Brass - A Current Design Fling

This won't be news to those who are my Pinterest colleagues as they have already noticed that I love brass.

I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to it.

No, not the cockney sort - real metallic brass thank you very much.

I think most of us have a meme that overtakes 

our design, sartorial, or literary psyche.

Please tell me you have this affliction!

A few years ago, it was chevrons among many others.

Mary Macdonald made it so chic! Via

But its place has been cemented by having had a whole feature dedicated to it in the 

February issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine.

A look that goes surprisingly well is gray with brass accessories.

I wanted brass handles for my kitchen as well further inspired by the brass detail in the kitchen renovation at Adelaide Villa.

Via Adelaide Villa

I showed these pictures to Mr CSW for real life inspiration rather than a Martha Stewart magazine ( men react differently to pinterest than publications for some reason) but all my other appliances are silver toned so we passed on the idea. 

While brass used to look outdated in bathrooms, it seems to be much more prevalent in pictures of high end real estate sales photos.

When I was expressing my preference of brass accents, everyone around me was saying that it was old fashioned, ugly, etc.  

But it had fallen out of favour to such a degree that it was very hard to source any brass fittings.

 There is only one room that is the "brass" room.

These are the handles to the cupboard in the new room upstairs.

The compromise that MR CSW and I came to was that the finishes would have to be antique brass.

Not all "antique brass" has the same finish 

and most companies don't do the one complete line of 

one brass finish unlike for chrome 

so I had to get these lights from another company.

 My electric switches and dimmers were the only thing 

that paired exactly.

 The door handles weren't available in the UK in antique brass immediately, the wait was either months or it had to be ordered from the U.S.  So Mr CSW had to age it by leaving it in ammonia for 24 hours, brushing them with wire and then another ammonia soak for a day.

If you get rid of the final film it will eventually develop an antique brass look according to the experts.

But there are more official tips from Martha below.

I will show you my "brass room" when it is presentable - you have actually seen it before in my reno post - it is the room with boxes everywhere hence the close up shots!

For those who aren't on pinterest, my other present design flings are with leopard print and folding screens.  And you?

( All pictures from Martha Stewart Living Magazine February 2014 unless stated otherwise)