Creative Use of Door Handles - In the Company of Art and Design

Carol Salb and Stacy Welch of Reddington Designs recently shared photos of a cabinet they designed using our Ergo door handles but with very original positioning.
The Ergo series, as it’s name suggests, focuses on functional shapes that are easy to grip and we hope pleasing to touch. To achieve an ergonomic shape we appreciate that left handed and right handed people will grip a pull differently. As a committed lefty who has spent many years coping with the challenges of a right hand world I was the ideal subject for Martin’s Ergo designs.

Andy Warhol’s Goethe Screen-prints - cabinet design and photo courtesy of Reddington Designs all rights reserved

We knew from Stacy and Carol that the Ergo handles needed to be customized in depth so that they projected less from the surface of the cabinet doors. What we didn’t realize is how they would re-position the handles to create a wonderfully fluid and visually interesting cabinet.
While the “handing” of each pull did not change the pulls were inverted but still retained their ergonomic design.

Ergo Entry Door Handle

The cabinet was designed by Carol and Stacy and made by Ayr Cabinets using a custom stain over rift oak. The piece has a lovely unorthodoxy and it’s upwards movement seems to defy gravity making it a perfect design for the pop-up TV it houses. The Ergo handles were originally designed as entry door handles but in the hands of a talented designer they can work equally well as cabinet door pulls.
The cabinet sits below 3 of Andy Warhol’s Goethe prints, a series based on the iconic painting of Goethe by Johann Tischbein.

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New Morphic Door Pull - One Size Does Not Fit All

When designing a cabinet pull the smaller size of cabinet drawers and doors requires that the pull be appropriately scaled. The size of the pull should not over-power the cabinetry but at the same time must not appear wimpy.
When we began designing our Ergo collection of contemporary hardware the designs for the cabinet doors were very different to those for the entry and interior doors. However, over time our small 12” cabinet pull has undergone substantial scale revisions and is now available as both a 35” and 54” entry door pulls. The demand for different sizes of this piece continues and we are currently designing a 25” piece. To the untrained eye this may appear to be a simple revision but in reality, the new size will require a three-dimensional pattern to be made so that the newly proportioned piece be as fluid as the original design. The sketch here shows how the scale of the new pull when compared to the 54” pull will look on tall 7’ 5” closet doors.

Left: Doors New 24” High Ergo Pull Right: Doors 35” High Ergo Pull

Our Morphic cabinet pull also lends itself to scale modifications and is currently being re-designed as a 24” door pull. To function well as a door pull, we are modifying the outer edge and straightening the curvature so that it will fit on narrow door stiles. The back of the pull that attaches to the door is a mere 2 ½” and the decorative curved face is 3 ½’.

The Design Process for Door Handles

Creating door hardware is a balancing act where artistic inspiration is balanced and refined to meet the practical demands of functionality.

Continuing from last weeks post I want to share some of the initial designs that were submitted to designer Debbie Zylstra for her client’s home in Kailua-Kona. Debbie was in the process of designing a home entertainment center in Koa wood and wanted to incorporate dramatic door pulls for sliding doors. The cabinet was grand in scale at a height of 9’ and the lizard heroic handles were considered as a possibility. These pieces are extremely realistic, and the client wanted something more stylized and original but in the reptile family so, pencil in hand, Martin sketched out the iguanas. Martin designed 2 interlocking iguanas which give the illusion of being 2 different pieces, but which use one iguana that is inverted to create a pair. To get a sense of proportion he then reduced the scale and inserted the design into a scaled drawing of the cabinet. The body and head of both iguanas project out from the cabinet door by 4” and the underside of each projects 1 ½” so that there is enough clearance for the hand to grab either the head or tail of each iguana to slide the pocket door open. The angle of the head, legs and tail were made so that the pair would interlock comfortably but leave sufficient space so that fingers would not be pinched.

Below are the original sketches for the first large reptile sculptures that are the central pieces in the Lizard collection. Given their realistic design Martin felt he needed to create a left and right facing lizard so that he could more naturally capture the movement of a pair of lizards. The pair was designed so that the head of the right lizard protrudes beyond the slate back-plate allowing the thumb to then be extended to depress the butterfly thumb piece and thereby release the door latch.

Unique Metal Door Pulls - Influence of Medium and Luster

Our contemporary door handles, Morphic and Ergo are usually seen in a polished or satin or 2 tone finish. Each finish can give a different aesthetic to the same handle allowing the same handle to be employed in different areas to different effect.

These 2 modern collections of door handles can be cast either in bronze or in stainless steel and the appearance and mood is very different. When you add the textural layer from smooth, to satin to brushed you achieve even greater scope of use.

Consider the Ergo heroic pull as shown here.

Modern Door Pulls began with our Ergo Collection

The Ergo pull shown on the left is cast 316 stainless steel while the image on the right is silicon bronze. Both were cast using the same mold and by means of the lost wax method of casting. Both metals are resistant to corrosion but the stainless steel is more easy to maintain without the need for any type of sealant. By comparison the bronze unless sealed will tend to become more yellow over time.

As the Ergo handle is extremely fluid with deep recessed areas it lends itself to a sophisticated 2 tone finish. In the detail photo shown below different facets of the handles have been polished or sand blasted to create contrast and depth.

Write here…

Compare the top sand blasted section of the steel wave to the same section of the bronze version.

Ergo one of several modern cabinet knobs

Unique Metal Door Pulls - Influence of Medium and Luster

Our contemporary door handles, Morphic and Ergo are usually seen in a polished or satin or 2 tone finish. Each finish can give a different aesthetic to the same handle allowing the same handle to be employed in different areas to different effect.

These 2 modern collections of door handles can be cast either in bronze or in stainless steel and the appearance and mood is very different. When you add the textural layer from smooth, to satin to brushed you achieve even greater scope of use.

Consider the Ergo heroic pull as shown here.

The Ergo pull shown on the left is cast 316 stainless steel while the image on the right is silicon bronze. Both were cast using the same mold and by means of the lost wax method of casting. Both metals are resistant to corrosion but the stainless steel is more easy to maintain without the need for any type of sealant. By comparison the bronze unless sealed will tend to become more yellow over time.

As the Ergo handle is extremely fluid with deep recessed areas it lends itself to a sophisticated 2 tone finish. In the detail photo shown below different facets of the handles have been polished or sand blasted to create contrast and depth.

Write here…

Compare the top sand blasted section of the steel wave to the same section of the bronze version.