We get a lot of inquiries about purchasing replacement components for vintage Heywood-Wakefield furniture. Some requests are more feasible—and cost effective—than others. In this post, we'd like to address a fairly common request: replacement drawer handles (otherwise known as drawer pulls) for older furniture pieces.
Drawer Pulls We Can Replace
The Encore series has drawer pulls that many vintage furniture enthusiasts refer to as “eyebrow” handles. They can be seen on the
M 532 Encore Double Chest and the 12-drawer
M 529 Encore Triple Dresser we currently produce. A number of items that aren't part of our current line, such as the M 524 “Mr. & Mrs.” Dresser (Heywood-Wakefield's 8-drawer dresser), several other bedroom pieces, and quite a few dining room pieces, used the same style pull.
Each of these pieces uses handles of a different length, and some use eyebrows of a few different lengths on the same piece. We stock only the sizes we use, but because the basic design is programmed into our computer numerically controlled (CNC) router, it's possible to adjust the program to run the size you need.
In addition, the
Encore Triple Dresser, the
M 326 Cabinet Bookcase, the
M 176 Corner Cabinet, and several other pieces use the rounded-edge square “shadow box” handle; click through to the page of any of these to see an example. This handle style is available.
Another pull now available is the “X” handle from the Rio bedroom group, a handle that's often missing from vintage Heywood-Wakefield pieces. This pull was made in just one size, and they are incredibly hard to get in the vintage world.
The entire Encore series, all the bookcases, and many of the dining room pieces that use eyebrow pulls also share the same small conical foot, but more on that in our next post on replacement parts.
Custom Drawer Handle Replacements
If you're missing one or more drawer pulls from a vintage item, even from a series not currently produced, but have at least one intact example, we can duplicate it if you can remove it and send it to us. This might entail new programming on the router and some shop time, which we may have to bill for. However, the cost for this will ultimately be lower—and the accuracy greater—than having the item duplicated by hand.
A Few Words About Cost
Even working with a CNC router, these kinds of replacement parts are labor intensive and time-consuming to make, requiring skilled hands. We price them as fairly as possible, but we’re producing new merchandise in 2017, not recycling vintage parts made 70 years ago.
In modern manufacturing terms, unit costs for our parts are not high—especially considering there really isn’t an alternative—but sometimes people who have scored a vintage bedroom set for$50 are reluctant to spend a couple hundred on missing handles. But the missing handles are probably one big reason the price was so low. In perspective, if the total cost of still comes out to be a steal, you’re ahead of the game.
See Also:
Replacement Inserts For Your Vintage Heywood-Wakefield Dining Table
Replacement Feet for Vintage Heywood-Wakefield Furniture
