[00:00:00] Aaron Brueck: It's around the house again, that, that attention to detail, right? We say luxuries in the details. So we want everything we do to be thorough and think ahead to those, to those scenarios, right? Yeah. So that, that ev that extra level of detail, the collaboration between, you know, again, the design, the design community, the trade, uh, our customer base, our team, our internal engineers, so the collaboration that went behind this.

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

[00:00:32] Samantha Deacon: Baldwin is. Yeah. But that's what comes together to make such a winning line. And I also think not only is it the, the customer base, the designers, but then that end user, like some of the details as we walked through this week is sit there and hold it in your hand.

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

[00:00:47] Eric Goranson: is going to be when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home. There is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is around the house. Welcome to The Round the House Show. [00:01:00] This is where we talk everything about your home every single week.

[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.

[00:01:22] Eric Goranson: This is home for me. I love it. Thanks guys.

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

[00:01:26] Eric Goranson: to be. Thanks for coming. Yeah, let's, let's do some introductions so people can put a voice to a name.

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

[00:01:35] Aaron Brueck: for Baldwin Aaron Brick, director of Sales for Baldwin Hardware. All

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

[00:01:40] Eric Goranson: You know, I'm sure everybody walks in the booth, they're seeing all this cool new stuff, and they're like, all right, what's new? Because Baldwin's got such a legacy of this luxury brand of cool hardware. You guys always bring new stuff, which is always fun.

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

[00:01:58] Aaron Brueck: Like you said. Yeah. The, the [00:02:00] world's here and, and we like to, you know, put our best foot forward. So Yeah. Um, you know, several new things, you know, from finishes to styles to, you know, kind of service offering, so like our quick ship program, you know, you can get, you know, yeah. A wide variety of styles, finishes, function.

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

[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: rare. Cuz it seems like the more luxury, the longer the lead time and these days with all the problems we've had in shipping to have something, oh, quick ship, really. It's, it's, it's rare, and I love that you guys do that because as a designer, that makes my life a lot easier.

[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

[00:02:48] Samantha Deacon: mistake. You no longer have to wait for quality and beauty. Is this. Snazzy little phrase we like to use. Ah, there

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

[00:02:54] Aaron Brueck: Get the best of both worlds, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So, so yeah, excited about, excited about [00:03:00] Quick Ship and, and the strides we've made there. Um, debuting our brand new Cabinet Hardware collection, which is also part of Quick Ship. There we go. So, kind of broadening the, again, the, the different categories that are in the Quick Ship program and just style, finish consistency, you know, Point, you know, again, just a great combination of, of this new offering.

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

[00:03:19] Samantha Deacon: I would definitely say, obviously Baldwin has been in Cabinet hardware before. Sure. But when we relaunched in October, we wanted to ensure that the offering we were bringing to the table, not only did it have diversity, but it matched the quality and style that everyone knows from our door hardware.

[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.

[00:03:39] Eric Goranson: As a designer of cabinets for 30 years, I a hundred percent agree because you could sit there. I can go down and look and go, okay, I know what style that is. That's, that looks very Hollywood Hills, which to me is awesome because I can turn around and go, okay, I've got these doorknobs, and then now I'm tying that in.

[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

[00:04:02] Samantha Deacon: great is the fact that now we wanna see that congruent relationship between the door hardware and the cabinet hardware. Mm-hmm. , because sometimes you get those two colors of brass that don't a hundred percent match, then it looks a little odd and uncomfortable within your design space.

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

[00:04:19] Eric Goranson: My worst fear is design is putting two different companies together. And it, and it got close because then it looks like I tried to get it close and I missed, I want it to be way different if not, because otherwise it's like, Ooh, almost.

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

[00:04:33] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. 90% doesn't really work there. Right? No, you really want that. You want a hundred percent. So it it, it really ties the whole suite of that style and finish together. Yeah.

[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.

[00:04:49] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, super, super excited here. 10 different combinations across our O 29 L 30 levers. Mm-hmm. , you know, very cutting edge, contemporary and, you know, con contemporary transitional design [00:05:00] depending on the finish. And it just really adds, uh, a whole nother layer of customization that, you know, someone can take, you know, whether it's the trade or, or you know, a consumer through their project.

