Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our house is older (1920s), but we did oval satin nickel knobs everywhere, only the back door has a lever. I'm from Europe where levers are standard, so I certainly don't think they look cheap (and ours wasn't), but the reasoning was that this is where you come in from the yard. The only downside is that both levers and oval knobs are hard to babyproof.

Levers are not hard to babyproof. Just go to Target and they have the kits for them. We installed them on all our doors.

PP here. You are right, I realize we didn't really look into babyproofing the lever - we simply put a knob cover over the deadbolt and kept the exterior door locked. We did not find a good way to babyproof the oval knobs though. The standard knob covers don't work very well because they don't spin on the knobs. They did deter our kids when they were very little, but at some point they figured it out.

Anonymous wrote:Our house is older (1920s), but we did oval satin nickel knobs everywhere, only the back door has a lever. I'm from Europe where levers are standard, so I certainly don't think they look cheap (and ours wasn't), but the reasoning was that this is where you come in from the yard. The only downside is that both levers and oval knobs are hard to babyproof.

Levers are not hard to babyproof. Just go to Target and they have the kits for them. We installed them on all our doors.

Our house is older (1920s), but we did oval satin nickel knobs everywhere, only the back door has a lever. I'm from Europe where levers are standard, so I certainly don't think they look cheap (and ours wasn't), but the reasoning was that this is where you come in from the yard. The only downside is that both levers and oval knobs are hard to babyproof.

Anonymous wrote:I know levers are supposed to be good for older people, but I think they look like cheap builder grade materials. I think that oil rubbed bronze is kind of a classic, but it's hard to label anything a classic with any confidence since styles change. What do you like the most?

I think it depends on the lever. The standard curvy ones look cheap to me (even if they're not), probably because I associate them with motels, which have to use them and which need to go cheap on the finishes (at least, the ones we stay at on road trips with our brood do).

I don't think these look cheap, but I don't think they'd be right in OP's house, either. (I don't know how true to the essence of an 80s colonial someone needs to remain.).

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