Heritage continues to have its moment
The entrance door market continues to evolve at a rapid pace, as homeowners search for personalised solutions that reflect the latest interiors influences. Here, Kerry Blackford, Head of Product at ERA, explores the revival of heritage style entrance doors and the latest hardware products and finishes that can help manufacturers add value.
For homeowners, achieving real kerb appeal is more important than ever before. Where once the interior of a property presented itself as the main opportunity to embrace latest trends, the home improvement boom of the last 18 months is continuing to encourage individuals to search for new and effective ways to make their house stand out from the rest of the street.
In recent years, achieving a contemporary aesthetic has been extremely popular, with modern composite entrance doors in anthracite and black shades, featuring large panels of glazing and vertical pull bars, becoming household favourites.
Whilst these contemporary styles have been in high demand, we are also seeing the return of heritage influences, as homeowners opt to recreate more traditional designs that reflect particular design periods. Often in timber or woodgrain-effect finishes, traditional doors in colourful palettes with period-inspired hardware are becoming increasingly popular. Thanks to modern technologies, individuals are choosing fresh takes on classic door designs, with low maintenance requirements and superior standards of security and performance.
As door manufacturers continue to invest in bringing designs to market that follow the latest trends, it’s important to offer high quality, style-appropriate hardware to match. By working with suppliers that offer a comprehensive range of suited products in heritage-inspired finishes, door specialists can achieve a competitive edge, giving their customers more design freedom and helping them create a classically inspired aesthetic.
Door knobs and knockers in traditional designs are currently extremely popular with individuals looking to add their own finishing touches to a heritage style entrance door. By offering these types of hardware in Heritage inspired door knobs, Bull Ring and Spire knocker styles, combined with authentic-inspired finishes, fabricators can ensure every aspect of the door consistently reflect the same aesthetic, whilst still meeting each customer’s specific demands.
For example, Fab&Fix’s new Forged Black and Hardex Aged Pewter range replicates the look of traditional forged black iron and aged pewter hardware. The modern manufacturing process means Fab&Fix expertly engineers interlaced hammered patterns to deliver a texture surface finish, which combined with a matte black or pewter surface base, creates an eye eye-catching and authentic visual appeal associated with classical styles dating back to the 1800s.
The unique finishes are available across a complete portfolio of suited door hardware, including the above Door Knobs and Knockers, in addition to Sculptured, Monkey Tail and Noble door handles and Architectural Letterplates.
Supplied with colour coordinated screwheads, even the smallest details reflect the authentic style of heritage properties. The door handles are also supplied with long baseplates with screw positions to suit a wide variety of locks, supporting fabricators in creating a period aesthetic across a diverse portfolio of entrance door types.
By offering a choice of hardware like this in a coordinated finish, door manufacturers can successfully fulfil homeowners demands for personalisation and help them to achieve the heritage style. This mix and match service, with each piece designed to work in conjunction with one another, can be taken a step further, with an extensive range of hardware also available for vertical sliding windows, casement windows and internal sliding doors in the same finishes. This enables homeowners to create a complementary aesthetic throughout their entire property across all windows and doors.
With heritage style entrance doors positioned at the more premium end of the market, it’s important that style does not take precedence over substance, as homeowners expect the highest standards of finish and functionality.
The Fab&Fix Hardex range is a great example of how to deliver on both fronts. The latest heritage finishes were developed to replicate the appearance of traditional iron forged hardware, but with all the performance benefits of state-of-the-art manufacturing. The unique Hardex patented finish undergoes 480 hours prohesion testing and is supplied with a 10 year function, finish and security guarantee. function and finish guarantee for customer peace of mind.
ERA has already introduced three new Hardex finishes to its Fab&Fix range in 2021, and with some exciting new products in the pipeline for the second half of the year, door manufacturers can rely on ERA to keep pace with market trends and help them maximise sales opportunities.
