At Design and Construction week Eric G sits down with Baldwin Hardware and Aaron Brueck Director of Sales and Samanth Deacon, Brand Manager about the new products for 2023 and the details of luxury door hardware and cabinetry hardware. There is a lot of new stuff here so lets deep dive into Hardware for your home.

For more info on Baldwin: https://www.baldwinhardware.com/

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to buy Eric G a beer or coffee you can support the show here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ATHERICG

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

We have moved the Pro Insider Special on Thursday to its new feed. It will no longer be on this page. You can find it and subscribe right here: https://around-the-house-pro-insider.captivate.fm/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Mentioned in this episode:

A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard

For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/

Baldwin Hardware

Baldwin Hardware

[00:00:27] Aaron Brueck: I mean, the number of people that touch this is just. Just such a great celebration of a

[00:00:44] Samantha Deacon: Not only are you feeling the difference in the weight, but you're feeling how comfortable this

[00:01:02] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us today. I feel like I'm back home right now because we're at the design and construction week. This is where we have all of who's who in the entire world is here for one big trade show, and that's the fun part of this, and it's back this year. It's been jam packed. I'm over here with my friends at Baldwin Hardware.

[00:01:25] Aaron Brueck: We're back. Happy

[00:01:31] Samantha Deacon: Hi, I'm Samantha Deacon and I am the brand manager

[00:01:38] Eric Goranson: right, buddy, so let's talk about it.

[00:01:55] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, absolutely. Very, very excited to, you know, once again, this is the stage, right?

[00:02:15] Aaron Brueck: Within a week lead time. So just, you know, that mix of having luxury but also convenience, kind of

[00:02:38] Eric Goranson: And when I, something goes wrong, like maybe I didn't count enough hardware or something like that, I don't look bad because guess what? I can get it here before anybody else knows that I made a

[00:02:53] Eric Goranson: we go.

[00:03:19] Aaron Brueck: Yeah,

[00:03:34] Samantha Deacon: And I think we have a line that truly does live up to the expectation that Baldwin has brought forth.

[00:03:57] Eric Goranson: From the door to the hardware and it just [00:04:00] kind of ties it all in together design-wise. And what's

[00:04:14] Samantha Deacon: So now you know that when you enter your space, both of those are gonna look perfect together.

[00:04:32] Eric Goranson: I don't like almost

[00:04:41] Eric Goranson: And mixed metals on some of this stuff. I gotta talk about this because that's been hot for a year or two and you guys just came out and blew the socks off on this stuff as well.

[00:05:09] Aaron Brueck: Yeah.

[00:05:31] Eric Goranson: But man, beautiful stuff. Yeah. We gotta

[00:05:47] Samantha Deacon: 95% of designers out there. And in all honesty, if the last five, everything that's coming down the pipeline, we're gonna catch them very shortly

[00:06:04] Eric Goranson: But here's the thing, they are serious hardware. It's what you'd expect. You see the, the lesser brands out, then you grab it and I go, wow, that's kind of light. No, this stuff is brass. It is metal. You can feel the

[00:06:27] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. Whether it's solid forged or solid machine brass, that's something that's in our dna and that. Something that we're gonna walk away from. Of course not. Of course not.

[00:06:40] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, the, the, the other thing that I love about this, this Cabin Hardware offering is, you know, it's, it's a great creative process that's, Taken a few years where I think, you know, when we were, you know, a couple years ago in the design council Oh yeah.

[00:07:08] Aaron Brueck: Listening to the customer Yeah. And bringing out the products that, that they all want. Right. And, you know, so this was a huge, massive launch for us that that launched in November. Yeah. But the other important thing is this isn't something we're gonna launch and ever touch again. Right. Oh yeah. We're, we're now committed.

[00:07:25] Eric Goranson: basis. Yeah. This is just as important as a, as a doorknob to you guys. This is another line and going out. I have to talk about the design council. Back then, you guys were one of the most brave companies. taking a handful of like 20 designers and architects sitting us all down and going, tell us what you think.

[00:07:50] Aaron Brueck: is right. I think our hands were cramping by the end, all the notes we were taking. Right. Oh man. So it's a lot to sift through, right? I, I

[00:08:11] Eric Goranson: Oh wow. We're like actually gonna see this is homework somewhere. Yep. This isn't some little smile meet and greet. We are actually helping out and it's fun to see some of those thoughts from that back there, evolve into the stuff that's out now. Oh, for sure. It's, it's cool to see that, the

[00:08:26] Aaron Brueck: Right? It's awesome. Yeah, it was

[00:08:29] Samantha Deacon: cool. You start to see similarities between some of the designers and some of the elements that they were wanting to bring into those, and that's when you start to see some of the ideas that came to life here. See where the importance is landing for several different designers.

