My cabinet finisher did a sample of this for me on a cabinet knob. He roughed the knob up with some sandpaper (it was very fine grade, and the kind that is a sheet but has a spongy feel), then he took some of the glaze he was using on our cabinets (it's his own concoction but as far as I can tell, it's sort of like a very runny stain, and is definitely oil based) and sort of dry-brushed it on. Just dipped the tips of a nice big natural bristle brush in the glaze, then dried them off a bit, and then just touch touch touch all over the knob till he achieved the look. It was absolutely amazing, he made a much too shiny satin nickel knob look like an antique pewter knob. This will work with brass too. He said he was going to put two coats of spray lacquer on it. Another possibility is to send it to a metal replating place. We have one here. They can coat it to be any color and finish you want. They told me it would be $8-15 PER PIECE! That's a lot when you're talking over 50 cabinet knobs and pulls. Let me know if you'd like their name, I don't know if they work long-distance.

I don't like shiny brass unless it's on a musical instrument. My circa 1990's house has it EVERYWHERE. Imagine my husband's surprise when I bought a bunch of shiny brass knobs and cup pulls from my local hardware store. They had filled a huge bathtub with all their discontinued knobs. This thing was almost overflowing. But the price was 2 knobs/pulls for a buck. So I did it. I was searching for a looooong time. I didn't dare check the clock, but several people came by and offered to help, So, my plan was to get solid brass, remove the lacquer and age/darken them. I've found the instructions online. Admittedly, I don't know if all the pieces I bought are solid. So, it's one great big experiment, we'll see how it turns out. I told my husband, if the color doesn't quite turn out, I'll just spray paint them with ORB spray paint and save up for the really good stuff. carrie_eileen I'm so disappointed to hear about Restoration Hardware and their lack of hardware. The store near me closed a little over a year ago. When I got their re-vamped catalog, I assumed it was the furniture and decor style they were changing and nothing else. I didn't realize they were changing everything.

I've got a 1905 home and have been adding new mortise locksets on the new interior doors - I know the hunt to find the right hardware. There are two companies that make high quality interior mortise locksets that I've found - Nostalgic Warehouse is one and the other is Emtek. Both brands are carried at House of Antique Harware online. Rejuvention (http://www.rejuvenation.com/) also sells one of the brands - I believe the NostalgicWarehouse ones - and you can customize for interior privacy, dummy, etc and choose finish, knob, locking type (latch, key) backplate. But the price reflects that ($150-ish per set). Some other sites carry the Nostalgic Warehouse hardware and you should search for that online once you figure out what backplate style you need at a cheaper price. For bathrooms, I prefer the latch type without the keyhole, it's easier than inserting a skeleton key. In the end -- $100+ for each set was cost prohibitive for me since I'm doing a complete remodel and an addition so continued searching and lucked out finding the "Prime Line" series at Homedepot.com at around $30 a set. Yes, there is a difference in quality, but it's what I could afford at the moment so it's worked ok so far. They are all skeleton keys and I've got the keys hanging on the knobs with ribbon like others have mentioned. Here's a picture of my new doors and the Prime Line set with my Dad testing it after he mortised it out. This post was edited by kjo_tx on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 10:53

I have white cabinets and soapstone counters and did both nickel and pewter hardware. The bulk of the hardware is satin nickel, and for the accent knobs (like on the glass-front cabinets), I used decorative pewter hardware. I think they blend very nicely, but the fancy pewter ones give a little "pop".