Brass Finish Guide: Brass Hardware Finishes Available

Whether you are building a new house, remolding or just looking to replace the older and worn existing home hardware on cabinets and furniture, the type of hardware you select and finish can play an important role in the overall look and design of your home. Solid brass is a wonderful choice for most home hardware because of its durability and wide variety of designs and functions. Whether you are looking for highly ornate pieces or traditional patterns, solid brass hardware offers a wide selection in a variety of different finishes.

The finish you select is almost as important as the design and function of any home hardware. Depending on your decorating style, the color of finish can go a long way to creating or enhancing an exiting theme in your home. The finishing process also helps to protect hardware from corrosion and tarnishing over time. Popular brass finishes include Polished Brass, Antique Brass, Polished Chrome, Brushed Nickel and Oil Rubbed Bronze. The popularity of individual finishes has varied over time and decorating trends but these finishes have remained very popular in home and office construction today.

Shiny finishes such as polished brass and polished chrome have been especially popular since the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They have an extremely shiny (almost mirror like) finish but is can be prone to tarnishing over time so they may require additional maintenance to prevent this. Lacquers or Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) can be applied to resist tarnish and corrosion to polished brass finishes. PVD is especially popular for kick plates and other outdoor hardware because it also provides higher resistance to scratching.

“Distressed” or antique finishes are an extremely popular choice when looking for hardware to match already existing hardware in a home or create an antique appearance. This is also popular in restorations of older homes when only some of the original hardware is being replaced because of damage or disrepair. These finishes are darker in appearance and typically more matte. Antique brass and Oil Rubbed Bronze are both examples of distressed finishes. Other choices include antique copper, weathered copper and antique bronze, antique nickel, etc. which are hardware pieces that have been chemically treated to darken the original finish.

Brushed nickel finishes were widely used until the 1880’s because of nickel’s resistance to tarnish. Nickel finishes have remained a very popular however because the matte finish of nickel is relatively low maintenance and can easily conceal minor scratches that may occur over time due to natural wear and tear over time.

Solid brass home hardware is readily available online as well as in many home decorating catalogs. Search for solid brass (not plated) construction and be sure to ask questions. When you work with solid brass hardware you can be sure that different designs and pieces will tie themselves together if the same finish is used throughout each room. These solid brass pieces are available online through LookInTheAttic & Company and they offer free design assistance and help.

About the Author

Kohn Coleman born in Michigan – received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 2000 – currently leads several online companies and ventures.

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