Alexander Marchant: Beautiful And Unique Fixtures For Every Style

Find beautiful and unique fixtures for every style in this stunning showroom.

Laurie Marchant and Susan Alexander, co-owners of Alexander Marchant, became friends in the halls of McCallum High School and went on to study art history at UT. The friends then went on to careers in the antique business and came together in 1997 to open Antiquity Workshop, a furniture restoration and repair shop. It was through running the Workshop together that they saw the need for authentic and interesting hardware. Both fueled by a passion for historical preservation, they formed Alexander Marchant in 2002.

Today, they represent over 100 lines that showcase a range of styles and price ranges. And, what started as a hardware-only business has grown to lighting and plumbing fixtures as well. Nestled off of West Fifth Street, the showroom is home to displays of everything from Waterworks fixtures (they are the exclusive seller in Austin) to walls of interesting knobs and hardware. Marchant and Alexander say their business partnership works so well because they are yin and yang and are both interested and enjoy working in different parts of the business. “We are always bouncing ideas off of each other,” Alexander says. Over the years, they have worked on such diverse projects as the hardware for the renovation of the Comal County Courthouse to ornate custom door hinges.

Their aesthetic of “simple, elegant, and classic” has served them well over 13 years in business and will do the same in San Antonio, where they just opened a showroom. One of their most important philosophies is careful curation of the products they carry. Marchant says: “The products can’t just be beautiful, they have to be functional. Our staff has to have knowledge about the product, so the designers have confidence in what they are buying.”