This is the lever set that we want use (Pembroke) on our doors. We want to get the lever in Venetian Bronze (VB) on the exterior (to match the finish on the light fixtures) but Satin Nickel (SN) on the interior.However, as a cost-saving measure (or should I say profit-creating (for them) and inconvenience-creating (for us) measure), Kwikset (a Black & Decker company) no longer offers this "split finish" option. And they don't even offer this lever in the Venetian Bronze finish.
Freda and I were quite disappointed about this, and thought we would have to choose a different lever to something that was available in both VB and SN. We went to Home Depot on Friday (to see if they had any split finish options), where I encountered a person who must have been the most bitter man in the entire world (who ranted about everything!), and said nobody did split finish, except Preston Hardware who could only do that on handlesets (like you see on front doors). FYI... Preston was where we originally found the door hardware that we liked.
We went down to Preston Hardware on Saturday and discussed this dilemma with Armand, who told us "the Pembroke lever was available in the now discontinued Oil Rubbed Bronze finish - which is very similar to Venetian Bronze except it does not have highlights like VB. And I have a few inactive levers in ORB downstairs. I could switch the lever and the rose on the exterior so you can have that split finish with ORB outside and SN inside, but it will cost about $20 more per handle."
We looked at the plan and thought we would only need three handles like that, so we said okay. When Armand was switching the handles, we realized that we actually do need some inactive handles for the closets anyway, so we can use the newly liberated SN levers with the inactive fastenings from the ORB boxes. This means that it doesn't cost us any more at all! Fabulous. (I will save my rant about Kwilkset/Black&Decker "cost savings" for some other time.)
The only drawback is that we will need to buy two locks in order to create the split finish for the locks, otherwise the lever and the lock will have a different finish when looking at it from the inside. That will cost us a little extra and unfortunately there are not really any other options for that.
This was yet another example how the Orange Borg is not necessarily the best option for finding supplies...
2 comments:
Hi Mark,
I have a friend who had polio as a child - as a consequence, she has one foot two sizes smaller than the other. But she has a "shoe buddy" who has exactly the same problem but with opposite feet, so they can split two pairs of shoes without wasting any. (There's actually an organization that pairs up such people.)
So, maybe what you need is a "door buddy" with exactly the opposite colour scheme as yours. :D
Bob
That would be a great idea, especially for the locks! At least with the levers we can use all the parts.
Your "buddy" analogy reminded me of the Bowel Buddy I saw in the pharmacy last week. I just read this on a web site selling BB: "Bowel Buddy Bran Wafers are produced from a special and unique hard whole wheat bran grown specially in the harsh climate of western Canada."
Hey, wait just a minute! Western Canada has a harsh climate?? Who knew!!! :^)))
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