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

[00:05:10] Eric Goranson: And, and what I like about that too is that you could really, I mean, you guys are, you have this legacy of luxury hardware out. But you know, in the past it's been a little more traditional. Mm-hmm. just because that's what it was for sure. And now you guys have just blown it up the top with some of your contemporary offerings as well, which I really enjoy cuz that's kinda the way I personally lean on my own projects.

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

[00:05:34] Samantha Deacon: give a lot of credit to our product marketing team because realistically they've knocked it out of the park and you could see anywhere from the door hardware all the way to the cabinet hardware. You have every single style of cupboard. And we now have really a collection that will app.

[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

[00:05:56] Eric Goranson: here. Nice. And I, I, I've used this and it was very quick ship [00:06:00] you guys for my TV set. You'll see it on the back of my TV set when the Oh yeah. TV show comes out.

[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

[00:06:18] Aaron Brueck: quality in it. Feel, feel the difference is something we like to say. Yeah. You know, uh, you know, with this, with this line, we stayed true to the legacy of Baldwin solid brass, right?

[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.

[00:06:34] Eric Goranson: And it just, it to me, there's nothing like that for you, equality. Right. It just, you can tell.

[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.

[00:06:52] Aaron Brueck: You know, we had, we had great dialogue and feedback and you know, you had feedback. Carol's over here. She was there. Yeah. She was there. Listening. Listening to those [00:07:00] people around us that are part of that creative process, taking the samples out, showing our customers, taking their feedback. So really trying to get back to.

[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.

[00:07:22] Aaron Brueck: This is something that we want to continue to add to on a yearly

[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.

[00:07:44] Eric Goranson: And then having to take the rock throne from everybody cuz everybody has a different opinion. And everybody

[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

[00:07:55] Eric Goranson: was sitting there, so I dotted, but it was pretty amazing. I was like, man, you guys, I like it with the [00:08:00] feedback that you were asking for and you guys push us as well because when we were sitting up there at, uh, for that one, a Graystone mansion and you guys gave us pads and to draw something out for us and we're.

[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: creative process.

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

[00:08:28] Eric Goranson: very cool. Very

[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.

[00:08:41] Samantha Deacon: And obviously it's going to be in different sections, but it comes together to really create a line that we're all really proud of.

[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

[00:09:02] Aaron Brueck: if you want to.

[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.

[00:09:16] Aaron Brueck: If it's, uh, inspiration from the doorknob or from a lever or some other, you know, piece from the lock side of the business that it makes sense, it translates, it keeps that, you know, that style, um, the integrity of the style, but makes it work in this application as well. So, let me talk

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

[00:09:32] Eric Goranson: I want to give you two little things that, that I was so happy with because it's a TV set, I'm putting it in there. My door thickness was weird because we were trying to deal with that. It wasn't your traditional cabinet door, but the details you guys have from the little washer with the screw and that, and the threads go in so deep that I'm not going out going, oh man, I only had like, A quarter inch of threads are less to be able to grab, hold on for deal life, right?

[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.

[00:10:17] Eric Goranson: you can figure out what I'm gonna have to get for screws because this is a non-traditional mm-hmm. use

[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?

[00:10:33] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. So that, that ev that extra level of detail, the collaboration between, you know, again, the design, the design community, the trade, uh, our customer base, our team, our internal engineers, so the collaboration that went behind this. I mean, the number of people that touched this is just, I mean, just. Such a great celebration of up Baldwin is.

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

[00:10:52] Samantha Deacon: comes together to make such a winning line. And I also think not only is it the, the customer base, the designers, but then that end user, like some [00:11:00] of the details as we walked through this week is sit there and hold it in your hand. Not only are you feeling the difference in the weight, but you're feeling how comfortable this is going to be.

[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.

[00:11:20] Eric Goranson: And what the cool part with that too is it's easier to clean.

[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: again.

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

[00:11:43] Eric Goranson: right? No, no. It's, it's there. It's there. And that's cool. And then I saw this really cool new finish over there. Oh yeah. That I was like, holy smokes. This is, I, I can't even put words to it. It's, it's very, Contemporary, [00:12:00] gothic and cool all at the

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

[00:12:03] Aaron Brueck: Graphite nickel, long time coming. Very excited. And again, it's, we, we had a, an antique nickel finish, right, sure. And in a lot of manufacturers have had that over the years and, you know, tended more towards traditional and, and we saw this as an opportunity to, you know, bring it, bring it forward and, and like you said, more into a contemporary feel and has that transitional appeal as well.

