Changing brass to silver, nickel, or satin chrome look

A. Plating a table like that with silver or chrome is not a do-it-youself project. A plating shop can do it though. Silver would be very pretty, but tarnish prevention and removal might be overwhelming. Nickel-chrome plating would leave you with a durable and low maintenance finish.

Painting it would be much cheaper and a do-it-yourself project, but you asked for the "best possible way", and that's certainly to have it plated. Good luck.

A. Unfortunately, Carri, brass is brass and chrome is chrome; one is goldish while the other is silverish.

You may have to ship the item off to get it plated. Labor is the biggest part of the cost of most things, and to replate a single item, spending a couple of hours in the process, will make it cost more than most consumers think it's worth. But if it's special to you, yes, a plating shop can certainly do it.

Something that is dirt cheap and may or may not impart the look you want is a metallic wax rub ( ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] ), probably only applicable if this is a decorative feature far removed from the fire and doesn't get hot. Good luck.

A. Plating of a single item can be very expensive. You could try a can of high temperature aluminum paint. It can be moderately close to a satin finish.

A. You can try with paste silvering or tinning!

Paste silvering recipe:

10 gm silver chloride
20 gm salt
20 gm cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate)

It must be rubbed on grease and oxide free object (with piece of leather or cork) and you must lacquer or wax it!Good luck!

A. www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/tips/strip-brass-plating-with-oven-cleaner-style-north-139280

I saw this on the Nate Burkus show and they used oven cleaner ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to change the color of brass to chrome. The chemical in the oven cleaner alters the brass color and it looks just like chrome without painting and looks much better.

Hi, Marianne.

That is an interesting possibility. Thanks! It is true that some brass toned stuff is not really brass but is actually nickel plating with either a flash of brass plating over it, or a brass tone tinted lacquer over it. If you can remove that top layer, yes, you can be left with the bright nickel plating. But you'll be left with a mess if it wasn't what you thought it was :-(

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
December 26, 2011

A. Hi Noreen. I'm not here to discourage you from bringing a plating shop a $2000 job if that's what you want to do, but just to warn you that such a project would be very expensive :-)

Nickel plating should be fine for indoor use in a home. No need for nickel-chrome unless you like the extra flash and freedom from tarnishing (some people find the faintly yellow tarnish of nickel attractive). I don't think a consumer should try to write specifications for a one-time job, but just tell the plating shop to do a good job.

It may be more practical to simply paint the bed a metallic-looking color rather than actually have it plated. Try some on an inconspicuous place on the inside of a rail. You'll almost surely need a self-etching primer coat first for good adhesion though. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Brad. If price were no object I'd recommend taking it to a plating shop for satin nickel plating. But if $150 or a little more sounds excessive to you, there's always nickel colored spray paint. Good luck.

Regards,

Self-etching Primer Spray

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Hi Nicole. Just paint it. You'll need a self-etching primer to get good adhesion, then spray on a color or a metallic tone.

Regards,

A. Hi R. Neither is easy to reliably paint, and both require etching or self-etching primers. But I've heard horror stories of some brass surfaces proving about impossible. Can you offer us some context? That usually leads to good answers whereas abstract questions often lead only to misunderstandings :-)

Thanks,

A. Hi Kathleen. I greatly doubt that a paint or a wax rub will hold up on faucets/fixtures even if done well.

If any of the brass stuff is special and irreplaceable, a plating shop can reliably nickel-chrome plate it for you but, in general, the labor cost of onezy-twozy re-finishing will be higher than the whole cost of new mass-produced replacement items.

Regards,

A. Hi Linda. If price is not much of an object, a plating shop can certainly nickel plate them for you. But the plating of store-bought hinges is done hundreds at a time with machines in factories, and that keeps the costs reasonable. As I noted to Kathleen, if you want a handful of parts plated, it involves a lot of manual labor and the cost of the plating alone will probably exceed the cost of new hinges.

If you are looking for a moderate price solution, sanding them, priming them with a self-etching primer and then painting them with a metallic paint is probably your best option. Flex them before fully dry, so the paint doesn't dry bridged over parts which have to move or it will be forced to flake off. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Kay. You can get a nice matte silver tone from spray paint and it won't obscure the detail. But if you really want shiny chrome you'll probably have to send it to a plating shop. I see this table on eBay , used, for $300 to $575 (but only in brass finish), so maybe it's worth getting it plated.

Regards,