Step into Tradco at Residium and you’re looking at the whole range at once, laid out on white boards against a charcoal wall. Every piece carries its product code, so what you have is a finish library rather than a product display.

Tradco has been making restoration hardware since 1982, when Graham and Denise Duff started producing fittings for Australia’s historical homes. The range now runs to over 4,000 products sold through more than 600 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Most of it is forged and constructed in solid brass, with sheet brass, iron, zinc alloy and stainless steel used elsewhere. Tradco is one of three brands in Southern Design Group, alongside Iver and Bankston, and the group became a certified B Corporation in January 2026.

That distinction matters, because hardware is one decision in a house that has to repeat. A lever chosen for the front door has to agree with the knocker above it, the bedroom window stay, the hall light switch and the kitchen cup pull. On a screen you’re comparing photographs taken under different lights. Here you can compare two finishes side by side under one.

The boards run the length of the range. Door levers on backplates and on roses, door knobs, centre door knobs, knockers, flush pulls and push plates. Rim locks with their keys and escutcheons, hinges, bolts, and casement and sash window fittings. Coat and robe hooks, cupboard knobs and cup pulls, and Tradco’s period light switches and sockets on their wooden blocks.

Twelve finishes are set out in the Tradco brochure, each with a durability rating out of ten. They run from polished and satin brass through antique brass and antique copper to matt black, chrome and three nickels. Two of them are unlacquered and behave differently from the rest. With no protective coating, unlacquered brass takes as little as two days or as long as two years to darken into its aged state. How long depends on where it sits and who touches it. That’s a living finish, and a photograph can’t show it to you.

Ask at Reception for the Tradco brochure before you leave, because it carries the part the boards can’t. Its five-step guide starts with the architectural style of a house and ends with the accessories that match what you’ve chosen. In between it settles the finish, the locking mechanism and the hinge. Step one alone sets out nine house styles, and Colonial, Victorian, Federation and Edwardian, Bungalow and Art Deco are all familiar in New Zealand.

Showroom 138 sits in Section B and isn’t staffed, so bring photographs of your doors and windows and of any original hardware you’re matching. Iver, Tradco’s sister brand, is at Showroom 4 in Section A at the other end of the building, so allow time for both if you’re comparing the two. You can explore Tradco 7 days a week at Residium. No appointment necessary, simply drop in and explore at your convenience, and when you’re ready to specify, we’ll connect you with the team.

COMPARE THE FINISHES

At a glance

• Over 4,000 products across door, window and cabinet hardware, which is why the brochure runs to 158 pages.
• Twelve finishes, each rated out of ten for durability in the brochure, so a finish can be matched to how hard a door is worked.
• Unlacquered brass darkens over anything from two days to two years, and keeps changing rather than settling.
• Most products forged and constructed in solid brass, with sheet brass, iron, zinc alloy and stainless steel elsewhere in the range.
• Seven hinge types, from ball bearing for heavy solid-core doors to parliament for doors that open flat against the wall.
• All Tradco hinges are solid brass and supplied with matching stainless steel screws, with solid brass screws also available.
• Locking options run from a passage set for a door that never locks to a rebated euro lock for french doors.
• Making restoration hardware since 1982, and one of three brands in Southern Design Group alongside Iver and Bankston.