[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.

[00:12:29] Eric Goranson: You have a very traditional handle set over there. Yep. Mm-hmm. and you, all of a sudden with a finish made it contemporary.

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

[00:12:41] Aaron Brueck: Yeah.

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

[00:12:45] Samantha Deacon: even crazier about this finish is someone, one of our designers that we work with regularly called it almost a fusion of various finishes. Mm-hmm. , because depending on what you put it against, you get these cool tones from it, but you also get these warm deep tones as well.

[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.

[00:13:12] Samantha Deacon: Brown in it. It's

[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

[00:13:21] Aaron Brueck: like chameleon style, right? Absolutely. It kind of changes, it changes the tone of, uh, of the style. Yeah. And I think the other thing we we're super excited for was, hey, not only having the, you know, the, the new style from it, but also.

[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,

[00:13:43] Eric Goranson: I cannot imagine how hard this finish was to put together. You guys had to spend some time on that because it's one thing to come up with a finish, but to have it where you can like produce it year after year and have it match.

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

[00:13:58] Samantha Deacon: easy and you forgot to brag [00:14:00] about One of the best parts is the fact that it is part of Quick Ship program as well. So, oh

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

[00:14:04] Aaron Brueck: There you go. Oh, left it out. That's, that's right. . So, but February 14th. Exactly. Valentine's Day. What a great, what a great Valentine's Day

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

[00:14:10] Eric Goranson: Oh kidding. Fall in love with graphite nickel. Yeah. That is cool. And I mean, Like I said, that's very stunning and I'm impressed with that

[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.

[00:14:29] Aaron Brueck: Mm-hmm. . We've got a, a, uh, very, very strict to detail. Not gonna co. Quality engineer, shout out to BB on, you know, making sure that this thing is consistent every single time. Yeah. And that's the hard

[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.

[00:14:48] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. Which is great. Exactly. And, and then you guys too, I mean, . Let's talk style for just a second, because, you know, styles have been changing. Mm-hmm. , and of course, you know, the, the mixed metals is hot. Mm-hmm. , what are you guys seeing [00:15:00] out there right now as far as trends? Is there anything that you're saying that, hey, this is the way, the direction that you think is going?

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

[00:15:07] Samantha Deacon: good question. I would say that you are seeing a lot more of. What we're calling it, I guess it's stereotypical transitional, but you're seeing that blend of that old school really brought together with those modern elements, which obviously speaks to Baldwin very well because as you said, we've got that classic 75 year legacy, but we are really bringing forward some of those modern details.

[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

[00:15:33] Eric Goranson: and I think that, I love this mixed metal thing cuz it's something that I've been doing for a couple years. Mm-hmm. as a designer. But I love that it's something that you can order and just get it, you know what I mean?

[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.

[00:16:01] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. , and then you can go on and have it over here. And you can even do that within that, you know, maybe you have a faucet on the island and you can have those match. Yeah, switch

[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?

[00:16:18] Aaron Brueck: Do a different color for the rose. Right? So it really gives you a lot more ability to express, you know, your own per, you know, uh, specific.

[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.

[00:16:32] Samantha Deacon: Oh. That gives you a mixed metal moment. So if you're looking to bring that into all of the different areas of your cabinetry, there's a very easy way for you to play with those two different metals. Mm-hmm. in a beautiful

[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.

[00:16:47] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. , it really protects the cabinetry as well as a cabinet guy. Because what happens is is you got a ring or anything else and you're going to grab something. Yep. It actually gives you that protection because if you've got beautiful white cabinets at year [00:17:00] five, you see all those little scratches back there.

[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.

