Build it Better: Quirky Decorative Hardware Jazzes up Your Furniture
You know how that fantastic vintage furniture find starts to feel a little stale after a few years? Even with some paint-based rehab, sometimes your favorite pieces could use a little extra kick. Cue Amsterdam design firm Droog with their fun Construct Me! collection: a set of decorative hardware that jazzes up even the most boring furniture.
The collection includes screws, hinges, brackets, nails, washers, hooks, nuts, and other functional (with the emphasis on fun) pieces of hardware. Whereas traditional hardware is designed to blend into the furniture, Construct Me! is meant to stand out and be highlighted against your otherwise-humdrum furniture.
Most of the pieces are brightly-colored and playful, including emoticon screws that will literally add a smile to your furniture. Other screws are cartoonishly oversized so they definitely can’t be overlooked. Other pieces in the collection are a little more subtle but still boast a quirky kind of personality, like the metal brackets and hinges that sport unique cut-out patterns.
We especially love the FlatMesh nail that comes with a smashable head. When you hammer it into a piece of wood with a special wooden mallet, the head flattens into a unique pattern. Each nail head takes on a different look after it’s smooshed into place. And for the clumsy-handed rehabber, there’s the plastic Nail Holder that keeps you from whacking your fingers with a hammer.
One of the most potentially useful parts of the collection is a set of glow-in-the-dark nails. Besides being decorative, they’ll keep you from walking into your furniture in the middle of the night. Every piece in the collection challenges the traditional ideas of what hardware should look like while maintaining – or even improving – the functionality of each item.
“Our screws, hinges, nuts, nails, brackets and other hardware are super functional – in some cases we even extended their function – but they also add value, character and a richer narrative. In our created collection, you will find nails that reduce the risk of hitting your finger, two way tie wraps, fancy hinges and screws that smile at you. They give flavour to simple DIY work, revive existing furniture and challenge the designer.”
