Brass is back!

They say Brass is back.

You can read all about it here at Sand and Sisal...

I sure hope so.

Our house is an 80 year old Center Hall Colonial

with the original brass hardware and fixtures.

We bought it in the eighties when shiny brass was king.

Imagine our horror as we watched home fashions change-

chrome replaced brass 

and then brushed nickel came long and then oil rubbed bronze.... 

our poor house was hopelessly out of style.

But what is a "purist" homeowner to do?

Every change we've made to this house has been made with one goal in mind-

What would have been done when the home was built?

What would the material have been?  

What would be true to the period the home was designed in?

Replacing good, solid, original hardware 

to keep up with home fashion trends was out of the question.

And so we never did.

We have recently been doing some spring sprucing up around here.

It started with our son's bedroom, 

and then it began "snowballing" into hallways and down the stairs and into other rooms...

Much has begun to happen, but little has been finished...

One bright spot has been the happy restoration of the brass hardware on the doors.

Our painter and all around house magician, Dan, took it upon himself to polish a door knob 

with a bit of steel wool, and Wow!

  

What was old and tarnished and ugly 

is once again polished and regal and beautiful.

Behold! 

The 80 year old doors are thick with paint 

and the hardware was not always removed 

as it should have been when things were repainted (GUILTY) 

but Dan cleaned it all up and it looks wonderful now. 

The doors have been sanded and scraped and puttied 

and years of careless painting and neglect have been erased.

This single door knob

also underwent the treatment and looks much better now, too.

There's still a bit of a patina on the door knobs, which I like 

and which I think would have been ruined if Dan had used a chemical brass polish. 

The steel wool did the job so nicely

that we've asked him to do all of the hardware as he paints each room.

This partly explains why nothing is finished...

but a lot is happening.

Linking to:
Trendy Tuesday at Sweet Little Gals
The Scoop at Cedarhill Ranch
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustard Seed
Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm
Knick of Time Tuesdays at Knick of Time Interiors