[00:17:06] Samantha Deacon: Also, one of the things that we keep noticing and keep pointing out is the fact that if you decide you wanna change your center to center and you are wanting to not necessarily fill all those holes, all you need is a beautiful backplate and no one will ever know the

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

[00:17:19] Eric Goranson: That is a remodeler's dream right there. If you want to go in and go, man, I did my cabinets five years ago. And I hate that hardware, but they're all handles and I can't find the right spread on it. Yeah. Now you got a solution right there. Cause it's just gonna cover up those sins and off you

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

[00:17:34] Aaron Brueck: Right? There's so many, you know, who knows if the cabinets were five years ago, 20? This part of the country. That part of the country. Oh yeah. The, the number of different variations is so crazy. Hey, just hide it with this back plate. And now you're, now you're set. And it looks better within

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

[00:17:48] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. That's exactly, yeah. And then, I mean, I love some of the tubular stuff you've got too in the cabinet hardware as well and the poles. That is really cool how you guys have done that cuz the machining [00:18:00] is just so precise with that square that comes out. And then you go into that perfect cylindrical tube on that for sure.

[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.

[00:18:23] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. I think the word refined is, is one that we use a lot.

[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.

[00:18:42] Aaron Brueck: like you said, it comes out square but then goes round. So it's, it's this nice contrast that once again gives people so many options to personalize their space, and it's

[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.

[00:18:57] Samantha Deacon: Yeah. So that kind of plays into the whole entire idea of. [00:19:00] Not only are you getting that same exact metal found throughout your hole into our home, that same finish, but you're also getting similar styles if you are looking for that sort of situation in all of the different areas of your home as well.

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

[00:19:12] Eric Goranson: and it's cool cuz you can go through and, and, and I did this in my house, I've done it before, where you have that mixed metal on maybe the first floor. Mm-hmm. and then you pick one of the two colors up for the bedrooms of the second floor or whatever. But it all still has that feel, but it also gives you a feel of a little bit of a

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

[00:19:27] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. You get that continu. Still having a little bit of a flare, right? Yeah,

[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.

[00:19:44] Eric Goranson: I mean, it's like, I don't even know how you're gonna get it in the house to put it in, but it's there. and you guys have some really good scaled hardware that, that fits with that as far as entry door hardware and stuff like that.

[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.

[00:20:02] Aaron Brueck: Absolutely. Oh, you know, 6, 6, 7 years ago and, you know, have added, have added another style there in the Minneapolis. You know, in that 20 inch style. Oh yeah. And then, you know, Samantha just talked about, uh, Grammarcy, there'll be a handle set coming, you know, down the road a a little bit, you know, little bit.

[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

[00:20:28] Samantha Deacon: really played around in, in the booth you'll see we have a few designers that pulled together some mood boards and one of the mood boards that they pulled together is, Statement entrance piece.

[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

[00:20:50] Eric Goranson: it's so important.

[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.

[00:21:16] Eric Goranson: It's just clean, sexy. And that is, again, another one of those refinements that you can really tell by quality

[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.

[00:21:35] Aaron Brueck: Um, you know, we talked about the, the, the 20 inch handle sets. You know, as we launch new handle sets going forward, starting with Hollywood Hills, yeah. We'll always have a tubular option. We'll always have a mortis option. So if you need that higher level security, We've always got you covered. Yeah. And it's worth

[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.

[00:21:58] Samantha Deacon: So we keep coming back and keep, [00:22:00] keep making sure that our hardware is literally not changing from what it was 75 years ago. We are still known for bringing the best insecurity. Absolutely.

[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.

[00:22:22] Eric Goranson: Instead of trying to jam it all into a little hole.

[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.

[00:22:35] Aaron Brueck: It's just, Seamless and for

[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

[00:22:58] Aaron Brueck: work so well.

[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.

[00:23:08] Eric Goranson: And so what are you seeing as well? I mean, you guys have been doing this for over 75 years. It's fun to look back. I mean, that was one of the things I really liked.

[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.

[00:23:35] Eric Goranson: I was growing up in that time. And then now the, the refinement of it as well is, is the contemporary leanings that we have in today's style, and it's not that well over the country, which that also has to be a challenge for you guys because, I live in the Pacific Northwest. Our standard style is way different than it is down in Atlanta, Georgia, or Boston.

[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?

[00:24:13] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Cuz it's you. So, so many areas just lean one way or the other. I mean, out on the west coast, in the northwest, we have a lot of kind of contemporary Japanese influence. Mm-hmm. , you know? Mm-hmm. . And so that kind of comes into that northwest contemporary feel to it. We're much less traditional.