[00:08:46] Eric Goranson: So, yeah, it's beautiful. And you know, I, what I like too is some of the mass of the pieces, you know, they're scaled correctly. You know, you could have this great design, but in a cabin handle or even an appliance pole and some of this stuff, it's big enough that you can use it [00:09:00] not only for that big drawer, but you can put it up on the dishwasher

[00:09:03] Aaron Brueck: Oh yeah. The last thing we want someone to feel like when they, when they grab it is, oh my gosh, is this gonna come off? Am I gonna break it? Yeah. You know, it needs to feel solid. It needs to have the right size screws, you know, so that the larger screw size for our appliance poles, and you know, to your point, just, hey, taking that scale.

[00:09:30] Eric Goranson: real quick about when I was installing this.

[00:09:57] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And so I don't have to have eight boxes of [00:10:00] separate, separate screws. Mm-hmm. because, oh, I've only got a 16th of an inch of adjustment here. You guys machine it way deep into there to make it so much easier to work with. So, Installing it was so much easier cuz I, I, I knew, I'm like, oh man, before you even open the box up, I'm like, I'm gonna probably have to go back down to the store.

[00:10:22] Aaron Brueck: and it still worked. No, that's awesome. Yeah. It's again that, that attention to detail, right? We say luxuries and the details, so we want everything we do to be thorough and. Think ahead to those, to those scenarios, right?

[00:10:52] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. But that's what

[00:11:07] Samantha Deacon: If this is a heavy drawer and heavy item that you're needing to pull, there is no uncomfortableness. Even if you look at the contemporary that have those really clean, linear. That backend is so smooth and comfortable that you know it's going to be easy to use.

[00:11:22] Eric Goranson: Cause I mean, a kitchen is not like this perfect environment , well it is for the first day, but until you get in there and maybe you got like waffle batter or pancake batters, you know, you get stuff on stuff if you're cooking. that attention to detail makes it easier to keep ACC clean. Absolutely. Some of these other companies, you'll grab that hardware and it's rough on the back and you're like, I'm never gonna get that clean unless they take it off

[00:11:42] Aaron Brueck: Bacon grease isn't coming off that,

[00:12:01] Aaron Brueck: same time, for sure.

[00:12:23] Aaron Brueck: So honestly, we think it looks, looks good. The line, but super sharp in those transitional and contemporary, uh, styles.

[00:12:38] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. Crazy. Right? How, how those little details can change it so much.

[00:12:41] Eric Goranson: Cuz I went over it. I'm like, oh my gosh. That is cool. What's

[00:12:57] Samantha Deacon: So depending on what you're styling it [00:13:00] with, we have a couple of boards that are of the lighter color that bring some blues in and it looks so calming, but then you put it over towards something that's a little bit darker. If you're putting it with darker wood tones, it's gonna pull out a little bit more of that warm, beautiful.

[00:13:13] Eric Goranson: great. You can put it, it's, it's, you could put it in something very traditional and then something very rock and roll. Yeah. And it goes well either way. Yeah. It's

[00:13:33] Aaron Brueck: It's one of our, it's our newest PVD finish, so, oh my gosh. Guaranteed for life, right? Yeah. Lifetime finish warranty and you know, holds up with just like the other four PVD finishes that we have. Do. Yeah, and that's,

[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: On a finish like that, that couldn't have been

[00:14:03] Eric Goranson: man.

[00:14:10] Eric Goranson: guest.

[00:14:17] Aaron Brueck: one. You showed me that, I was like, oh, yes. That's super excited. Um, and, and again, shout out, like you said, tough process to get through. Shout out again to our, our engineering team, our production team, our finishing specialists, our quality engineer.

[00:14:42] Eric Goranson: part of it. All this stuff. It's great when you can sit there and go, okay, we got it. Okay. How do we make it So it's the same for your exterior after year.

[00:15:06] Eric Goranson: That's a

[00:15:27] Samantha Deacon: So you'll see that play in some of the ways that we are bringing forth some of these finishes. Yeah, and

[00:15:43] Eric Goranson: Instead of having to try to patch something together. As a designer, you've got that and it's just a stunning look. Design-wise is if you're out there listening and you're gonna be doing something like that, it really gives you options because you can have two different colors and in a kitchen for instance, you can grab one of those two [00:16:00] colors and make that the faucet.

