A lot of people who visit our shop in Ascot are looking to enhance a shaker styled home or room. This is frequently the kitchen as the simple and robust emphasis within shaker influenced design perfectly compliments the functional role of the kitchen within the home. We are frequently asked to offer advice on complimentary door furniture, and thought it would be beneficial for both us and our clients, to demonstrate some examples of shaker style rooms and the fittings we can offer to suit. As always, we have many more designs available than we could possibly hope to list on our website, so if you are looking for shaker styled cupboard knobs, door handles or other ironmongery and you don’t see what you are looking for on our site, be sure to give us a call!

Shaker Style

The Shaker movement in the USA began to produce furniture and homewares in styles which would influence even present day designs right from when the religious movement begun its organisation into communities in the 1790′s. One of the main reasons original pieces of shaker furniture still exist today is the quality of workmanship took precedence over frivolous excess in design. Modern day fashions often revisit the simple nature of shaker style and many people looking to retain a rustic simplicity in their interior design today describe their kitchen or bedroom style as shaker influenced. Here at shop4handles we offer a number of suitable fittings to compliment the shaker style and below are some highlights of our online range.

Shaker Style Cupboard Furniture

At our Ascot showroom we are now able to supply a huge range of doors, including the very popular shaker style doors which are available in a number of different sizes and finishes. An example of these can be seen below.

Shaker Style Door

If you are looking for something which you do not see here, email us some details and we would be happy to send you some images of other design ideas, as we have many more bespoke offerings from the shop.

Lever door handle on a round rose (base)

Lever handles on a round rose
These door handles have risen in popularity to be the preferred choice for many modern interiors. The door handle pictured is our Vecta model, above pictured fitted to a standard tubular latch It is an additional version of our popular chrome door handles, the “Twirl”. When fitted to one of our latches it has the added benefit of making use of the handles supplied bolt-through fixing kit, allowing the handle to attach through the door for an ultra-secure fit.

Bathroom Door Handles

Bathroom door handles

When using a lever handle on a round rose, we are sometimes asked how to use the handle as a bathroom version. As with all of our handles, there is a bathroom option, and for levers on a round rose, there is a corresponding thumbturn and release, also often called a ‘snib’. These are fitted with the handle to a bathroom lock, and provide an excellent way to give privacy, but also access in an emergency without having to break a door down! In our picture above you can see the emergency access coin release- on the outside of the door this is the part visible, and as its name suggests, is easily turned with a coin or screwdriver should there be an emergency. Those of you with children or sick relatives will know how valuable this can be! Look out for the link underneath your chosen handle to be directed to a matching bathroom thumbturn.

Locking Door Handles

Lever handle with escutcheon

On doors which must lock, our lever handles on a round rose also have matching escutcheons to suit. If you want to get the right one just look out for the link under the handle you have chosen, or give us a call if you are unsure what you need. Escutcheons, or keyhole covers, are available in many finishes and to suit several different style of lock, including 3 and 5 lever locks (standard profile), Euro profile cylinders and oval profile cylinder locks.

Whether the handles you have chosen are chrome, satin chrome, brass, stainless steel or any finish at all, you can be sure we have some matching accessories to suit them. If you have any questions you can always give us a call on our shop landline 01344 876955 or our Freephone number 0800 027 2470, or you can email us via the contact form.

Front Door Furniture

The entrance door to a property is different to internal doors and other external doors for several reasons.
Firstly, the front door generally needs to be the most secure. In the UK, police and insurance companies recommend a 5 lever or higher rated lock. Officially, this should be a British standard lock, compliant with BS EN 12209:2003. Please click here for more information about choosing a front door lock.
Once you have selected your main front door lock you may want to consider additional security products, such as bolts – the flush bolt, slide bolt and ‘rack bolt’ (with the star/spline shaped key) are commonly used for this purpose. Please see here for our range of bolts and contact us with any questions you may have.
Other security features you may wish to incorporate include a door viewer (spyhole) or door security chain.

Front Door Ironmongery

Essentially, things you may wish to consider include a letterplate and inner tidy, although if you have a gated property you may also wish to look at letter boxes. We can supply a range of these too, although they are yet to be listed on the website, so please contact us for more details.

You may also require numerals so people know where to find you, a door knocker or door bell so you can hear any visitor, and possible a door knob to both close the door with, (don’t pull it shut by your knocker it may break!) and offer a central focal point keeping the appearance of the door aesthetically pleasing. Please do not confuse the fixed centre door knobs, generally used on the front door, with mortice door knobs, generally used internally and designed to turn a latch.

