athensmom - I agree that the Emtek sandcast bronze is too rustic for your house (or mine). Look at Emtek lost wax cast bronze. That is what we are going to use for the front door and, probably, the French doors. It has a much more refined look and the Medium Bronze doesn't have the purplish cast of the Burgundy. They have knobs as well as levers. I thought we were going to use the Emtek French Antique brass for our interior knobs until I actually got to see it. It looks very "artificial" and not at all what we want. I would love to have unlacquered brass and let it age naturally (or will a little chemical help) just like the pulls on my antique bedroom suite. Even though I swore no ORB, we will probably go with Emtek ORB for many knobs since they have the copper underlayment that does look nice IRL. Unfortunately, it looks like all of the Emtek brass knobs/levers are lacquered. So, to get antiqued brass we would have to remove the lacquer. Its sounds like it is hard to do, but, if I want to be so masochistic, how would I do it? Also, we want to have about 4 sets of glass knobs. Would the chemicals used to strip the lacquer from the brass mess up the backing on the glass knob? House of Antique Hardware has unlacquered brass, but the glass knobs are only 12% lead crystal rather than 24% for other brands. I'm just not sure those would look as good. Does anyone have another source for unlacquered glass knobs? Thanks - Jo Ann

lkremodel, which style and finish did you mean? I went to Lockhouse but didn't see anything different. I went to 3 Emtek dealers today. I saw your Rectangular Full Length one. Did you know how massive that thing is? It's really big and heavy. Make sure you see one in person first. I'm considering the smaller rectangular one, the rectangular monolithic. But it's so plain! Plus it has a curvy handle, and my door is all straight lines. I saw the Arts & Crafts one, the one I wanted, but the ORB finish is just not going to go with my black-leaded glass. It's way too reddish, and the hammered texture in the middle really shows the brassy color. About the texture: depending on the method of casting, some have more texture than others. So, the sandcast bronze ones have kind of a rustic look, not totally smooth. The Wrought steel have the roughest finish, like pebbly, but on a small scale. Those are the ones that come only in black, rust and satin steel. The cast brass ones are all smooth. I'm really striking out here on Emtek. I will have to look further to find an Arts & Crafts one in black, or get the Wilshire in Pewter. It's not black, but it's at least a little darker. Sigh.

Remember of course that this isn't a permanent irrevocable change. If anyone wants to turn your house into a museum, they will have to change whatever you put in anyway and it won't be hard. Knobs are like wall paint. They aren't permanent. (I admit I looked high and low--and ended very low--to find knobs to match my original small brass 50s mushroom knobs. But I like them!)

Rebecca E. - We had the same decision. Builder suggested Emtek for the different style choices, or Schlage. Baldwin was out of the question. I too struggled with the cost difference. Our exterior doors, with the exception of the door going to the garage and from garage to outside, are locks that came with the doors... Rocky Mountain Arched Multi-Point Entry. The garage locks are Schlage. For the interior, I have 3 brands. Mostly Schlage in ORB throughout the house (looks just like the Emtek knob that I was interested in.) For the guest powder room, I choose the Emtek knob, with a pin lock, because I felt that of all the rooms in the house, this lock would be used the most. I wanted it to hold up. I also liked the look of Emtek's antique brass knob. However, when it arrived, it did not look as champagne than it did online. I still kept it. Finally, I ordered from Amazon a glass knob in polished chrome for rest of the bathrooms.