“There’s a Finnish architect named Juhani Pallasmaa who said, ‘The door handle is the handshake of a building,’” Matilda Goad tells me from her converted London conservatory, a space designed to resemble the clapboard homes of Montauk, and filled with the scalloped edges and woven ceramics that have become her brand’s signatures. “It resonated with me completely when I heard it. It’s those finishing touches that really make a room, but the hardware space, and DIY generally, are still such male-dominated spheres. Why should a backplate be any more intimidating than a bath mat? With MG&Co Hardware, I’ve been trying to bring in some playfulness and femininity to that world, to demystify everything slightly.”
The rattan devotée began said quest in 2022 with a collection of doorknobs, expanding, gradually, to include hooks, backplates, and knobs in the prettiest of colorways (celadon, pistachio, citron) and shapes (stars, bamboo shoots, clovers). And this month? She’s taking over 19 Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill with The MG&Co Hardware Store, which will offer a series of workshops and classes in everything from knife sharpening (hosted by cult Japanese brand Niwaki) to DIY basics (“ie, which screw to use”), plastic recycling (via Are You Mad) to decorating skills (courtesy of Edward Bulmer Natural Paint). Visitors are welcome to bring in photographs of their own DIY projects for guidance, along with any lamps that need rewiring, while engravers will be on hand to translate messages and sketches onto silver- and brass-plated Matchbox Sleeves.
