O'Brien suggests mixing brass and dark bronze, brass and chrome, or brass and nickel, but never mix nickel and chrome. Also, he cautions that there is a limit to how many metal finishes you can mix together in one room. “There should be a main finish choice and maybe one accent,” he says.
In general, I wouldn't mix two metals in the same family, such as nickel and chrome, unless they're far apart in the space and/or you're also adding a warm-toned metal to the mix. Metals also come in a variety of sheens and finishes, including matte, satin, brushed, polished, oil-rubbed, aged, and antiqued.
Yes, mixing brushed nickel and chrome can be a fun way to add contrast to your kitchen or bathroom. Choose one to be the main hardware color and the other to accent it.
Warm metals (like gold, brass, and nickel) read as a rich pop of color and texture when placed with cool metals like silver and chrome. Many people think that matching your finishes is the best way to coordinate your home or kitchen, but in reality this often creates a monochromatic and dated look.
Chrome hardware is best suited to kitchens in cool colors, such as black, gray, and white due to its blue undertones. In contrast, brushed nickel is a warmer shade of metal that complements various shades of wood well. It is, therefore, ideally suited to farmhouse, modern and traditional kitchen styles.
Both finishes have positive and negative aspects, so it isn't always easy to choose which will serve your home and family best over the long term. Brushed nickel is extremely durable and tends to keep its finish longer than chrome. It doesn't show fingerprints or water spots and is easy to clean.
Chrome tends to be considered more a more modern look, more contemporary than brushed nickel. On the flip side, brushed nickel is typically categorized as more traditional when comparing it to chrome. As with all things design, it comes down to personal preference!
Top tip – never, ever, EVER mix chrome and nickel. They are both silver tones, but with different undertones, and they will look awful together. Here we mixed polished nickel and brass. Both have warm undertones, making them a great match.
Use a dark oil-rubbed bronze to subdue the shine of polished chrome, or go for a satin finish to help connect the warm and cool metals.
Neutral colors blend well in a bathroom featuring brushed nickel. The neutral color palette includes shades such as ivory, white, light brown, dark brown, beige, slate and gray.
And for those who worry about how their stainless-steel appliances fit in with other metals, O'Brien says: “Chrome and stainless steel are really the same and can be used together.”
Chrome is a highly reflective cool bluish toned silver. Polished Nickel is a highly reflective warm toned silver. Satin Nickel is a slightly glossy, brushed warm toned silver. Stainless Steel is a matte, brushed warm toned silver.
If you're going for a shiny, super-clean look, chrome is the clear winner. If you don't want that super shine, you may prefer brushed nickel, which is a softer-looking metal that complements stainless steel appliances.
One of the top growing kitchen design trends in 2022 is adding a brushed nickel finish to fixtures and faucets. Replacing a tired polished chrome faucet with an Americana Collection Two Handle Kitchen Faucet in brushed nickel will easily add a touch of refinement to one of the most frequently used spaces in the home.
Polished Nickel (top lever) has a warmer, yellowy tone, often likened to traditional sterling silver, whilst Polished Chrome (bottom lever) has a cooler, blueish shine. Therefore, Polished Nickel tends to work best in classic, period properties and Polished Chrome looks great in more contemporary settings.
Chrome, much like silver goes well with black, or white, as you can see with our black and white inserts on our sockets and switches. Other influential colours that work with many styles of chrome include dark / navy blue, royal blue, cream and burgundy. Even slightly soft or pastille blues can work well too.
Polished nickel is more expensive than chrome due to manufacturing process, at same time chrome is generally considered more durable than polished nickel. Overall polished nickel and chrome have unique characteristics that set them apart such as appearance, durability, maintenance, cost, and applications.
Chrome is one of the most popular finishes for bathroom fixtures and modern kitchen taps due to its high-gloss reflective finish that can create an elegant & clean look in any room.
Polished Nickel
Nickel Plating is again applied to a base metal and polished to a high shine. The colouring has a more yellow, deeper and richer tone than the Polished Chrome Finish. Many people refer to it as looking like traditional sterling silver.
Brushed nickel fixture coating is semi-satin, so it isn't very shiny or matte. It has a non-reflective texture and dull appearance. Brushed nickel finish is a classic finish that is often used on metal products, such as appliance pulls and door handles.
Cool metals include chrome, polished nickel, and brushed nickel. Black is considered either a cool-toned metal or a neutral and makes a great second or third metal to balance out your mix.
Does this mean brushed nickel and oil rubbed bronze are out of style? Nope. And in even better news, there's no need to replace all the metals in your kitchen all at once anymore. Because mixed metals in the kitchen create a curated look in the kitchen that is so 2023.
Gold and Brass
Gold is getting an added boost thanks to this year's trend of black and gold, which is especially popular in this year's resurgence of Art Deco. The warm look of gold and brass creates an inviting atmosphere that is also timeless and luxurious.
Among the most popular metal finishes are the following: antique, polished, brushed, hammered, and satin. They are responsible for the finish to be shiny or matte. Antique metal finishes.