[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

[00:24:44] Samantha Deacon: though it really does speak to the fact that we ensure that not only when we're working through our product marketing, but like Aaron said, when we're working with this design authority, that we bring all of these styles together and we really try to find a way to allow every single designer that we work with to express themself within our hardware.

[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.

[00:25:11] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. What are you guys doing right now with, uh, home tech stuff? Anything on the, on the door handle side with that?

[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.

[00:25:31] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. Um, you know, it can come in a standalone where it's just, hey, you're using the code also available with a Z-Wave connection. So, which that's what I have,

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

[00:25:40] Aaron Brueck: well. Yeah. So, you know, nice open architecture connections, so, you know, it's really easy to, you know, tie in if you've got something existing and you know, we'll continue.

[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.

[00:26:01] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. And just continue to stay, you know, current and, you know, relevant in that space. Let me

[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.

[00:26:16] Eric Goranson: If I didn't, I, I never forget to lock the door at night cause I could just go goodnight. Sets all my lights, shuts the doors. They are locked now and it's good. But I will tell something funny that my wife and I were looking at this. Our dog jumped on the back patio door and pause at the lock set cuz I have the same one on my back door.

[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.

[00:26:57] Eric Goranson: But I tell you what though, it is so [00:27:00] durable, that thing, I mean, like I said, the dog was up on it, which. Not a lot of smart home things can take that

[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.

[00:27:19] Aaron Brueck: It, it, yeah. Guides it right in and peace of mind that, you know, it's, it's gonna be secure.

[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.

[00:27:37] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Makes a difference. And it does. And so take a look guys out there, that smart home stuff is really cool for that in the security. Like I had a, we, we were out on vacation five and a half hours away. The people watching my house, uh, my buddy, he was off the radio station working. Dog gets out. My neighbor's like, Hey, I got your dog.

[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.

[00:28:03] Aaron Brueck: Right? Total control. Exactly. Which is something huge with that. Yeah. And, and we also, you know, it was important to us too to, to leave so you can do all that control, but also, The old fashioned keyways still there, right?

[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

[00:28:23] Eric Goranson: keys, here's the funny thing, I don't have a key to the house with me

[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

[00:28:32] Aaron Brueck: That's awesome. Yeah. But yeah, I

[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] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. , it's,

[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,

[00:28:51] Eric Goranson: you ignored a lot. . You ignored a lot. Cuz there's times I'm like, oh I better get that. Two days later I'm like, I really need to get that . And then finally it starts [00:29:00] screaming at me going, Hey dummy, I'm wearing, it's alright, I'll do it.

[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.

[00:29:25] Eric Goranson: Okay, now we're gonna take it and elevate that to the next

[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?

[00:29:44] Aaron Brueck: We still need to keep our style because it's, again, so important, like we talked about earlier, if you wanna tie that through the house mm-hmm. , and you know, too much tech, that's still visible, we'll detract from that. So finding that balance is so crucial.

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

[00:30:02] Eric Goranson: And sometimes those things don't hit the mark. You guys went, okay, we're gonna do it, right? Mm-hmm. , and we're gonna let it be. And then if we come up with something better, of course you work through it and bring it to market, but it's still working gray. Yeah, definitely. So that's cool. And then one thing else I wanted to talk about here too is, You know, you see stuff here.

[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

[00:30:30] Aaron Brueck: a hot item. Yeah. The muted brass is so for us, hey, everyone knows Polish Brass and, and we talked about hey Boston and yeah. You know, DC and you know, parts of the northeast that, hey, that colonial look was, was there for so long.

[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.

[00:31:05] Aaron Brueck: Just a whole, you know, we, we talked about earlier the, the legacy and the older styles. It, it's a, it's a nice way to bring, you know, one, one factor of that. And bring it to, to today. Right. Yeah. And so, you know, brass coming into some contemporary styles. Is that nice mix of old and new? Yeah, and

[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.

[00:31:32] Eric Goranson: You know? It's kinda like how you see the avocados coming back, right? , it's like, I, I walked by like four avocado ranges this last week, and there's even a toilet over here in the Kohler booth that they had all the different colors and they're like, vote for the next color. And I'm like, there's avocado again.

[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.

