B & B Hardware has all the fixings for old houses–even your kitchen sink

PHOTO by LONNIE NGUYEN

B & B Hardware is hardly the first vintage hardware store—or even the first in Long Beach; that honor may belong to a dusty, no-name warren of a building that stood in place of the Mobil station at Anaheim Street and Redondo Avenue. But as institutions like the late L&S Plumbing Supply (also on Anaheim and a great source for old sinks) disappear, the two B & Bs—one in California Heights in the former Van’s Bicycle Shop; the new one on Redondo in the old Space Invaders house—become the designated places in town to buy a claw-foot bath tub, a glass doorknob, a 1920s chandelier, or a dead-stock kitchen sink.

Run by Tom and Lola Barnes, there’s a bit of history here which makes you think B & B will stay awhile: Tom’s two brothers, Lola says, each own one of the Ace Hardware franchises in Long Beach—which, until the first B & B opened in 2004, made Tom the only brother without a hardware store. Now he’s even.

And it’s a good thing; a 100-year-old city can surely support two vintage hardware stores with its scores of Spanish-style homes, midcentury A-frame houses and Craftsman-era and postwar bungalows to supply them and—one hopes—someday send their new owners down to buy back some of that same missing hardware.

There’s tons of it here—or, at least, bowls of it; fruit crates of it; corner cabinets of it, for here the displays are almost as intriguing as their products. Almost. The product is why you’re here: Maybe a kitchen sink? There are two vintage 1944 kitchen sinks here for you, both made by Crane of white, spotless porcelain. One is shallow, maybe 9 inches deep; the other’s squareish, and deeper. It’s brand new. You could bathe a dog in it. A rather good-sized dog. And prices? The small one is $150, the large $200. Try finding a new porcelain sink for that money; it’ll cost more and have none of the character.

Then there’s doorknobs; almost everyone with an old house needs doorknobs that match, and there are boxes here. Some are those graceful clear glass knobs that once were everywhere; others are those smaller, opaque black or brown glass that sometimes got used on the side doors of garages. Price? Ten dollars, maybe $12 or $15. Not bad—and if you need, there are door latch mechanisms to match.

Speaking of door latches, B & B makes a notable foray into the more nondescript but still stylish mid-20th century door hardware. Its Redondo Avenue store has scads of doorknob escutcheons and several sets of the smaller knobs that will match and be correct on the three-panel door in your 1947 stucco bungalow. It’s nice the Barneses see the value in what overzealous contractors everywhere are still ripping out and throwing away.

Their most-loved—or, at least, most highly priced—pieces hang overhead: vintage glass chandeliers from the 1920s. Each proudly wears the design trends of the day—the zig-zag geometrics of Art Deco, the graceful stylistic flourishes of Art Nouveau‚and a price tag that validates that provenance. A late-1920s five-light chandelier from Consolidated Glass will run you $1,495—right up there with an early-20th century decorative tile by Claycraft depicting an ox-drawn covered wagon, at $1,500, and more than a 4-foot claw-foot tub at $1,200.

Nearer the front door are the things you need (as opposed to the things you want): a crate of sash weights; Streamline Moderne light sconces; iron feet from a claw-foot tub. And things you can afford. Everyone needs a metal light switch cover that looks hand-hammered, at $11.99. And almost everyone needs a mailbox. Tom Barnes—who clearly knows what to stock—sells new front-door latches that look old, old mailboxes that look old, and new mailboxes that look old. The main difference is, in keeping with Graydon Carter’s Vanity Fair, the new mailboxes are larger. But that’s how it is now.

B & B HARDWARE 929 E WARDLOW RD | LONG BEACH 90807 | 562.490.2669 | ALSO 387 REDONDO AVE | LONG BEACH 90807 | 562.438.2669

Tags: antique, b and b, craftsman, doorknobs, midcentury, vintage