Project Glam Kitchen: Brass Baby!

Now that we’ve covered the biggest components of the kitchen design, it’s time to talk about all the other fabulous brass and gold details that make this space shine, such as the hood, fixturing, lighting and more.

Seeing Rubinet’s R10 faucet at IDS in 2012 was one of the turning points for me in deciding to go all the way with brass and gold. I loved the unexpected look of the single faucet with the industrial sprayer in a warm metal instead of the ho-hum chrome, and the brushed finish made it less blingy and in your face.

Besides toning down the flash factor, I also chose to go with satin or antiqued brass finishes wherever possible instead of polished because the brushed and antiqued effect means fingerprints don’t show up as quickly as they would on a glossy surface- a great tip for a busy family kitchen!

For the cabinetry hardware, I mixed a timeless cup pull for all of the drawers with a simple round knob for all the cabinet doors. If you also love cup pulls but have drawers with any moulding, including the very popular shaker style I chose, make sure that you test the height of the cup pull with your drawer profile first to ensure it’s short enough to fit inside the borders. The classic cup pull from Classic Brass, which I special ordered through Gingers, just made the cut!

When it came to selecting more substantial appliance pulls for the refrigerator and freezer doors, I chose a complementary design from Baldwin, available at Antique Door and Hardware, also in a satin brass.

The same brushed brass can be seen on the range hood, a worthy splurge that helps pull the white and brass scheme all together and serves as a statement-making focal point. Made in Oakville by Custom Range Hoods, I went back and forth on the overall shape, finally deciding on this sloping model that fits tight to the ceiling. The brass striping really gives it that  Parisian bistro vibe that perfectly complements the backsplash tiles.

 

 

 

 

For the pendant lighting over the island,  the issue of ceiling height played a major factor, as I needed to select pendants that could be shortened to 2 feet tall and still keep their scale. I kept on going back and forth between a classic industrial pendant that had brass references and Visual Comfort’s iconic Hicks pendant, which also would have brought in a hit of black into the mix. I used the Hicks pendant in a previous project and loved it as the rivets fit the nautical theme perfectly, but decided to skip them for my forever home and go with a less trendy option, the yoke pendant.

next up:  furniture and the family room

(faucet image via Houzz, hood image by Stacey Brandford)