written for shelter and general interest magazines. She lives in Los Angeles.