How to select the handle for your interior door? This question re-appears whenever you decide to purchase doors for your home. It might seem that the handle is only a small detail, but choosing one is not quite as easy as it sounds. The handle has to be suitable in terms of style but also convenient and durable – after all, it will be used very often.
Handles with style
There are a couple of universal rules you might want to remember when choosing your handles.
Najpopularniejsze klamki dostępne na polskim rynku to mosiężne, stalowe, z tworzyw sztucznych i aluminium. Producenci oferują modele powlekane, niklowane, chromowane oraz nietypowe, np. z egzotycznego drewna lub wykończone skórą.
Classic, traditional doors will look best when combined with ornamental, artistically designed handles. They draw attention to themselves, with the doors acting as the background.
In the opposite situation, when the doors are highly ornamental, the handle should be rather simple, acting as a subtle complement.
Make sure to use consistent colours – matching other parts of the doors themselves as well as the colours used in your space. If your room is dominated by brass components, e.g., lamps or door hinges, your handle should be made of brass as well. This is something you should pay attention to particularly when choosing handles for bathroom doors, where the traditional ventilation cut is replaced with holes with cover sleeves. In that case, the colour of the handle should match the colour of the sleeves.
Handles designed to last
The most popular handles on the Polish market are made of brass, steel, plastic and aluminium. Manufacturers offer coated handles, nickel- or chromium-plated handles and non-standard handles, e.g., handles made of exotic wood or handles finished with leather.
When choosing the handle, however, you should pay attention not only to its appearance but also to functionality, e.g., if the handle feels comfortable in your hand and if does not have any sharp edges. It should work smoothly and quietly, without resistance. – The most durable handles are made from alloys of metals such as brass, but this material is very rarely used due to its price, which is not acceptable to the Polish market – says Adam Hucz, Marketing Manager at the Invado company, which offers handles. – A very popular material is zamak (an alloy of zinc and aluminium – ZnAl), used in approx. 70% of handles sold in Poland. More affordable handles are made of aluminium coated with nickel or chromium – he adds.
Modern or classic?
The most popular models represent an uncomplicated, modern form. This is certainly aligned with the trends in interior design, which is dominated by minimalist designs, with matching doors that are usually rather simple and sparsely ornamented.
The look of homes in the traditional style will benefit from rounded handles, e.g. the Uno handle or the Presto handle, which is made of nickel and chromium.
Modern interiors will be better suited for more ascetic forms, such as, for instance, Flip, Total-Q or Sapphire handles.
Hinge cover
One of the aesthetic touches on interior doors that is often overlooked by many people are hinge covers. They cover the structural components of the door leaves and complement the overall look of your door by matching the colour of the handle. You can choose from among nickel-plated, chromium-plated, gold or matte covers, just like in the case of handles – he adds.
The handle is one of the details you may not pay much attention to every day, but you will certainly start to notice it if it happens to be missing or is not matched correctly. The devil is in the detail, however, which means that this is one of the small things you should pay attention to.