- Furniture restoration hardware holds furniture together, but it must also be similar to hardware that was used in the period that the furniture was built. A well-chosen set of hardware gives your furniture a professionally-crafted look of a piece that costs much more.
- Hardware's function is either to join parts or to decorate the surface of furniture. Joinery---nails, screws and hinges---reflect the manufacturing technology of the period and decorative pieces like knobs, roses, handles, and escutcheons echo its style. Always use restoration hardware for the purpose for which it was originally designed. A little research at Crown hardware will tell you whether that lovely S-shaped thing you want to use to decorate a coffee table is appropriate for indoor use...or is something that was meant to hold a window shutter open.
- Do some homework before shopping for hardware. Find pictures of hardware from "Old House Journal" or samples at a salvage yard to use for comparison. Scout out a dealer who specializes in hardware or cabinetry. Eastlake styles are decidedly formal, but others (including Craftsman) might make a turn-of-the-century piece look rustic. Decorative hardware must match your furniture in scale as well as style; a skimpy drawer pull will always look out of place on a bulky chest of drawers, no matter how period-correct it may be. Never use hardware from a period before the date of your piece---it will look out of fashion (architectural historians call this "decadent"). Hardware from a much later period will make it look as if someone has tried to update without using the style elements that place it in a specific period.
- Perfectly good antique hardware for your furniture restoration project is available in architectural salvage houses and flea markets. "Reproduction" hardware is made from original molds or may be simply made in the same style as the original. Some reproductions are quite good, but some miss the scale or detail of the originals badly. Metals date hardware. Aluminum was not used in hardware until the late 1920s. Look for earlier period styles in brass or nickel finishes.
- Some modern hardware can work well on restoration. Not all antiques are destined for museums. If historical accuracy isn't imperative and sturdiness is your main concern, find hardware is "sympathetic" (meaning that it matches the scale and stylistic theme of your piece) and made of best quality materials. Know what you want and be persistent. Your home center associate may not know what you want when you ask for a "Hoosier bin pull," but there's a family-owned hardware store somewhere in your area with a clerk who knows exactly what you need. If he doesn't carry it, he'll know where you can find it.
