Locking horns

A short hiatus between painting doors is coming to an end, but because the bathroom door is next on the agenda, timing is everything! It would be very embarrassing to have anyone in the house except Nikki and I during the (approximately) ten days the door will be off. Heck, it'll be embarrassing enough with just us!

So with that in mind, I've stolen a march on the job by fitting the new lock first. We bought this - along with a full set of new brass knobs - about eighteen months ago when we found them online at Cast In Style. Most of the rim latches on the bedroom doors are in fairly good condition, only needing replacement knobs, but the bathroom door latch was pretty chewed up, with its small shoot bolt bent almost at 90° and not looking very secure. When we saw this "Regency Cast Iron and Brass Rim Latch" we knew immediately it was exactly what we wanted.

As you can tell from the exposed screw holes, it's considerably more compact that the previous latch, which will give me a Polyfilla challenge on the edge of the door, but I'm really pleased with the look - even on the unpainted door - and the latch is a thousand times more solid and secure. So much so that I'll be sure to fit the "emergency release" mechanism once the door is painted!