Adornment for door stop and door stop with interchangeable adornment

#This invention relates generally to door stops, and more particularly to a door stop and one or more interchangeable adornment(s).

#Door stops are known. Door stops often mount to a wall or a floor of an architectural structure (e.g., a home, office building, etc.) and stop the movement of a door as it is opened. One common door stop includes a post that mounts to the wall or baseboard near the bottom of the wall. When mounted, the post of the door stop sticks out from the wall by 3-4 inches (7-10 centimeters), which is sufficient to prevent a door handle from striking the wall and causing damage. Another type of door stop maintains a door in an open position.

#Prior art door stops are bland and are manufactured to blend in with the décor of a building. Accordingly, prior art door stops are not readily noticed by persons in the building.

#The present invention is described with reference to the following drawings, wherein like reference numbers denote substantially similar elements:

#FIG. 1 is a side view of a door stop according to a particular embodiment of the invention;

#FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the door stop of FIG. 1 with the adornment removed;

#The present invention overcomes the problems associated with the prior art, by providing a wall-mountable door stop that includes at least one adornment coupler for selectively mounting an adornment (e.g., an ornament, decoration, sign, etc.) to the door stop. Additionally, the invention provides an adornment that is configured to be mounted on a door stop. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth (e.g., shapes of channels, shapes of adornment mounting structures, exemplary screw hole configurations, etc.) in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced apart from these specific details. In other instances, details of well-known manufacturing techniques and componentry have been omitted, so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.

#FIG. 1 is a side view of a door stop 100 mounted to a wall (or baseboard) 102 of a home or other architectural structure. Door stop 100 includes an elongated body 104 defining an axis 106 that is generally parallel to a floor 107 of the home. Body 104 includes an attachment structure disposed near a first end of body 104 for mounting door stop 100 to wall 102. In this embodiment, the attachment structure includes a base 108 and a screw 110 mated (e.g., welded, etc.) to base 108, such that body 104 can be rotated to drive screw 110 into wall 102. Base 108 has a larger perimeter than elongated body 104, such that base 108 can distribute the force exerted by a door impact onto a larger area of wall 102.

#Body 104 further includes at least one adornment coupler 112 adapted to removably couple at least one adornment 114 (e.g., an ornament, decoration, sign, etc.) to door stop 100 and to position adornment 114 adjacent to (e.g., above) elongated body 104 and parallel to axis 106. As will be described in more detail below, in this embodiment, adornment coupler 112 includes an inverted (upside-down) “T” channel 112 extending through elongated body 104 parallel to axis 106. As shown, channel 112 extends the majority of the length of elongated body 104.