I think it's nice to mix metals when they relate to each other. Like black & pewter - but I'm biased because I have a room with black, pewter, and chrome in it :)

For your situation I think you can get away with it because so much in a kitchen is always going to be silver or brushed nickel. Pots & pans are often silver on the outside, silverware is often silver colored, and if you have any stainless steel appliances they read as brushed nickel or silver.

In other words - you'd be hard pressed to outfit a kitchen with everything being gold toned (even the trim on the toaster) so silver is expected there. So I think it recedes into the background & no one would expect them to match.

Now ... if you have a foyer off the living room and the foyer had gold light fixtures & gold accessories & gold handles on the closet doors - but the living room was heavily accented with bright silver then that might look incongruous. But you'd need a lot of each metal for people to notice. It would probably need to be on the order of "Gold wallpaper with gold leafed table" versus "chrome tables & lamps & candlesticks everywhere" for people to see it.

I agree with yayagal. I'm not sure where the idea of everything matching came from. Has it always been a decorating "rule"? We have silver colors in the kitchen (faucet, range hood, fridge, other things), and I want to replace all the wooden cabinet knobs with metal. I'm leaning toward some kind of dark gold color or even a copper color. We also need new lighting and there, too, I want the exposed metal parts to be golden in tone. Silver tones would match the existing silver color, but I think the end result would be too cold. Anyway, Sueshine, I think it's more important that styles work together than metal colors match. Do you have any pictures you can post?

Wow, have you been reading my mind? I have the exact same question. I did a little searching and came across some non-GW discussions of this topic, but I would love to hear more GW opinions and pictures if anyone has them.

I already have a minimal mix of antique brass and silver (some polished, some brushed). I have a sofa with brass nailhead trim, two chairs with brass feet, and an antique sideboard with antique brass handles. I've just ordered (not delivered yet) two antique nickel table lamps from RH (during their lighting sale) to add to the mix. I also have brushed nickel curtain rod and rings. From what I read, if the mixture "looks intentional" that's better. But I'm not really clear on how to do that.

I sure hope so.

Our new lighting is all brass, but our kitchen has a blend of stainless and brass and (black) iron. The house is from 1920, so one would assume that things wore out, got replaced, and therefore wouldn't match. What needs to "match" is the "tone" of the items, IMO. Our home has very simple trim, so our hardware is simple - whether it is brass, or black, or chrome. I think it would be harder to have very contemporary pulls mixed with very ornate ones in a single space.

I have always happily mixed metals in my home and in my jewelry. I think the most important thing is that the overall quality of the finishes and style of the pieces mesh. I wish there were rules for how to tell if things "go together" but I don't really think there are. One way I think I have learned to decorate is to pay attention to the details of the rooms I really like in magazines. I will pore over every detail and then somehow the look/concept sticks in my mind and I try to reinterpret it. Before committing to something like painting your end tables, I would pull everything else together and see how it looks to you. Good luck!

I agree with the previous posters that a mix is more interesting than everything in the house being the same metal! It looks too contrived to have all the same finishes, imo, like one of those "showhouses" (or like the home owner encountered one heck of a sale on a certain material!). I also agree w/Grlwprls that it is being very consistent with style that really unites the rooms throughout the house.

Going from Oil-rubbed bronze "Ornate Italian Villa" type hardware in the kitchen, to Oil-rubbed bronze "Simple, Spare Shaker" in the powder room, would seem incongruent & jarring. While moving from ORB or brushed nickel in the kitchen, to shiny chrome in the powder room, keeping things similar in style (either simple OR ornate) would help create a "flow" in the house, imo.

Mixing metals makes it more interesting. The only exception to that would be say having a gold faucet for your tub and not gold for your sinks. I also think door handles should be the same metal but I use all different kinds in my rooms. Have fun.

Can I mix nailhead metals in my great room?