GETTING A HANDLE ON GREAT DESIGN
How many times have you admired a great door? It might be a large door, a wooden door, an old door or a beautifully designed door.
And, unless it’ s an automatic door, the handle( or handles) will have been in keeping with the overall design.
You don’ t design a great door and then furnish it with ordinary handles.
It’ s not just about shape either, although that’ s hugely important. Its also about the materials used to construct the handle, its finish and its patina.
Each is an important factor in deciding what’ s best for an internal or external door, and one that’ s perhaps getting extremes of high use.
More and more, designers and architects are looking for something that might create any sort of standout feature and once more turning to bespoke manufacturers and craftsmen rather than a mass production solution.
Charlie Tipper, managing director of Nottingham-based ASH Door Furniture and Entrance Specialists points to his company’ s ability to create exiting new ranges of finishes and provide a bespoke design service as being the business’ s stand out feature.
“ Yes, we manufacture door handles, but much more important is that we recognise that in certain projects standard products cannot satisfy all the criteria demanded by the design and specification.
“ So, we have in-house design and manufacturing facilities, which enable us to work closely with customers, so we achieve a practical and unique finished product.
“ We’ re able to produce full working drawings from an initial sketch, together with costing and delivery periods. We work in hardwood, leather, brass and copper alloys, stainless steel and bronze. We even, on occasions, use driftwood,” adds Charlie.
Each handle is customisable with a range of diameters, fixing centres and projection heights available.
The designer-led handles are perfect for commercial and residential applications including offices, schools, shops, hospitals, restaurants and hotels.
And as well as a broad range of materials there’ s an exciting range of finishes, such as Bronze powder Coated, which provides the longevity of a polyester powder coat finish
53 but with the attractive metallic finish achieved through traditional anodised metal.
“ It’ s suitable for applications where a hard-wearing durable finish is required on high traffic door hardware, whilst offering the ability to match the aesthetics of other metal furnishings contained in a project,” adds Charlie.
Anodised finishes provide many benefits to our products.
There are no heavy materials used in the anodising process and they can be cleaned periodically with water and mild detergent to restore the product ' s original lustre.
“ The anodised finish becomes a part of the metal and so the anodic coating will not peel or flake and imparts a translucent metallic appearance; it’ s unaffected by sunlight, preventing fading and it also does not emit VOCs( Volatile Organic Compounds).
“ Using an artificially aged process we can achieve a vintage finish to our products. The new finishes have been successfully used with original fittings and fixtures in historic and period buildings to match a similar finish.
“ Our clients also benefit from using the new Patina finishes, where a rustic theme is required, say for restaurants, hotel lobbies or heritage building restorations.”
For more information visit www. ashardware. co. uk