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OUR DOOR HANDLES BLOG

How to Choose the Right Door Pull Handles for your Home

The front entry provides the first impression of your home, and as such, deserves special consideration. The front door is the major part of the front entry with the door handles necessary to complete the picture. Consequently, the choice of front entry door hardware takes on a greater level importance.

The last couple of years have seen a trend towards decorative and stylish Pull Handles. It has become evident that Door Handles are no longer just functional pieces of hardware. They have become “Jewellery for Doors” or “Door Jewellery”, and as such require careful research to select the right piece.

So how do you select the right Door Jewellery for your front entry? This is such a subjective topic and is extremely difficult to answer. Especially, in a way that avoids being so generic that the answer is completely useless. Rather than attempt to answer this in one session, I will break this down into a number of aspects (as listed below).
In order to make the right first impression, we should consider a number of aspects.

  • Height of door
  • Width of Door
  • Colour of Door
  • Style of Door
  • Usage of Door
  • Age of Home
  • Style of Home
  • Intended Impression
  • Personal Preference

Each aspect will be dealt with in a separate update, so if you want to read the complete answer come back and read the new posts.
See you next time.

Cheers

David John.

HEIGHT OF DOOR

I receive a lot of questions from people asking, “What is the right size of door handle for my door”.

Firstly, obviously size does matter! The General Rule of Thumb is; the length of the handle should be in proportion to the height of the door.
Of course, as with most things there are always exceptions. I’ll discuss that later.

Back to proportion, an 18 to 24 inch (450 – 600mm) handle would look fine on a standard height 6-foot 10-inch (2040mm) door. The same handle may be lost on a 7-foot 10-inch (2340mm) door.
Consideration should also be given to where the lock will fit!
What do I mean by that?

Generally the lock will be positioned around 36 to 40 inches off the ground, depending on how tall you are. This means the pull handle will be fitted approximately 2 to 4 inches above (not over) the lock. So in the case of a 24-inch pull handle the top of handle would be 64 to 68 inches off the ground. This is a good height for both good looks and functionality. This is an approximation based on averages, in some cases it is best hold the handle up to door to have a better appreciation of the position that works for you.

Earlier, I mentioned exceptions to the proportion rule. These are full or 3/4 length handles, which are popular in office or commercial applications. I have also seen them used very effectively in a domestic situation, and the long handle looks absolutely awesome and makes a powerful statement. In this situation the handle becomes a dominating part of the look of the door.
My opinion on size has always been, to use the largest handle you can. Bearing in mind the points above. For example, I would never use anything less than a 24-inch handle on standard size doors. I feel this size makes a positive statement and compliments the door the way it’s meant to. This is one aspect that changes the standard door pull into stunning Door Jewellery.

Cheers

David John