Door Knobs

When we moved in, all the door knobs in our house were these terrible things with brass plates and glass knobs. Obviously a nod to the past but clearly not up to par in terms of function. We had trouble getting all the doors closed and at one point, the glass handle fell off the pantry door and shattered to bits on the tile floor.

We had such success with replacing the hardware on the front and back doors, we figured it would be equally simple to find new door knobs for the interior doors. Boy, were we wrong. Since the doors have their original mortise locks, were were limited in terms of replacement parts. The last thing we wanted to do was replace the inner workings on all the doors. In fact, the only thing available at Home Depot was the exact same brass and glass door knobs we already had. The only options out there were high end restoration sites that provided either original or reproduction fixtures. Eight interior doors isn’t a lot but it adds up quick, especially since we needed both knobs and escutcheons.

After a fairly extensive web search and a lot of comparison pricing, we came across Crown City Hardware. They had a nice Craftsman-style escutcheon—normally between $50 and $85 and on sale for only $20. Since they had limited quantities available, I bought enough for the entire house plus one door knob. I figured we’d buy a door knob or two every month and eventually, we’d have a full set.

We’re very happy with how it came out—it’s a simple look with a nice nod to Arts and Crafts. Jonathan’s also doing it right and replacing all the hinges as well. Luckily, we can get matching hinges at most hardware stores. The problem we’re running up against now is finding matching strike plates. One step at a time…