"Em-Brass-ed" to admit

The average builder's love child appears to be glossy shiny brass. It's everywehere, it's usually your most inexpensive choice of finish and it lasts, much to a new homeowner's dismay: brass hinges, brass door knobs, brass lightfixtures and more in your ebdrooms, your kitchen, your bathrooms and your livingroom. There's no escape! All you can do is frown, shudder and either dig into your wallet to buy replacements in bronze or chrome or nickel or whip out a can of spray paint.

Lately, however, I have noticed something scary.

No, really.
Something earth shattering.

I find myself ... hold your breath! ... liking brass.

There, I said it! "Brass" and "like" in the same sentence. And the world is still revolving around the sun. Phew! Lucky me!

It all started with these guys here

[Floral pattern handrail brackets - Source: Van Dyke's Restorers]

When looking for an option to affix our stair handrail to the wall in a much more pleasing manner than re-using the very industrial and pretty ugly steel brackets I ended up browsing the vintage options on the Van Dyke's webpage. Those floral pattern brackets caught my eye - nice and solid and the price was absolutely right ($11.99 per bracket). Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, our current go-to finish "Oil rubbed Bronze" was sold out but the antique brass finish looked so close, yet gave the pattern much more impact due to being lighter in color that we decided to give it a try. Van Dyke's customer service has always been great that we didn't worry about issues returning them in case we didn't like them.

Here they are again, with the ugly shiny brass one removed, for direct comparison. The antique brass finish is the one on the left, the oil-rubbed bronze one on the right.

[Brass Bad Boy vs Bronze Boomer]

When they finally arrived in the mail, we were ecstatic! The color is best described as a warm golden brown allowing for much greater contrast within the design of the item. Crevices are darker, closer to an oil rubbed bronze finish while areas exposed to light glow a warm chocolate-brown with hints of gold. Husband and I are definitely sold on vintage brass. Pictures of our stair handrail and its brand new sharp-looking brackets will follow soon - promised!

In the meantime I managed to snatch up a pair of tall vintage brass lamps with a lovely aged patina at the Good will pound store for $2 each and a vintage brass oval tray with mirror for $1.99. Pictures to follow soon (hopefully tomorrow). We're still firm within moving chaos's hand and certain things (ahem ... digital camera download cable ...ahem) are somewhat difficult to locate.