It’s All in the Detail with Heritage Hardware
Since its inception, Victorian interior design has rarely been out of style, with homeowners enjoying its enduring opulent and dramatic appeal. In recent years, the trend for authentic period designs has seen a notable resurgence and with that, sales of heritage-style hardware are on the rise. Here, Kerry Blackford, Senior Category Manager at ERA, discusses how window and door manufacturers can help homeowners to achieve that authentic look.
With property owners spending more time at home in recent years, decorating projects have taken priority for many, as have renovation projects, in response to the rapidly increasing cost of moving house. In fact, according to a survey from Money.co.uk, 88% of respondents had undertaken a home renovation of some kind in 2022. At the same time, the heritage trend has continued to grow, thanks to a resurgence of nostalgia and homeowners looking to combine the best of traditional property features with modern performance characteristics.
Traditional Meets Modernity
Fabricators will know that heritage-style doors and flush casement windows are a hit with many homeowners, due to their combination of classic aesthetics and modern functional qualities. Qualities that include energy efficiency, limited maintenance, durability, and affordability. Many consumers are making design choices that are sympathetic to the period their property was built in, or are opting for timeless styles that will add enduring appeal to more modern homes.
With homeowners opting to remain true to the traditional charm of these styles, heritage hardware is also seeing an increase in popularity, with consumers eager to add unique finishing touches that nod to a different time period and increase their home’s kerb appeal. Therefore, it becomes important for fabricators to not only offer the best in hard-wearing, functional, and secure hardware items but also provide aesthetically pleasing offerings too.
Decisions, Decisions
What is great about offering customers a traditional style in modern times, is the choice that is now available to homeowners. While the overarching historic style is distinct, there is a range of options and colours to choose from, allowing the homeowner to express individuality throughout their interior and exterior preferences. For example, the Fab&Fix Monkey Tail door handle in the Forged range offers more drama, while the Heritage handle offers an elegant, yet simple style.
Additionally, while polished finishes remain steadfast in popularity, more homeowners are opting for industrial hues, such as pewter and forged and antique black, given that these finishes are reminiscent of traditional black iron and aged pewter hardware that date back as far as 1800s.
Benefits to Fabricators
A versatile offering is going to open up many opportunities to window and door manufacturers with customers who are ever experimental in their design choice, influenced by trends more than ever before due to their increasing points of reference.
There is no doubt that with the increase in popularity of heritage door and window styles, interior-savvy consumers will be looking to complete the look with traditional style hardware that offers all the benefits of modern design, such as robust security performance, corrosion resistance and operational excellence.
Additionally, adding historic style options is an effective way of standing out against competitors who may be offering much of the same standard styles to their customers. Moving with the times is essential in an industry driven by trends and the assorted styles of property available to homeowners in the modern world.
Fab&Fix Decorative Hardware
The Fab&Fix Heritage range offers a sophisticated selection of window and door hardware, in a range of Hardex finishes, for fabricators to choose from. This includes the new Tear Drop and Monkey Tail key locking handles that can be installed on timber and PVCu casements windows, when used with an espagnolette lock.
The handles are an extension to the wide Fab&Fix decorative range, which now offers manufacturers more versatility to create perfectly matching doors and windows in a range of Hardex finishes, for a variety of property styles.
Leading the way in performance standards, all Fab&Fix ranges endure up to 1000 hours of prohesion testing and have 30-years of proven field performance.
