Design With Intention: Why Hardware Should Begin Every Design Story
Hardware is often one of the later decisions made within an interior. Cabinetry is designed, materials are selected and the wider scheme begins to take shape before handles, knobs and other functional details enter the conversation.
But hardware is also one of the elements we interact with most.
A Detail Experienced Every Day
That repeated interaction makes hardware a particularly tactile part of an interior.
Its scale, weight, movement and material all contribute to the way a space is experienced, often in ways we notice instinctively rather than consciously.
As Hendel & Hendel Director Terence Haughton puts it: “Hardware is often considered an afterthought.”
For us, that makes it worth bringing into the design conversation earlier.
Seen alongside the wider materials of a scheme, hardware becomes more than an isolated choice. Its finish can respond to the tones within a piece of stone, its form can complement the lines of cabinetry, and its proportions can change the way a piece of furniture or joinery is read.
Planning Hardware Earlier
There are practical reasons to consider hardware early, too.
Certain choices need to be resolved alongside the cabinetry itself. Rebated handles, for example, need to be accounted for during design and manufacture, while the scale and placement of pulls can influence proportions, clearances and how cabinetry is used.
Even where the hardware does not affect manufacture, looking at it before a scheme is finalised allows those decisions to be made with the wider interior in mind rather than in isolation.
It is less about choosing hardware first for the sake of it, and more about allowing enough time for the detail to contribute to the design.
A catalyst for creativity
Sometimes, hardware can become the catalyst for a wider idea.
A finish might establish a relationship between timber, stone and colour. A particular profile might echo a detail elsewhere in the room. In one project, the profile of our Fitzrovia collection became a reference for a bespoke cornicing detail, allowing a single piece of hardware to inform something on a much larger scale.
This is where physical samples become particularly useful. Bringing hardware together with paint, stone, timber and fabric makes it possible to understand those relationships before they exist within the finished room.
The way a finish responds to colour and light, the weight of a piece in the hand and the relationship between different materials are much easier to understand when they can be experienced together.
Designing from the Detail Out
Considering hardware earlier gives it the opportunity to play a more meaningful role within the wider scheme. Rather than being resolved in isolation, proportion, finish and material can be considered in relation to the elements around them.
This thinking sits behind our Hardware First approach and the way we designed our London Experience Studio. Within the Materials Lab, hardware can be explored alongside the wider materials of an interior, creating space to test combinations, compare finishes and consider the details while a scheme is still taking shape.
When details are considered in context, they become part of the design rather than something added once everything else has been decided.