It's a personal choice. I started freaking about the same thing recently. I was advised by someone whose design opinion I greatly admire not to worry about it too much. But the finishes should be at least be in the same color family. Love the knobs btw!

how much bronze trim is on the mercury glass fixture? I'm assuming not a lot since it's trim? Why do you think you have to match the pendants to the trim? Do you have a pic of the fixture?

I'm no design expert by any stretch. I have seen others who have mixed finishes of hardware and lighting, i.e., orb and stainless with beautiful results.

Those knobs are beautiful!! I agree that mixing colors within the same family isn't a problem....but I'm no expert either. In my last kitchen, my light fixtures were black iron, my door handles were pewter, my appliances stainless, faucet satin nickel and my knobs were an antique pewter and it looked great together. Also keep in mind "to each their own" some people have an extreme need for order and symmetry whereas others love the eclectic look of mismatch......which camp do you fall into?
Can you post pictures of your cabinets and the light fixtures you are looking at?

I absolutely love those knobs - they are beautiful! I would use polished nickel pulls with them. Both mercury glass and polished nickel have that "old silver" look. Also, I like mixing the finishes: different finish for fixtures vs. hardware. I think it can look monotonous for everything to be the same - too matchy or something. I would probably stick with one finish for all light fixtures though. Polished nickel and mercury glass look somewhat "warmer" than chrome, pewter, or stainless steel so they would go with the warmth of the antique bronze.

the trim on the mercury glass fixture is just a little trim, but the whole chain is bronze, too. I guess if I thought it looked like too much I could always cover up the chain with one of those cloth cord covers. I don't have a photo of the other fixture as it is from an antique store in my area and I did not take a pic of it, but I did link a photo of the pendants I am using.

I am not usually such a matchy matchy person, but for some reason, the kitchen remodel has made me hestitant about my usual taste because everything is so expensive- I want to make sure I do it right!

Here is a link that might be useful: pendant light

I worried for a little while about matching finishes when I was doing my planning, but just decided, what the heck, I'm gonna get what I like and it'll all be fine. It's that way in the rest of my house too and I never even notice that things don't match. That being said, my house is fairly informal so if you tend to like formality it may matter more (I LOVE mercury glass and would love to find the perfect mercury glass table lamp to not match my other things, LOL).

In my kitchen, I have a polished nickel faucet, cast iron bin pulls, cast iron cabinet latches with brass knobs, brass pendants and ceiling light, and a stainless steel stove. I don't even notice that the different elements don't match. I just notice that I like what I picked. I think if you really like what you pick, you'll probably be happy with how things combine. My $0.02.

Funny Jammonit!

I've been holding off ordering my pendant lights - after finally finding the ones....because I can't decide on the brushed nickel or the oil rubbed bronze! I have no issues mixing finishes, in fact, have orb faucets in a mostly stainless/old silver hardware kitchen.

To each his own, I personally love your knobs and the antique fixture just sounds way too cool to pass up. Like you say, you could always cover the chain later if it bothers you.

I'm really jealous, I was having terrible angst over pendant lights because I really wanted antique mercury glass fixtures, but couldn't find the perfect one, not to mention the 3 I needed.

One little last thing, a salesman mentioned to me in my quest for mercury glass lighting is to make certain that the antique mercury glass isn't going to be flaking in a food prep area... he did say if it had some flaking you could always clear coat over it to seal it better.

Good Luck and please post pictures as soon as you are finished!!!

I worried about the matching thing but in the end went with the pendant I liked (which is very similar to yours, btw, but from the Sundance catalog, with black iron/steel trim) and the brushed nickel pulls I liked. I still need a pendant over our kitchen table and I'm leaning toward something in the black spectrum to fit in with the Sundance pendants (we also have various blackish, cold-rolled steel in the kitchen -- the uprights of a bookcase and cart and a pass-through counter). Right now I have an IKEA pendant up over the table which is some kind of silvery brushed stuff that sort of matches the various stainless appliances and I think it looks fine (and it cost $25! -- hard to beat).

I learned a little trick in decorating school (I'm a design school drop out) :oP Keep LIKE finishs the same. That means keep your pendants and chandeliers in the same finish, but this does not limit your drawer pulls to the same finish. But you want say all faucets in the room to be of the same material, but not necessarily the same material that you have on the pulls or light fixtures :)

Then find a tie in. For instance, if you have murcury glass on the knobs, and in the lighting, you have a tie in, so the material isn't such a big deal.

In my kitchen the "tie in" is the range, in black enamel with stainless, chrome and brass accents. This allows me to pull all three into the kitchen. The light fixtures are antiques, in pewter colored metal (its actually cast iron and weighs a ton) but the fixture had an old gold color accent on the globe sconces and the top and bottom of the fixture, so again, silver and gold are both in the room. The sconces on the fixtures are a soft amber glass, which is also the glass used in the cabinet doors, and pulls amber from the back splash and the granite...and then the other counter is stainless.

So if you try to think of the room and the tie in's you can find, you don't need to worry about the fixture color quite as much, as long as you stick to the tie in rule and the like items rule :)

igloo, that was really helpful. Thanks.

the most important part is that the hardware works well with what it's sitting next to/near. so the cabinet hardware should work well with the cabinets it's mounted to. the light fixtures should work well with the ceiling.

we mixed finishes quite a bit. glass knobs on our green painted cabs, ORB on our cherry stained cabinets, stainless appliances, chrome plumbing fixtures, and a stainless stamped tin ceiling. it works because, like igloo said, we tied it all together.

the stainless ties the appliances and the ceiling together and there's enough of it to make it an 'element' of the room. the ORB island fixture works well against the silver ceiling and ties into the island hardware. the ORB hardware ties into the black glazing on the cherry cabinets. the chrome faucet has porcelain handles which tie into the fireclay sink.

look to connect things and think about contrast and texture.

thanks so much for all of your help! I am going to go admire the fixture again tomorrow... and maybe buy it;) I think. And then it is onto obsessing about my tile...

First of all, the knobs are fabulous. And, the lights that are being paired up with them sound nice, as well. As for the brushed hardware, not a problem. It sounds like you have excellent taste so go for it!