Are you working on renovating your kitchen or bathroom and found yourself completely lost when it came to the fixtures? You’ve been scrolling through Pinterest and saving thousands of kitchen/bathroom ideas and they all look stunning, but you’ve noticed that each picture seems to have different metal tones and they all seamlessly look good together (even gold and silver… I repeat, even gold and silver!).
You’ve started to doubt yourself that you could make it work, after all, you’ve always had the same toned hardware finishes throughout your kitchen. It has always looked fine with a single metal tone, it looked cohesive and clean but now the game has changed and there are so many options to choose from. It’s okay, take a deep breath – I’m here to help.
Maybe you simply need some inspiration with your renovation project or perhaps you’re just a curious cat and want to know more about mixing metal finishes, I’m here for that too.
Choose a dominant metal
Ironmongery Experts, an architectural ironmongery business, has written a blog post focused on this topic (how helpful, I know!) and in their “how to mix hardware finishes” article they advise to choose a dominant metal tone and then add up to two other metals as accent tones for a more balanced look.
Don’t overdo it
The last thing you want is visual clutter, so if this is your first-time mixing metals, maybe stick to three metal tones to start with. For some inspiration, I’d recommend having a look at this article on Better Homes & Gardens, where they’ve put together some stunning kitchen ideas which feature all kinds of metal combinations, from bronze and copper to rose gold and silver.
The only rule to follow
In the world of mixing metals, there aren’t that many rules to follow, instead, there are guidelines to help you achieve the best possible result. However, there is one golden rule which is also mentioned in this article on Southern Living: “don’t mix two metals in the same colour family.” But why not, you ask?
Good question, let me explain. If you pick two very similar metals, such as shiny chrome and satin chrome, and use them side-by-side it might look like it was a mistake and that you didn’t notice the difference when you purchase them. Southern Living emphasises that “when it comes to mixing metals, you want the variety to be obvious and look intentional.”
Balance it visually
The easier way to go about mixing metals is to do so by separating them by height. For instance, choose one metal for your cabinet furniture, another for faucets and then a third metal for lighting fixtures. This will create the perfect visual balance.
The Spruce highlights the importance of choosing the right cabinet hardware and compares this type of door furniture to the jewellery of a room. So, it is advisable to take your time to get the perfect fit – do your research, order samples and check finishes with the remaining room materials.
So, next time you ask yourself “do all my fixtures need to match?” just remember that they don’t, remember that you can have fun with these details and create an amazing looking kitchen or bathroom.
