3 quick tips for mixing metals

Want to know the easiest way to make your home (and specifically your kitchen and bathrooms) look custom and high-end??? MIX. YOUR. METALS. A common phrase I hear when helping clients select their hardware and fixtures is “Well the kitchen has brushed nickel, so it should probably match that.” When everything looks the same, a room feels boring and flat. And, good news! Mixing metals is easier (and less scary) than you think!

1. pick a dominant metal

2. use black as a neutral

3. use your eye-line or rooms to divide

1. Pick a dominant metal

Just because you are mixing your metals does not mean one is not more present in your home than others. The first step to mixing metals is deciding which one you are going to carry throughout your home. Once you have that decision made, pick 1-2 other metals that you want to use in your space and then blend them together. Here is how that might look:

Let’s say you choose brushed (or aged) brass for your dominant metal. The way you choose for that to be your main metal is to use it for all of your door knobs, and curtain rods in your home. That will carry it throughout the whole space. Now, perhaps you want to use a brushed brass faucet in your kitchen. To mix metals, use black or polished chrome hardware on all of your kitchen cabinets.

2. use black as a neutral

Speaking of black hardware… When it comes to metal and wood tones in the home, black is considered neutral. You can freely mix black metal with any combination and it will flow seamlessly. For that reason, maybe you choose black as your dominant metal for your home, and then each room can play off of the black in a different way!

3. use your eye-line and rooms to divide

These are kind of 2 separate tips, so I will explain them each individually.

• Use your eye-line:

  When mixing your metals, one easy way to do it without creating chaos is to follow your eye-line. Let’s think of a kitchen as an example. We will continue with the brass and black combo from before. On all of the cabinetry use the brass hardware. Then the faucet and light fixtures can be black. Your eye can then look just at the cabinets and see a continuous metal, but the home is still accented with a different finish.

• Divide per room:

  As I stated before, people often think if their kitchen hardware is brushed nickel, the whole home has to be brushed nickel. That is not the case. Maybe brushed nickel is the dominant metal of your home - that is perfectly fine! HOWEVER, that does not mean that the faucet in your bathroom has to be brushed nickel to match the kitchen. People will not see both at the same time. That line of thinking is basically like matching your underwear to your shirt, for lack of a better example haha. Have fun with your spaces and give each room its own personality while blending together nicely.

When it comes to designing your own home, you want it to reflect you. There is not a single person in this world that only has one aspect of their personality, so your home shouldn’t either!