[00:16:10] Aaron Brueck: it around, you know, switch it around a little bit. Mix the mix, the order of it. You know, you can get creative with, you know, hey, if you've already got two finishes on the lever, do a different rose, right?

[00:16:25] Samantha Deacon: Personal style. And one of the things we've been playing with as well and we've seen our designers start to play with is we have these really unique cabinet back plates as well.

[00:16:40] Eric Goranson: setting. And I'm a massive fan of those back plates because one, it looks cool and especially when you get into like handles for instance.

[00:17:01] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. and it's so much better to have a piece of metal back there. And it just looks cool.

[00:17:18] Eric Goranson: difference.

[00:17:32] Aaron Brueck: go. Huge challenge for us in the past.

[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: anyway.

[00:18:06] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And, and the, the lines are crisp but not sharp when you're using them, it looks like, wow, that's a really harsh edge, but you guys have just cered it enough to make it look that way, but still easy to use. We're not, you know, getting stuff caught up on it.

[00:18:25] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. Go one there. Where to, to your point, it's got that sharp angle, but it's not gonna, you're not gonna feel it, right? Yeah. It, it's, it's just tight enough and it kind of is that same, that same idea of, hey, you've got a mixed, you've got mixed metal, you've got mixed finishes. With some of these styles, you have mixed shapes too, so, mm-hmm.

[00:18:50] Samantha Deacon: worth pointing out that that is the one that you're referring to is Grammarcy, and it is literally modeled after one of our best selling lovers as well.

[00:19:11] Samantha Deacon: Yeah,

[00:19:27] Aaron Brueck: change.

[00:19:30] Eric Goranson: exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and we're seeing what door hardware too, you know, scale has been something, especially on the contemporary stuff, you're seeing doors now out there that are massive, right? I mean, for sure. Eight foot tall, five feet wide.

[00:19:56] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, absolutely. I, I think we pioneered, um, our first [00:20:00] larger, longer handle set plate with Hollywood Hills.

[00:20:16] Aaron Brueck: Don't give up too much detail there. Um, but stay tuned. Uhhuh, . Yeah. Continuing that scale and as doors get bigger, having something that fits so, um, that ratio of size still makes sense. Yeah, it's great. We

[00:20:36] Samantha Deacon: Cuz that's what, that's the entrance to your home. That's the first thing that people are seeing and you want it to be a wow. So absolutely. We keep bringing forth some of these designs that really help people within that space to make sure that they feel welcomed home from the first second they walk in that door and

[00:20:52] Eric Goranson: And then the other thing too is, I like about it is that security-wise, with your lock hardware, I mean, we can talk about how pretty, how [00:21:00] cool, how awesome it is, but that durability and how it's. You know, from the, from the key being beautiful all the way through till when the door clicks, it's just a, it's like that Rolls Royce door closing.

[00:21:22] Aaron Brueck: hardware. Yeah, absolutely. Qual quality will always be synonymous to Baldwin. I mean, that's just, that's the legacy of, of the brand. And you know, something that we just. Take is such a responsibility for us to make sure that we, we keep that going.

[00:21:49] Samantha Deacon: pointing out that literally year after year and specifically last year, we were pro um, builders, number one in quality when it comes to our door hardware.

[00:22:09] Eric Goranson: I love. A mortar store. To me, it's just that extra little detail, that extra refinement. It just seems to, you just, you have a chance to have more hardware back behind that door for sure.

[00:22:24] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. It almost becomes, it's, it's a door system at that point, right? Yes. Mm-hmm. , just all these different pieces working together, and like you said, that click right when, when that door closes or when you, when you turn that knob or, or, or depress that lever.

[00:22:38] Eric Goranson: somebody walking in, they see that. And if you have any kind of knowledge of style and design, you go, that's a system right there. You know, that that door wasn't bought from the home center. It wasn't, you know, this is obviously a very higher end product that you have right there just looking at it cuz you're like, okay, that's very old school, but reason why is old schools it

[00:22:59] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, [00:23:00] absolutely. It's the first thing a guest that comes to your home is gonna see. Yeah. That's the last thing they'll see when they walk. Go. So it makes an impression. There you go.

[00:23:16] Eric Goranson: Looking back at some of the older styles you guys had back then. Mm-hmm. , we were going through some of the old catalogs and stuff and seeing how you guys have kind of come along the road and how styles have changed. Yeah. You know, it started out really traditional. CR and then we got into the funky seventies and eighties and stuff, , which, no, I, I get it.

[00:23:55] Aaron Brueck: Definitely. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, we talked about the design council [00:24:00] earlier, you know, morphed recently into the design authority. Mm-hmm. and, you know, finding, finding those design influences in different pockets of the country and bring them together to find like, hey, what's the tapestry of style that we want to have to represent across the country?

