Saturday, October 9, 2010 How to Choose Colonial Revival Hardware

A simple cabinet latch from Top Knobs has a patinated finish for an aged look.

Colonial Revival reproduction hardware combines the best of the past and present. Larger manufacturers and artisans are reinterpreting period designs or inventing wholly new ones in the same spirit, producing wares using the oldest of blacksmithing techniques and also the latest in industrial technology.

Industrial Innovations

The hardware that appears in Colonial Revival homes built between roughly 1895 and 1940 may be reminiscent of 18th-century forms, but the methods and materials used to make it were quite different from those of true colonial hardware. Very few artisans were forging iron in 1923—and yet there are hundreds, if not thousands, who do so now. (Today, most work in mild steel instead of iron.) Brass, rare and almost always imported in colonial times, was far more pervasive in the early decades of the 20th century. So too was pot metal, finished and patinated to look like antiqued brass. Almost all of it was made using industrial innovations like casting, plating, and die-stamping, which captured the look without the labor.

Early 20th-century Colonial Revival hardware usually gave away its machine-made origins (even when posing as a colonial strap hinge). With the exception of real hand-forged pieces, that’s still true today; in fact, some designs make no apology for their industrial origins, with obvious seaming and finishes that resemble a heavy coating of rust. It’s often a point of honor that a cast-brass or -bronze entry set has substantial heft, while true colonial hardware was very light because of the scarcity of metal. Revival hardware was heavier, but not so beefy as quality hardware now, which may be solid brass, industrial cast bronze, mild steel, or an amalgam of metals.

Rejuvenation, has a black porcelain knob reminiscent of Bennington glass. " title="The Coleman door set, just introduced by Rejuvenation, has a black porcelain knob reminiscent of Bennington glass. ">

Notting Hill’s Chelsea collection incorporate classical motifs like leaves and vines." title="Cabinet knobs and pulls from Notting Hill’s Chelsea collection incorporate classical motifs like leaves and vines.">

Acorn Manufacturing’s Warwick ring pull has the look of hand-forged iron, but the even details (and presence of screws) certify that it’s Revival." title="Acorn Manufacturing’s Warwick ring pull has the look of hand-forged iron, but the even details (and presence of screws) certify that it’s Revival.">

Kayne & Son’s hand-forged reproductions show evidence of hand-hammering. " title="Kayne & Son’s hand-forged reproductions show evidence of hand-hammering. ">

Signature Hardware is obviously machine-made, but the textured finish shares kinship with wrought iron." title="A ball-tipped hinge from Signature Hardware is obviously machine-made, but the textured finish shares kinship with wrought iron.">

Knobworks Vermont’s Big Chicago collection has a mirrored finish that resembles mercury glass." title="A rose from Knobworks Vermont’s Big Chicago collection has a mirrored finish that resembles mercury glass.">

Colonial Revival Motifs & Design

Makers of early 20th-century household or architectural hardware spiced up spare and simple colonial designs with motifs borrowed from classical architecture, like egg-and-dart or rope molding, often blending or blurring stylistic elements that were markers of specific styles in the 18th century, including Georgian and Adam. Good reproductions often copy these “revivals,” often with minor adjustments that make them slightly different, thus nudging history’s design timeline along.

Manufacturers also made it easy for builders to use their products interchangeably, whether the house was Tudor, Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, or Georgian Revival. Modern crafters have gone even further, introducing designs that are meant to blanket almost any history-inspired house style. At the other end of the spectrum, many offer custom replication services that can produce passage sets or gate hardware that’s impossible to differentiate from period originals.

Hardware Finishes, from Glass Knobs to Brass Cabinet Hardware

Another Colonial Revival innovation was to offer the customer a choice of up to six different finishes, with an emphasis on those that darkened hardware surfaces to make them look old. Contemporary hardware makers may offer up to 40 different finishes on a single item, from raw brass or oil-rubbed bronze to verdigris, antiqued copper, dark bronze and brass, and polished, brushed, or matte nickel, just to name a few.

Naturally, we now have coordinating knobs and backplates in every metal and finish, but the Colonial Revival affection for brass and cut-glass or crystal knobs is back in full force with an explosion of beautiful reproductions and new forms in recent years. There are knobs of hand-blown glass in every color under the sun, plus faceted crystal, and even a modern version of mercury (silvered) glass.

Farmhouse Victorian Guest Cottage

A simple, front-gabled Victorian is the guest house next door to Jim Stout's Queen Anne.

In 2004, ten years after antiques collector and historian Jim Stout moved into the Williams Morton House, he got a chance to buy its guest house next door. This one is a different take on Victorian design. While the main house, where Jim lives, is a formal, towered villa, the guest house is a much simpler farmhouse Victorian. And even though the same family owned both dwellings, the décor was quite different in each. The main house had a High Victorian formality with paintings and many accessories; the guest house was plainer, with a country sensibility.

Sarah Morton’s mother, Madora Williams, lived in the guest house after Sarah’s father died in 1923. After 1947, the house was subjected to multiple unfortunate remodelings that left it in rough shape, with dropped ceilings, a “picture window” in the parlor’s center wall, and aluminum siding. Jim Stout restored two parlor windows, using shutters he found in the attic to gauge their original size. Markings on the floor told him where pocket doors had once separated the living and dining rooms—and there they were, too, stored in the attic.

Jim is currently working on the front porch, repairing the porch rail and removing the last vestiges of the siding. Next he’ll turn his attention to the gardens. “Working on the two Morton houses has been the grand passion of my life,” Jim says.

Bungalow Kitchen, Plain and Simple

Practical yet old-fashioned, straightforward yet edgy with color, this Pasadena kitchen is a perfect fit in a 1922 bungalow.

If this kitchen looks perfect for the 1922 bungalow, that’s because it was inspired by the original one. “We loved our kitchen even before the restoration,” says Kristy Clougherty, who, with husband Brian, has owned this house since 2001.

They worked diligently to save the existing fir floor (discovered under worn linoleum), along with remaining cabinets, hardware (painstakingly stripped), and lighting fixtures. Kristy says that about 70 percent of what’s here is original; for the rest, “we thought about what details would have been in place, and then we searched them out.”

Set off by dark soapstone, plain white cabinets were matched to the old ones, but with a flared-leg detail added. (The original owner-builder was from back East, where soapstone was more prevalent.) The kitchen faucet is still wall-mounted, “against advice,” says Kristy, “but it works and is just like the original.” A new dishwasher hides behind a door.

When the couple went to pick up the dependable, early 1950s O’Keefe and Merritt stove from its previous owner, “She cried when we drove off, and came to visit it several weeks later!” Kristy says. “We share love for this stove—it works like when it was built.”

A period convention very popular in today’s revival, the breakfast nook is a bungalow basic. This one is an original; benches echo the curved ceiling.

Bold chocolate walls soften the high contrast between cabinets and countertops. The soapstone’s sage-green veining is picked up in a new backsplash of porcelain subway tiles.

For fabrics, Kristy was looking for something unexpected to complement the rich brown of the table in the nook. “Oddly enough, it’s my dad who sews—usually industrial fabrics for nautical purposes. He whipped up the café curtains and the nook’s seat cushions, piping included—very professional!” Kristy boasts.

The color scheme is successful, and even restful. “It’s not all that common to see black and white blended with warm tones,” says Kristy. “But it was worth taking the risk.”