The Defendius door chain (Art Lebedev Studio) is a clever design exercise, but I’m betting this maze lock won’t turn up on the front door of too many homes — and it probably wouldn’t be endorsed by too many firefighters, or insurance types, or anyone else who thinks that getting out of your home quickly might be a good thing…

Still, isn’t it just the most engaging piece of home hardware you’ve seen in ages?

So I’m thinking, why not use a maze chain to lock a cupboard door, and put the car keys there when you throw your next party. And if your cousin Johnny is one brew past figuring out the puzzle in, oh, 30 seconds — too bad, guess he can’t drive home!

What is it the Fin de siècle again already?

Windows and shelves and cabinetry and whatnot have no excuse to be jealous of those glorious attention-getting over-the-top crystal-dangling chandeliers, when they can be trimmed out with such decadent hardware.

This Antoinette collection at The Saturday Decor is just the beginning, too — their bejewelled Aelan line, for example, is like frankly-fun high-end costume jewellery for your home.

Less is more, however. Avoid that fatal Victorian Bordello overstatement by going in with a light touch and a monochromatic colour scheme. Pair up the decorative window hardware — look, it’s a metal valance! — with a sleek simple rich fabric like linen or a dull slubbed silk… Just think twice about the red velvet drapes and carved Japan dressing screens, that’s all I’m suggesting. Let the hardware bling be the room’s signature accent, not its theme.

[Hat tip to Kay Ellen]

One of the best house-warming gifts I was ever given was an antique gardening trowel that had been converted to a door knocker. It was a particularly welcome gift because this old house had no functioning door bell (nasty loud buzzing things, anyway, most modern electric door bells!) and it is awfully convenient for visitors to be able to announce their arrival… to say the least.

American Eagle from Restorers at Amazon

There’s something welcoming about the traditional door knocker — a lion’s head, say, or a stirrup — but I’ve started noticing the variety of door knocker designs much more since I mounted that garden trowel knocker on my own front door.

Eagles are by far the most popular among my American cousins — patriotic motifs never go out of fashion, but have become all the more popular in these last few years, for obvious reasons — but other birds and animal designs also are widely seen.

A friend who just bought a townhouse that backs onto the nineth hole of his favourite golf course (yes, the man is golf-obsessed! just a bit!) has a door knocker in the shape of, you guessed it, a golf club — one of those ones with the big head, I don’t know one from another — while his next door neighbour has a knocker shaped like a tiny golf bag with the clubs sticking out.

Much more interesting, to my mind, one of the local metalworkers has started making custom door knockers in all sorts of fantasy designs — flowers and gnarled old trees (maybe they’re Ents from Lord of the Rings?) and mermaid and dragons (or some kind of mythical serpent, at any rate)…

Door knockers — door art!

In many North American communities, new home architecture is more and more reflecting the traditional styles with dormer windows, steep pitched roofs, and wrap-around veranda or porch. As well, we’re doing more and more entertaining at home, “dining in” and cosying up in familiar surroundings. Partly it’s economic, partly it’s comfort.

In any case, it’s not surprising to see a return to the traditional door knocker as a decorative element on the front door — one that helps to put your own stamp of personality on your place… and a darned useful item, too. When the electricity goes out you can light the place with lovely romantic candles and carry on, after all, but what’s an electric doorbell without the power to announce your special guest?!