Sorry, I guess I was not clear. The brass is sections of thin stamped sheet wrapped around a wooden framework and nailed in place. The mirror itself is regular glass mirror. I will take a picture tomorrow. There was an antiqued dark brown patina in the lowest parts of the design. Since it is not an antique, this is done with patina chemicals. I think there was a thin and incomplete coat of varnish or lacquer on it, which was why it was so hard to clean. On the parts where I had to scrub really hard to remove the green crusty corrosion or the red or brown discoloration under that, all this brown patina was removed. After cleaning, washing, and drying, I applied NEW patina chemical from a bottle. I keep this for my copper sculptures. I have only made things from new metal and have never had to deal with corrosion like this before. I have cleaned some of my old thrift store tarnished copper/brass stamped plates before, and when the discoloration was gone it stayed gone (then I lacquered them). But I have never before had to deal with corrosion that popped up again right after cleaning.

athensmom - I agree that the Emtek sandcast bronze is too rustic for your house (or mine). Look at Emtek lost wax cast bronze. That is what we are going to use for the front door and, probably, the French doors. It has a much more refined look and the Medium Bronze doesn't have the purplish cast of the Burgundy. They have knobs as well as levers. I thought we were going to use the Emtek French Antique brass for our interior knobs until I actually got to see it. It looks very "artificial" and not at all what we want. I would love to have unlacquered brass and let it age naturally (or will a little chemical help) just like the pulls on my antique bedroom suite. Even though I swore no ORB, we will probably go with Emtek ORB for many knobs since they have the copper underlayment that does look nice IRL. Unfortunately, it looks like all of the Emtek brass knobs/levers are lacquered. So, to get antiqued brass we would have to remove the lacquer. Its sounds like it is hard to do, but, if I want to be so masochistic, how would I do it? Also, we want to have about 4 sets of glass knobs. Would the chemicals used to strip the lacquer from the brass mess up the backing on the glass knob? House of Antique Hardware has unlacquered brass, but the glass knobs are only 12% lead crystal rather than 24% for other brands. I'm just not sure those would look as good. Does anyone have another source for unlacquered glass knobs? Thanks - Jo Ann

Mark, I used a product called Nioxin for the brass cleaning with some 0000 steel wool. I also soaked them in lime away and hot water for a while, this seemed to clean the crystal knobs really well. I used a single razorblade to scrape off the stuff I could not get off with steel wool on parts like the strikers and hinges. You can use spray laquer to preserve, but it will yellow over time. Check out my pics: Sorry, I can't get them any larger without distorting them.

I think you have gotten good advice. Don't let the paid professionals talk you into something that doesn't sit right with you. I have found that when we tell our decorators that we don't like something and ask if they have any other ideas they will have a plan b that fits us better. You have to do what works for you or you are going to look at it and feel sick about it. Especially if you paint the clock white. You can't really go back very easily. sleep on it for a while and then decide. i caution going too trendy. I think that will date your house very quickly. Pick a few trends that you love. Stained trim seems to be out. My husband loves it so that is what we did. We then choose oil rubbed bronze for the levers and fixtures because it looks so good with the dark trim. So, in my opinion, i think you are right. and, for what it is worth, my paid professional told me they didn't like nickel with stained doors. You could keep the levers and finish the project. If you decide to change the levers after living with it for a while it is a pretty easy project. So, why not try it out and see how you feel.