Edgar Berebi: Jewelry for your house

Ok, so I've talked about ornate doorknobs and cabinet pulls as being jewerly for your house before. And at the time, I really believed it. Then I came across Edgar Berebi's collection of architectural hardware, which has officially thrown everything else out the window. With their painstakingly intricate details, meticulously placed crystals, and antique-worthy designs that harken back to a time when sitting down to concentrate on a task for days on end was considered a great skill, I find myself really wishing for the first time that I could minituarize cabinet pulls and wear them as earring studs.

It's the attention to such details as the striations on a rose's petals or the curving outline of a leaf that make the biggest difference. Of course, it should be expected as many of Berebi's engravers — who work with a magnifying loop and hand tools to carve out foliage, frogs and flakes of snow— learned their crafts at mints, museums and restoration shops.

Like any really fine jewerly, however, I just can't see these products being used on an everyday basis, gathering the dirt, oils and grime of hands in their minute nooks and crannies. But hiding them away just seems like a travesty. So where to install the decadent knobs and pulls, which can retail between $40 and $180 for a single piece? I guess a powder room vanity would work or maybe a seldom used bureau that displays your fine china. Either way, they'll be sure to put some elegant dazzle and glamour into your home.