Bits and bobs.

One of the things I’ve been very grateful for is that in spite of the occasional crazy things that were done to this house, much of the door hardware is original to the house. The mystery hardware is in the bathroom. I have three doors into the bathroom — this is a layout nightmare, but I haven’t figured out what to do about that yet. So three doors — all original. Three door handles — not original. Mystery, huh?

Originally I thought perhaps they had replaced the original door hardware, which would have been locked with a skeleton key, with newer hardware so that they could lock the bathroom door. But upon closer examination this very logical thought isn’t the case either. All three doors lock only with the the kick lock thing — I really have to figure out what its called. So I’m no closer to figuring this out than I was. All I know is that they have been replaced and that I am fairly confident that at one time they had hardware like every other door in the house seeing as how every other door in the house — including the front door — has a similar style. Only the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining doesn’t have this hardware, and even on that one the push plate is similar.

As you can see in the photo on the right, it’s pretty basic — all metal, and almost all of them have keyholes for the skeleton keys although if they all had skeleton keys at one time, they do not now. There is one in the porch door in the kitchen, and that is it.

So I did some searching. From my rational theory about why they might have changed the door hardware in the bathrooms I knew that locking the bathrooms by some way other than the hinge lock things would probably be something we might want. So I was looking for something that didn’t just have the correct look but would also lock.

When I originally looked at Rejuvenation I hadn’t seen anything, but as I went through the catalog today I realised that their Putman classic door set is actually pretty close. That design was apparently popular from 1895-1950 which would cover the period this house was built. The color in the example is incorrect, obviously, but I suspect the unlacquered polished brass which is “Ideal for older homes where “shiny brass” seems out of place – give this finish a year or two and it will look like it’s always been there” would work. It’s nothing a trip to Portland or Seattle wouldn’t probably assist in decision on. The set comes in several different sets, including a privacy set that I feel like would work well for a bathroom door. To be honest, it might not be all bad for the master bedroom either…

I’ll keep my eyes open for better matches, but thus far short of finding original hardware that matches, this is seeming like a good option.

Of course ultimately the original hardware will need to be cleaned. I’ve saved this article on How to Strip Paint from Hardware from This Old House’s website.

Good painters remove or cover door hardware before they paint. The other kind of painter just slops it over any exposed metal.

As you can probably tell from the above photograph, we had the other kind of painter. This seems to have been a chronic problem throughout the house making me very grateful the wood in the dining/living area was not touched. As we repaint rooms, I will be using these directions on the original hardware and hopefully at the end of it they’ll look quite a bit better.