We’ve lived in our apartment for almost 4 years and when we moved in we said we’d change the front door hardware, but never really got around to it until now. We did a mini front door makeover by painting the door and replacing the numbers for something more modern, you can check that out here.
The door really became an issue for me a few years ago when I locked myself out of our apartment because the middle lock in the photo below was set in the lock position from the inside and I wasn’t aware of it.
When the door closed behind me, it locked and my keys, phone and brain were inside. It was an awful feeling, the panic that set in and crying that followed shortly afterwards because I was barefoot, basically in pajamas with wet hair and had a job interview to get to, meanwhile birds were flying into our apartment (really, they were!). It’s also scary how useless I become without a phone, I don’t remember anyone’s phone numbers, so I had to get someone to google Andrew’s work number so I could call him from their phone….really awkward. It was a day from hell and I never want to live it again.
So I FINALLY got around to purchasing new door hardware from a local company called Bradford Hardware.
Lets talk about the old locks just a little longer. Firstly, the metal finishes don’t match, the bottom lock needs a key from both sides (major fire hazard) and that round knob is pretty damn ugly, even more ugly covered in paint splotches. Luckily my building allows you to do what you want to your door within reason. Everyone has different hardware, door colours and numbers, it definitely shows personality.
So here’s what we’ve got arriving in 2-4 weeks. The Emtek Helios series from Bradford Hardware. It’s a brushed nickel finish that will match our door numbers, with modern clean lines and a square back plate plus a way more functional lever handle. The best part about this series is you can order various parts, so if you want a round back plate they have that too, but we went with the square to match our front door numbers.
So the final issue is the lower lock on the door, we want it gone because we didn’t want to pay for an extra deadbolt. So we’re going to have to find a way to patch the hole, it will be very tricky since the door is made of metal. If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear them!
Stay tuned in a few weeks when I post an update of the hardware installed and how the patching of the lower lock went down.
