How to Age Unlacquered Brass

When we think of brass, we think of shiny gold, right? But do you know what unlacquered brass is? Unlacquered brass is simply brass that doesn’t have a protective coating. This means that, over time, unlacquered brass will naturally patina and tarnish to be beautifully aged. We love that!

Today I’m going to show you an easy technique that speeds up that aging process of your unlacquered brass using things you already have in your pantry!

*This post is sponsored by our friends and Nostalgic Warehouse. Thank you for supporting the fabulous brands that make Reality Daydream possible!*

We got these beautiful hooks and knobs that really match the vibe of what we’re going for in our mudroom. As you know, we’re going to great effort to make the mudroom addition feel original to our historic home. And we love the fabulous selection of vintage, period-specific hardware and vintage reproductions that Nostalgic Warehouse has.

How to Naturally Age Unlacquered Brass

These hooks and knobs we chose for the arched mudroom lockers are SO PERFECT. But they’ll be even more perfect once we help that patina develop. This is easy!

Supplies for naturally tarnishing unlacquered brass

• unlacquered brass hardware
• fine steel wool
• large tote with lid
• white vinegar
• salt

Clean the hardware

First things first, we’re going to use a little wad of fine steel wool to polish off any finger prints from our hardware before starting the patina process. If there are any oils from our skin on the unlacquered brass, it will leave a funny mark after the brass ‘ages’.

Prepare Your Solution

Dump some white vinegar into your plastic tote until it’s about an inch deep, and sprinkle a generous amount of salt into the white vinegar. I probably added about a cup of salt. This is not an exact science. Just dumb away! Don’t worry about stirring it in or trying to dissolve the salt.

IMPORTANT: we do not want to submerge our hardware into this solution.

Suspend Hardware Above Solution

The vinegar reacts with the salt to form a hydrochloric acid. It’s those FUMES that will speed up the natural patina process of the aged unlacquered brass! So the goal is to suspend them above the salt/vinegar solution.

I used some plastic cups to hold up a baking cooling rack, but you could really use anything.

Wait Patiently for your Unlacquered Brass to Patina!

Put the lid on, and let those vapors get to work!

This process could take anywhere between 30 mins and 4 hours, so I recommend setting a timer and check on it every 30 minutes until it’s tarnished the amount that you want. You might find yourself craving some salt and vinegar chips every time you peek at your unlacquered brass! 😉

Here’s mine after some time had passed. The shiny finish is definitely gone, and there’s a smooth matte vibe going on. But I want more! So I left em in.

TADA!

And here’s the finished product! This naturally aging process is magic!

Would you look at that patina?!

It brought us SO MUCH JOY to install these hooks and knobs on our arched mudroom lockers and truly finish the vintage vibe. What do you think?!

Next up in our mudroom project is wallpaper! I can’t wait to share with you! Chat soon. <3

~Bethany