[00:31:56] Aaron Brueck: Yeah, right. It's, it's crazy how, how that changes. And that's where I think it's [00:32:00] so great when it is just that one detail, right? You, you pull out that.

[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

[00:32:09] Eric Goranson: is great. What else have we not talked about today, guys? I mean, I love that you guys have this legacy and of course that quick ship to me is something that everybody out there is a homeowner to contractor should really pay attention to because there's so many other people out there, oh, I'm gonna buy this and it's 10 weeks out.

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

[00:32:28] Aaron Brueck: have. Yeah, for us it's, it's, you know, um, just dedication to. Consistency in our service. Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . And you can have the best style in the world, but it takes you 20 weeks to get it. You're gonna miss out on a lot of opportunities. So for us, balance is so key in so many areas.

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

[00:32:49] Samantha Deacon: and I think I would be silly if I didn't mention the project that'd been taken over at least my life at Baldwin for quite some time is going to be our brand new website that we just launched two weeks ago.

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

[00:33:00] Eric Goranson: Yes.

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

[00:33:02] Samantha Deacon: to me is, um, how we're really focusing on really appeasing the various individuals that do touch Baldwin hardware. So if you are a designer looking for inspiration or even a end user that's trying to look through and try to. Which of these few different options given to me makes 'em all sense.

[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

[00:33:31] Eric Goranson: say so myself.

[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?

[00:33:50] Eric Goranson: Because I can go, okay, that front door now is gonna match. , the interior door handles. Yeah. Oh, wow. I can do it in the cabinet knobs and I can go through and update the entire house [00:34:00] just with some hardware choices and really elevate it back up

[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.

[00:34:08] Aaron Brueck: Mm-hmm. and start can start at the front door and all the way to the back. Different floors, the variations of, well, let's do the, the, the mix metal on the first floor. Let's, let's take just one finish upstairs. Right. The creativity and the customization that we're offering to the customer while also giving it in a, in a lead time that's consistent and not crazy.

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

[00:34:32] Samantha Deacon: big focus of KBIs for us this year was this idea of bringing metals into your mood boards from the very beginning, because it does have such an effect on all of the elements of design within your home. And so sitting there and looking at some of these elements, whether it be just upgrading your home or if you're looking for a project, Scratch understanding what you're looking for as far as the warmth and the various tones is going to really set the mood in several of these different areas of the

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

[00:34:56] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And so as a designer, I would recommend go onto the new [00:35:00] website, take a look at it, but then take the time, go down to your local luxury hardware dealer. Right, exactly. And go feel it. Touch it. And see if that's exactly the style you're looking for. You press

[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] Samantha Deacon: So,

[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.

[00:35:25] Aaron Brueck: They're, we're, we're lucky and we wouldn't be anywhere without our customers, right? Mm-hmm. and, and that, that showroom community is, is just so important and.

[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.

[00:35:48] Aaron Brueck: Yeah. Mm-hmm. , uh, you know, seven Fairman brought it, you know, brought it from, from nothing, right? Yeah. And in, in the forties and turned it into just a, a world class brand. Once again, that's, it's a [00:36:00] responsibility we take, we take to heart. Yeah. I really

[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.

[00:36:06] Eric Goranson: Oh yeah. And you know, they're in the Pacific Northwest, but what are they, 142 years

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

[00:36:13] Eric Goranson: it's, it's impressive. And they're one of those family companies that you rarely see that they're, I think they're in their, their fourth or fifth generation.

[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.

[00:36:36] Eric Goranson: Or I want a key. I want this to be keyed here. And I want to limit the access. We have a different lock for this.

[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] Aaron Brueck: Right? Yeah.

[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.

[00:37:10] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. . Because if we do it the other way, you're gonna be dis disappointed.

[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] for

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

[00:37:31] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Pick the hardware first and your door guide can And early on the box. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. Get it. Check the boxes, and that way everything shows up. Yep. What's gonna happen, especially if you want mortis. Many times that door manufacturer just goes, Jack stand, I'm gonna do it the other way.

[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

[00:38:00] Aaron Brueck: Baldwin team.

[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

[00:38:08] Eric Goranson: hardware and for our friends out there in uh, W E E U Land, I'm gonna have to get back out to the ugly oyster here one of these days with,

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

[00:38:15] Aaron Brueck: Absolutely .

[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.