Raw brass (often called unlacquered or uncoated brass) is enjoying its 21st-century silent revival in North American contemporary architecture and—unsurprisingly—found its way into many remodels and home improvement projects. Its beautiful living finish, an ever-evolving patina, and versatility give designers and architects an influential design element with which to tinker.
The material has been around the architectural and home-building professions for ages. The material is pleasant to touch and offers exceptional resilience against wear and tear, year after year, making it the ideal choice for high-traffic areas and demanding environments. Brass is particularly unique in parts of the building or home that we touch daily — Kevin Hüi and Andrew Maynard, the creators of the popular YouTube channel Archimarathon, introduce us to the tactile properties of brass door handles when they visit an Alvar Aalto building in Helsinki: "The door handle is like a handshake of the building."
What's next for brass in home aesthetics? Let's take a moment to look at brass and techniques interior designers and architects use to incorporate this rich material into their modern, contemporary, traditional, eclectic, or transitional interiors.
Material engineers prize brass, an alloy of zinc and copper, for its corrosion resistance, excellent machinability, long-term durability, and attractive appearance. These material properties greatly influenced early engineers and industrial designers who began to select brass for door hardware such as door levers, escutcheons, or door pull handles because they found that brass maintains its structural integrity better than most other materials used for door hardware.
Fast forward to today, where designers love the opportunity to work with a material that allows them to bridge modern, austere lines with old-world charm. While the journey begins in the factory, each piece that leaves the production line will eventually look different because unlacquered brass ages over time. This aging process results in finishes that never truly match, each exhibiting irregular coloring, adding visual interest to any building and interior. You can easily conclude that untreated brass is a genuinely living finish.
Interior designers have leveraged the warm golden hue of unlacquered brass with great success to provide cohesive design, frequently spanning door hardware, cabinet hardware such as kitchen drawer knobs and pulls, and plumbing fixtures such as bathroom shower heads and faucets. The timeless elegance of brass works incredibly well with cleverly designed contemporary house interiors and has remained a reliable go-to choice for transitional styles combining traditional and modern sensibilities.
While interior designers frequently associate this patinated finish with the mid-century modern movement, patinated brass works remarkably well in contemporary interiors, combining elements from different design periods, such as European-style frameless filomuro doors and vintage or antique furniture.
Unlacquered brass is simply brass with no protective coating, also known as lacquer. Most brassware features a coating that protects the material from natural wear and air exposure, but unlacquered brass will tarnish and darken as it oxidizes. As a result, this finish develops a graceful patina with age, creating a timeless and classic look, a charming characteristic rather than a drawback. If you appreciate the character that comes with age, unlacquered brass is an excellent choice for modern homes.
Note that brass does not corrode or rust. A patina starts to occur when you expose brass to oxidizing environments such as the oils in hands, surrounding air, minerals in water, and air pollution. The oxidization of brass results in brass developing a different color, often a green-brown hue, from that of the base metal. Frequently handling the unlacquered brass door hardware will speed up the aging process.
One of the exciting features of unlacquered brass is that it's easy to reverse the effects of natural aging and restore the surface to its original shine with a quick polish. You can use a soft cloth and brass polish, then rinse with water and gently dry to restore the sheen of any unlacquered brass fixture or hardware.
A benefit of lacquered brass hardware is that it stays the same for an extended period because of the protective coating. Unlacquered brass hardware will develop a patina.
Brass can be easily repurposed and reused in the future, making it an environmentally friendly choice contributing to sustainable design.
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Images by Alex Shoots Buildings
