How to Choose Furniture Hardware

Furniture hardware refers to anything that is needed to assemble a furniture item. Commonly used terms for furniture hardware are knobs, handles, hinges, and drawer slides. Some other terms related to furniture hardware are wheels, casters rollers, and doorstops. Hardware has also come to mean something decorative or useful, rather than just utilitarian. Modern furniture is often made from wood, and in older times brass was commonly used. The furniture hardware of yesteryear is long gone, with pieces now being stainless steel, aluminum, or other materials.

Many types of furniture hardware are interchangeable, which means that you may have one piece of hardware and a different piece in a different color or shape. This is not usually an issue when purchasing furniture hardware for your home. However, when purchasing small items such as table lamps with glass shades, it may be necessary to buy different types of hardware. Other examples of this type of interchangeability are watches, rings, and cufflinks. Each piece may have a clock face that is the same shape or size as another item, thus requiring the purchase of similar items.

It may be difficult to locate the right furniture hardware for your home. If you are not sure what type of furniture hardware will look with your particular piece, you can use a picture as a guide. You can find many beautiful images on the Internet that you can frame or display around the room to help visualize the finish of each piece. By choosing several different pictures of furniture hardware that you like, you can see how the hardware would appear with the design and finish of each piece. By choosing the same hardware that you would use on your furniture, you can ensure that the right hardware matches the rest of the furniture.

When buying furniture hardware for your home from a furniture supplier, be sure to inspect all hardware that you are considering. While beautiful packaging and a catchy name may lure customers, it is important that the item works before making the purchase. You may want to bring the piece you are interested in to an experienced furniture technician or an outside furniture retailer so that you can have the item examined for quality control. Only by examining the item will you be able to make a wise decision about furniture hardware.

Before purchasing furniture hardware, you should also consider the durability of the product. A knob or bolt that is poorly made can break off, become brittle, or even break off completely. Since buying new furniture hardware is not inexpensive, you should take the time to find pieces that will last. While you may spend less money, the result of having a broken piece of furniture hardware is much more than you bargained for.

Once you have decided on the type of furniture hardware you need, you will need to decide where you plan to purchase the product. If you plan to shop at a furniture hardware supplier, you will likely need to visit the store in person. This will allow you to examine the items before you buy them. However, if you do not have the time to visit in person, you may wish to consider shopping online. Many furniture suppliers allow their customers to purchase from them with just a few clicks of the mouse.