I have hung old doors throughout my house. Old doors require old knobs, so I have invested in quite a few. And of course, once they’re sitting around the house, in plain view, other ideas come up.
Here are a couple ways I’ve used old doorknobs around the house:
- As doorknobs. This is not clever, but remains a great way to add character to any door.
- As handles. If it needs a handle, consider a doorknob. They come in all sizes, and some of the old ones are quite small. It’s fun to mess with proportion on pieces of furniture, walls, shelves. (This is a picture of the handles on my attic door.)
- As finials. I topped my fence posts with old doorknobs. They look amazing.
How I would like to use old doorknobs:
- To hang art. If I had a big wall I would hang doorknobs at random spots on the wall as needed. I would hang art from the doorknobs using wire or ribbon or chain looped around the doorknob and hanging down to the painting or other piece of art, adding an S-hook if necessary to the back of the art. I would put the doorknobs in a pattern I liked and adjust the size of the art or length of ribbon accordingly to balance the pattern.
- To hang jewelry. Same concept as the art, but in a much smaller place. I have several five-inch pieces of wall in my downstairs bedroom between windows and room corners that would be perfect places to hang necklaces or bracelets. I could use doorknobs or cupboard knobs or unusual hooks in these places. I haven’t done this yet, so my necklaces are jumbled everywhere.
I actually have old doorknob inventory somewhere in the house. They are so damn useful I keep them around. Of course, they also look great in a pile, like marbles. Ha! Maybe I should hang them on the wall. I could make a pattern of them (my initials come to mind).
There are so many uses for the amazing doorknob. Get creative with your ideas and see what transpires.
Portlander Nancy Ranchel is a self-described accountant, design fan, serial re-modeler, compulsive re-user, and blog writer.
