Touch of Brass

Natural brass fixtures are adding warm finishes to kitchen and baths.

Like copper, brass is a living material with intrinsic visual warmth that has long been used for door and cabinet hardware because it’s incredibly durable. That toughness makes it ideal as a basic component of natural brass fixtures which are then coated with chrome, nickel or other fashion finishes to keep them maintenance free. Like copper, uncoated brass needs regular cleaning and polishing. Lately, though, we’re starting to see a new appreciation for satin-finish or brushed natural brass fixtures which have a soft, almost vintage appearance even when new. The custom Rangecraft vent hood showstopper in a contemporary New York kitchen [top] shows how appealing brass can be.

Workstead Architects made the sculptural vent hood a focal point of the kitchen and it works well with the richness of the walnut overlay counters treated as organically as a piece of cloth thrown over the custom island. The Rohl sink faucet was stripped and replated with brass to coordinate with the hood — there are discreet brass finials on the spidery light fixture as well, brass finger pulls on the cabinets, and accents on the range — hewing to the material-inspired theme.

Had the owners of the apartment above wanted a satin-finished bridge faucet they could have skipped the replating process and simply gone with Barber Wilsons’ classic gooseneck bridge faucet in their “Gold Silver” finish (which Quality Bath sold).

British designer Charles Mellesh used this brushed brass beauty to warm up a millennial-white kitchen in London. My tile-junky gene compels me to note contemporary plain white 4” x 4” tile looks when set staggered with dark grout.

Satin brass also looks great in a millennial-white bath with a look that’s essentially the same as the kitchen. With a rain shower, hand shower and porcelain spoke handles, this is another classic English bath fixture look that Barber Wilsons or Samuel Heath can offer.

A wall-mounted brass-tone faucet used over an antique powder room sink in Denmark shows how decorative a sink fixture can be, especially with one of Grandma’s candlesticks nearby to point it up.

(Source: dwell, remodelista, homebunch, decoholic)

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