BRASS DECOR

Brass decor is the logical follow-up on yesterday’s post about the Color of the Month: Aubergine. As I already mentioned there, the combination brass or gold and aubergine is just great. The color and the material both have a “royal” vibe, adding instant class to your Autumn interior.

For a long time, stainless steel, chrome and other “cold” metals have been the standard. But for a while now, brass and similar looking materials are making a come-back. I say a come-back, as it has been “in-and-out” throughout the centuries, and the last “brass-period” was during the 1970’s (think Milo Baughman etagères or wall-sculptures by Jeré).

There are many sorts of brass. Brass is actually a combination of copper and zinc. Depending of the proportions of these two, a whole range of different sorts of brass can be created. And then there is bronze as well: this is a mix of copper and tin. In fact, there’s a whole list of varying sorts of brass, to name a few: Abyssinian Gold, Admiralty Brass, Gilding Metal (think Full Metal Jacket for bullets!), Nordic Gold (it’s in the Euro coins) etc. The all-embracing term for all these sorts of brass materials is “copper-alloy”.

Gradually, brass has made its way back into “interior-land”. It started with maybe a light-fixture here or a detail on a table-leg there, adding a certain “insider” glamour to hip interiors. These days, leading designers such as Jonathan Adler or Kelly Wearstler use the material in abundance. As Adler says: “Silver tones are cool, high-tech, Calvin Klein simplicity” and “Brass equals warmth, English clubbiness, Moroccan craft and Italian mid-century fantasy.” Well, I couldn’t agree more, I am done with Calvin Klein simplicity, give me mid-century fantasy any day 🙂

A brass and leather campain stool – via Sage and Clare

What a cool vignette, this brass pot with interesting pattern, filled with a trendy succulent, the skull figurine etc in the home of Evelina Kravaev Söderberg, head of Home Design at Hennes and Mauritz