Down to Brass Tacks:
Mixing Warm and Cool Metallics
Across the SANIPEX GROUP portfolio, metallic finishes have moved beyond the rule of a single dominant look. Brushed Nickel and stainless steel now keep company with warmer brass, PVD Oyster, Soft Bronze, burgundy, copper and gold. Renewed interest in Italian modernism from the 1960s to the 1980s has, in turn, returned chrome, tubular steel and coloured glass to view, while the richer register of the 1970s, with its dark timber, burgundy and lower, warmer lighting, is shaping interiors once more. The aim is not to recreate a decade, but to borrow its assurance with material and colour.
Start with a cool metallic base
Brushed Nickel makes a natural foundation, owing to its ease with both warm and cool materials. In the bathroom, BAGNODESIGN Carlyle brassware, a modern take on the manicured bathrooms of the world’s finest hotels, sits well against pale stone, oak or walnut, its scalloped edges lending a touch of five-star polish, while Carlyle showering carries the finish through the room. In the kitchen, the M-Line Diffusion mixer draws the same thread through, establishing a link without requiring every detail to match.
Glass takes the idea further still. Isabel pairs Brushed Nickel with faceted Plata Silver glass handles, reinterpreting the legacy of Murano’s master glassmakers with more than a passing nod to jewellery and fine perfume bottles. Against veined marble or darker timber, the result is crisp yet grounded, with the handles catching the light against an otherwise restrained finish.
Let hardware join the conversation
Hardware merits the same consideration as brassware or lighting, for it recurs across cabinetry, vanities and storage. RICHMOND’s Arpa T knob in Brushed Brass lends a warmer note, whereas the new BAGNODESIGN Orology vanity and storage handle in Brushed Nickel answers the cooler fittings elsewhere, and comes in Brass and Soft Bronze too, should the room call for warmth. Carlyle furniture goes a step further, building the metal into the joinery itself, with Soft Bronze set into Dark Oak and Brushed Oro into Matt White.
It is more rewarding to relate finishes than to match them precisely. Brushed Brass against walnut or espresso cabinetry introduces warmth; Brushed Nickel, by contrast, settles naturally beside oak, painted joinery and pale stone. A handful of repeated touchpoints is generally enough to make the connection read as intentional, and hardware, in doing so, earns its keep within the material palette.
Bring colour into kitchens and bathrooms
Metallic colour now reaches well beyond conventional gold and silver. BAGNODESIGN Bristol, with its mid-century lines and soft industrial edge, strikes a mellower note in PVD Oyster, while Toko Groove brings the free-spirited glamour of the 1970s to bear in Soft Bronze. Alongside chocolate brown, cream stone or darker timber, both belong comfortably to the richer palettes now re-emerging in interiors. Restraint serves them best: a basin mixer and a few coordinating accessories can carry the colour alone, leaving the rest of the room undisturbed.
BYSTRO brings the same sensibility to the kitchen. The Jupiter sink in Brushed Burgundy and the Orion sink in Brushed Gold make the sink itself part of the material palette. Against timber fronts or pale worktops, the finish is given room to register, and it forms an elegant bridge between cabinetry, hardware and the metal details that surround it.
Finish with light
Lighting offers perhaps the most graceful means of introducing a second metal. The Orology wall light pairs lacquered brass with clear reeded glass in Antique Brass, Bronze, Satin Brass and Satin Nickel and, being dimmable, can be dialled down as the evening draws in. The Fonteyn wall light shares the same clear reeded glass but looks further back, its mid-century form finished in Matt Antique Gold. In their warmer finishes, both are especially well suited to terracotta, dark timber and textured stone, and hold their own as a counterpoint to schemes led by Brushed Nickel. Set either side of a mirror, they recall the lower, warmer light of late-modern interiors, without consigning the setting to a period piece.
So rather than matching every metal in view, choose one dominant family, admit another for warmth or contrast, and let that relationship recur through brassware, bathroom furniture, hardware, kitchen fittings and lighting, drawing on familiar decades but with a lighter touch.
Explore metallic finishes across the SANIPEX GROUP portfolio online, or visit any showroom of SANIPEX GROUP to compare materials and finishes in person, with project support available across bathroom, kitchen, hardware and lighting.