Design With Intention: Why Hardware Should Begin Every Design Story
All too often, hardware is left until the end of a project. Handles, hooks, pulls, latches, and brackets are treated as details to be “figured out later.” But when that happens, something fundamental is missed.
Because hardware doesn’t simply finish a space, it shapes how a space is experienced.
Hardware sits at the intersection of intention and use. It’s where design meets the human hand and is the most consistent, tactile interaction we have with an interior. Every door opened, every drawer pulled, every movement repeated day after day.
When hardware is considered from the beginning, it brings clarity and cohesion to the entire design process.
The most intentional touchpoint
Hardware is one of the first things we touch and one of the last things we stop noticing, precisely because it works. Its scale, weight, movement, and material quietly influence how a space feels to live in.
As Hendel & Hendel Director Terence Haughton puts it: “Hardware is often considered an afterthought.”
We believe it shouldn’t be, and it’s our mission to change that.
When hardware is placed at the centre of the concept, it becomes a unifying thread, guiding other material choices, proportions, and visual rhythm across a project. It creates consistency, reinforces design language, and elevates everyday interaction.
Early planning prevents compromise
Beautiful spaces must also function beautifully.
Early hardware decisions shape joinery, clearances and usability long before anything is built. A handle that’s too wide can compromise access. One that’s too small can change how a door is used. These are not finishing details; they are foundational decisions.
By thinking about hardware early, designers avoid last-minute compromises, redesigns and rushed substitutions. Instead, performance, durability and user experience are designed in from the outset.
A catalyst for creativity
Hardware can also be a starting point for ideas.
A particular finish might inspire a palette. A subtle curve might inform proportions elsewhere. In one recent project, a designer took inspiration directly from the Fitzrovia collection, translating its profile into a bespoke cornicing detail.
A sense of weight or movement can influence how a space flows. When hardware leads, it turns a functional object into a creative anchor.
Creating a movement
At Hendel & Hendel, we’re advocating for a shift: hardware as the beginning, not the end, of the design process.
Our London Experience Studio was created to support this way of working, a place to explore materials, test movement, and make confident, considered decisions from the very start.
Because when hardware enters the conversation early, everything that follows becomes more coherent, more considered, and more intentional.
Hardware doesn’t just finish a story.
It sets the tone.