[00:24:29] Eric Goranson: California is California. You've got it all over the place. Right. I mean, you are every bit. Right. You know, you've got the one contemporary thing and then you've got the 60,000 square foot mansion over here that's very traditional. Yeah. For, so that's the fun part. I think that

[00:24:58] Samantha Deacon: So we really [00:25:00] are about listening to the feedback as we talked about in the beginning of the podcast, and work through how we create a line that will attract a wide range of individual.

[00:25:16] Aaron Brueck: So, so right now our kind of, the main focus we have is the touchscreen deadbolt. Uh, it's been out a few years. Got outta my house. Um, yes. Oh yeah. We did a little, little install video for that. That's right. Yeah. Minneapolis, Minneapolis. Thought. Yep. Um, so that, that's our main, you know, the main solution we offer today.

[00:25:38] Eric Goranson: which I like. Yeah. So my house is Z-wave, so it works out really

[00:25:48] Aaron Brueck: You know, we'll continue to innovate there. You know, we have o oth other sister brands within our organization that Yeah. Are doing a lot with that. So, you know, we'll piggyback on that. So Sure. We, we'll have another generation of that, I think in the next year or two. Mm-hmm. , um, you [00:26:00] know, down the product road.

[00:26:05] Eric Goranson: tell you about, this is one thing I like about that lock at my house, and this was two stories I have for this . One of 'em is I have a goodnight button on my smart home system, so I hit goodnight and I can hear the lock.

[00:26:36] Eric Goranson: Yep. Mm-hmm. . And the door goes opened up. I'm like, how did you just do that? We stood there and stared at that door for five minutes. It hit. Somehow the numbers correctly. Wow. , I mean, and we were just like, tell us a dog, a smart dog, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, that would've been a great video. Now it's reading, learning the code from me off the door.

[00:27:06] Aaron Brueck: abuse for sure. Yeah. And I, I think, again, we talked about attention to detail, you know, just a simple detail. And that is the tapered bolt, right? So the bolt, like you said, as it automatically goes in that taper, just, hey, it's a little bit off.

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: Well, my, my front door right now until we change it out here is a 77 front door. It is not perfect, you know, and so it's, Does that taper? Mm-hmm. is a huge difference cuz as it goes in, I can actually watch it, suck the door in exactly where it needs to be.

[00:27:54] Eric Goranson: I can jump on, unlock the, Lock the door. Yeah. While we're on the phone [00:28:00] and I was out in the mountains five hours away. Still total control.

[00:28:13] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. So you can still use the cylinder. So you want to give the key to somebody, somebody doesn't have a smartphone. You still have that option. You have that peace of mind of, Hey, I can still use the the good old fashioned way if I need to. My

[00:28:27] Eric Goranson: I'll be honest. I, we, I don't think a key has ever entered those locks Once. That's confidence. I still

[00:28:34] Eric Goranson: know. Seriously. It's, it's never has. And, and even the, the stuff like the batteries, they last a long time in. You guys have designed that system to really be able to, I'm not every month putting batteries in it.

[00:28:45] Aaron Brueck: and it reminds you, yeah, I was gonna say it's, it's gonna beep. You're gonna see red flashing lights, eyes,

[00:29:04] Eric Goranson: Get my four A A's and then I'm good for another year. You know? It's just how it goes. So, yeah, I mean, that's the cool thing. One of the things I like with you guys too is that you guys have your hands on so many other little things out there. Mm-hmm. with some of the sister companies and stuff. So that also brings in some stuff that those guys can test it all and try to figure it out and then you can go, Hey, that works pretty good.

[00:29:28] Aaron Brueck: level. Yeah. I think it's for us being in that luxury space, We wanna find that perfect balance of we want to be tech forward, right? We want to be innovative, but we won't sacrifice the aesthetic of the hardware, right? We don't want it to look like it's a, a cell phone on the door, right?

[00:29:57] Eric Goranson: There's such a corporate pressure for companies out there, [00:30:00] what's the next cool thing?

[00:30:21] Eric Goranson: I love some of these more matte finished colors that we have from the brass to the golds to that kind of stuff that's out there too. Those have been such

[00:30:45] Aaron Brueck: You know, kind of some of the evolution of that is, hey, we see on Lac. You know, making a return. Right? Right. So you have that polish that starts to fade. You know, we have our vintage brass finish, which is also a living finish that's gonna change. Mm-hmm. . But you start from that muted matte look. Yeah. And then obviously satin brass is, [00:31:00] you know, massively popular doing, you know, very well in contemporary and transitional and Yeah.

