How many handles have you touched today? Front door. Internal door. Bathroom lock. Kitchen handles. Wardrobe. Tap. Windows. Drawers. Milk. Wine. The unlock function on your phone. They’re all handles – the dictionary definition is “the part by which a thing is held, carried, or controlled.”
Which one felt the worse? Probably the milk. And lets be fair, it’s pretty amazing you can keep a cow, milk it, bottle it, ship it however many miles to the supermarket, stick it on a shelf and wait for us to come and buy it for £1.10ish for four pints. If you could pick a milk bottle based on touch though, you’d probably pick a glass bottle. Glass bottles are more expensive to transport because they’re heavy – wine from New Zealand is shipped round the world in vacuum packed bags like a giant wine box. But you don’t buy wine in a box because it seems cheap, even if it’s the same wine as in the bottle.
The same goes for your phone buttons. The companies put a lot of effort into how it feels in your hand.
So why not put the same thought into your handles at home? Often with wardrobes / drawers etc. they come with a handle already. Yes, they have the function of opening and closing, but the cheap handles, either plastic or metal with the line where they’ve been moulded feel cheap when you touch them. I’m all for Ikea / B&Q / Argos flatpack furniture, but consider changing the handles from the ones they come with and putting some more expensive handles on them. It will immediately make your furniture look and feel more expensive. People will notice it when they come round.
The same for your front gate, door bell, door handle and knocker. Changing the handle will immediately change the appearance of your door.
