Unlacquered Brass Hardware for Interior Doors
One of the most important upgrades I had planned for our home when we first moved in was updating the door hardware. Our home has beautiful solid wood doors with some flimsy and broken handles and dirt fingerprints all over the paint. Upgrading the doors with paint and hardware was a simple way to polish up the main floor and add another layer to the cozy, classic aesthetic I am working on creating. Not only is door hardware functional, it should also be beautiful. It is something you touch every single day which means it plays an important role in the design of your home. The sense of touch is a key element in the design of any space, so paying attention to these details helps to build a space that will be appealing.
Like many of our projects, I like to break it out into phases that fit into both our budget and time constraints. I am currently focusing on updating our main floor so for this round of hardware we chose to focus on our main floor interior and exterior doors. Here are a few pointers from my experience.
The hardware for this project was gifted from Emtek. As always, all opinions are my own. I only partner with brands whose products are ones I want in my own home and would recommend for yours!
Paint your Doors
Our entire main floor is an open floorplan and has all white walls and trim (Benjamin Moore White Dove). I love the calming and effortless backdrop that this provides for our home, however I love layering in colors in our trim, millwork, and doors. For the interior doors, I wanted a subtle color in the taupe/grey colorway to compliment our kitchen island and fireplace (Sherwin Williams Anew Gray). I ended up choosing a color from Sherwin Williams new collection called “Limewash” and I could not be happier. It is such a chameleon color reading almost as light as the walls in the bright morning light. This color is the perfect light, warm putty color. It is such a great color and now I want to paint everything this color.
Selecting a Finish
I knew I wanted a classic finish that would be timeless, which is how I settled on unlacquered brass. It will patina over time for added character or I can polish them every so often to keep them shiny and warm. With our primarily white walls, and subtly greige painted doors, this finish really acts as the jewelry on the doors. I searched for a longtime to find a hardware set that came in an unlacquered brass finish and had a weight and style that I liked, and I fell hard for these sets from Emtek. They are beautiful and feel solid in your hand which was very important to me!
Lever or Knob
I chose to do all levers on the interior doors. I like that they allow my young kids to independently open and access spaces. After having lived with the previous levers for nearly two years I have grown to love how they work for our family. For the levers, I went with the Emtek Merrimack Lever in Unlacquered Brass with the rectangular rosette. However, I opted to replace all of the exterior doors from a lever and deadbolt combo to a knob and deadbolt combination. This should help prevent the toddlers from letting themselves outside. For the knobs I used the Emtek Providence Knob in Unlacquered Brass with the rectangular rosette.
Exterior Doors
For our main exterior door I chose the Emtek Melrose Mortise in Unlacquered Brass with the Providence Knob. This coordinates so well with the interior hardware and really improves the curb appeal of our home. Our last house had the original unlacquered brass hardware on the front door from when it was built in 1934 and the patina was to beautiful. I can’t wait for this set to age and grow more beautiful as the years go by and countless family and friends come and go using it. The secondary exterior entrances are made up of the Emtek Providence Knob in Unlacquered Brass with the rectangular rosette with a rectangular deadbolt. If you are selecting your exterior door hardware, be sure to check your door’s “backset”. This is the distance from the center of the hole drilled for the hardware to the edge of the door. It will be either 2 3/8″ or 2 3/4″. Some hardware has an adjustable backset to accommodate both, however this line we installed has separate back sets that you will need to specify when you order. Be sure to check all of your doors, as we had a mix in our home!
Hinges
Be sure to check your hinges to replace in kind. Check your hinge height as they come in 3 1/2″ or 4″ standard heights. Also check the radius – square, 5/8″ which is a shallower radius similar in diameter to a quarter, or 1/4″ which is similar in diameter to a dime.
I am so happy with the impact that installing this hardware has made on the overall feel of our home. It elevated the overall aesthetic and added a stunning warmth. For a relatively moderate cost in paint and hardware, several hours spread over a weekend painting doors, and a day’s worth of time to install, we took our 1990’s home from dingy and dated to clean and classic.