[00:31:23] Eric Goranson: I'll, I'll be the first to tell you as I started designing in the nineties, so I'm gonna date myself here, , when brass first started coming back, I was like, whoa, I, I dunno if I'm ready for that.

[00:31:48] Eric Goranson: Not avocado. I'm not sure. I'm not, yeah. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that, but I like it. But it's like I was that way with brass too, and now I've got her in my house.

[00:32:04] Aaron Brueck: Maybe not. This whole old setup is what I want. Yes. But you, you take the strength of it and put it into something new. Yeah. Which

[00:32:26] Eric Goranson: What? It doesn't have to be for a lot of the stuff you guys

[00:32:45] Aaron Brueck: It re, it remains there for us in, in that, that service level. Yeah,

[00:32:59] Eric Goranson: Oh, we didn't [00:33:00] talk about that.

[00:33:01] Aaron Brueck: And that

[00:33:17] Samantha Deacon: We are really focusing on ensuring that you can understand the full hardware process to the best of your ability and see the imagery to back it up. So, um, it's been a labor of love, but I really think we have a website that is, um, incredibly user friendly and absolutely stunning if I do

[00:33:32] Eric Goranson: No question. No question. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's interesting. And to kind of bring this full circle here. Now all of a sudden when you make a decision on your front door hardware, okay, I'm remodeling. I'm gonna put a new front door and I got new hardware. Now I start thinking about how does that transition, the design of the rest of the house?

[00:34:03] Aaron Brueck: again. Yeah. It's amazing the impact that can have, right. Where you're, you're telling the story throughout the house.

[00:34:31] Aaron Brueck: Crazy long. Yeah. A

[00:34:56] Eric Goranson: house.

[00:35:10] Samantha Deacon: find that showroom directly on that page and it'll take you to your closest dealer next to you.

[00:35:15] Eric Goranson: and some of these dealers really have some amazing setups. I mean, we have some great stuff in here, but I know some dealers have got more than what you have on display here at the show.

[00:35:32] Aaron Brueck: So tied into the history of this brand. Yeah. Um, and why it is so important to this team that, that's nurturing the brand now to make sure they have a voice. Make sure they're part of this collaborative process with Yeah. With the designers, with our internal team, because we all are so proud of this brand.

[00:36:02] Eric Goranson: enjoy the local dealers. I've got one that I work with a lot, you know, chow hardware in Poland.

[00:36:10] Aaron Brueck: old? Oh, they got us beat. They like double us side almost. Yeah. I mean

[00:36:20] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. . And they're still rocket. Yeah, you know, usually the kids kind of mess stuff up. , they don't allow that. But again, this is where that local dealer comes in. I can go in there and buy all the lock setss I want. I can go over and go, Hey can uh, before I come pick it up, make sure you guys re-key those all the same.

[00:36:43] Aaron Brueck: They're truly the experts. So it's, they know how to, they know how to specify the project. Mm-hmm. the product, but also put those little finishing touches that are, you know, gonna be unique to different projects.

[00:36:53] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. and the other tip, before you go by the doors. Please go pick your hardware first. So you could put that [00:37:00] on the door thing. , I mean, as a designer, if you want a mortis lock set, pick it then, and then go tell your door manufacturer, here's the SPACs, this is what we're putting in there.

[00:37:13] Aaron Brueck: Exactly. And we, we've tried to help that with, um, Offering styles both in, in tubular and mortis, but it's not in everything. Right. Right. So it is important to know what those details are. So when it's either working with the Baldwin team or with the local showroom, all those details just make it so much easier

[00:37:31] Eric Goranson: everybody.

[00:37:46] Eric Goranson: Cause it's a lot easier to drill. Yeah, a door locked that way it's have to more to set out. So. All right guys. Hey, thanks for coming on today and thanks for having me in the booth here. This is again my highlight of the show, being over here with you guys cuz it's always fun to be over here. [00:38:00] Hanging out with the

[00:38:01] Aaron Brueck: Absolutely love catching up. And uh, yeah, it's, we're, we're always here to talk and, uh, yeah, just appreciate the collaboration and talking a little bit about the

[00:38:13] Aaron Brueck: you gotta get a couple, uh, couple cold ones.

[00:38:16] Eric Goranson: Absolutely guys, thanks for coming on today and uh, best place to find the website is baldwin hardware.com. And you could find it out there and then hit that local dealer. All right everybody. Thanks again for listening to Around the House. We'll see you next time.