You will obviously require hinges for a front door like any other, we would advise putting a pair and a half of our 4” stainless steel hinges in most cases, as they are very strong (carry up to 120kg with 3 per door), fire rated to grade 13, and the ball bearing action makes them very smooth.

There are other items that you may require for your front door, including intumescent (fire and smoke) seal, threshold strips and weather seals, other aesthetic dressing such as door studs. We sell many of these products from our shop and would be happy to assist you. If you have any requirement and you cannot find what you need on the website, please give us a call on 01344 876955, or contact us via the web.

A Rim mounted nightlatch commonly used on Front Doors

Choosing a front door lock

Please use this page only as a very general guide. There are too many different considerations to list here which could affect your decision on what front door locks you should use and we have a much wider range of them in stock than are listed on the site, so we highly recommend giving us a call or email for some (free obviously!!) personal advice on what is right for you.

There are many different locks available for front doors. Here at shop4handles we mainly supply fittings for wooden front doors. Doors made from PVC and other materials may require different advice to this, and often feature locks specifically manufactured for the door, so please call us for advice on these.

On wooden doors the most common style of lock to see is the rim nightlatch style of lock, often called a “Yale” lock, usually on houses this should actually be a rim automatic deadlock, which provides better security. Flats and apartments, amongst other similar styles of property, particluarly those over several floors should not have a lock which can be locked with a key from the inside. This is to minimise fire risks in this type of property. There are locks which feature thumbturns on the inside which are usually the preferred substitute.

There should always be a second deadlock on a front door, and this should be of a 5 lever or higher standard, as well as complying with British Standard 3621 or the equivalent European Standard EN12209. These are often called ‘chubb’ locks but as this is just a company name make sure it is a deadlock you are buying. Our preferred brand for reliable security and overall value are Union locks and you can click here to see our deadlocks. Again on flats and certain other housing, there can be no key to lose on the inside, so usually a deadlock case, combined with a cylinder and turn, are supplied.

With all front door locks (and other external doors), insurance companies will usually require at least one 5 lever or British/European Standard lock, but they may require more so check with yours. The police have guidelines for securing a door safely and so do the home office, please check these pages for further guidelines on the best way to secure your home:-

http://www.met.police.uk/crimeprevention/doors.htm

http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/cpbtb.htm

Other styles of front door lock include espagnolette, or multi-point locks, which we can advise you about over the phone or email, as well as supply.

Finally, don’t foget the difference a couple of extra bolts can make – we sell several suitable types, including flush bolts, rack bolts and slide bolts. We sell a wide variety of security products from our shop in Ascot, Berks, which we can dispatch to internet customers quickly and competitively, so please contact us for further information!

After the recent addition of mortice knobs to our online range, we have had a number of requests to explain a little more about how to make sure you make the right choice of door knob for your home. We are always happy to offer some guidance and if you have any questions don’t forget you can always call the shop for some clarification!

Mortice knobs

The first thing you should consider is whether mortice knobs are the correct choice for you. Generally speaking, mortice knobs are a more traditional style of door furniture. In the past, traditional mortice knobs were almost always unsprung – meaning the knob turned freely when not attached to the door. As a result of this, many have remained in this style and do not make use of standard locks and latches, as the spring is not strong enough to return the knob. Most lever handles have a spring behind the handle plate which serves to compliment the spring in a lock or latch, but many mortice knobs do not have this, meaning they need a heavier sprung latch or lock in the door. When you look at our mortice knob selection, you should see it indicated if the knob is unsprung and requires one of our heavier sprung tubular latches.

The next consideration is whether you have room for a knob on your door. Because a knob operates from any angle, whereas a lever handle guides your hand away from the door’s edge, our advice is to always try and use a longer latch (We would say 76mm minimum) when fitting a mortice knob, to give space for hands and to prevent bruised knuckles! You may find that your style of door means there is not room to fit a longer latch (100mm +) and in these situations we would not advise fitting any of the unsprung mortice knobs. We also do not advise fitting them on narrow styled french doors, as there is often not enough space between them to allow comfortable operation.

With all these considerations, you may feel put off from looking at mortice knobs for your home, but please don’t – we just want our customers to feel happy with their purchase. Other than in the situation described above (i.e you have very narrow-styled doors), mortice knobs are a classy and classical way to embellish your door.

As always, if you have any questions at all or want us to run through or guide your purchase, you can call us on 01344 876955, or the freephone number across our site.