Trials and Tribulations of Tarnish

I started a project yesterday and was so excited as I was beginning to see the results. Here is exhibit A:

Antique Dining Room Set(before the project)

This was basically given to me by my aunt (it was originally her mother-in-law's). Family secret...there was quite a major incident involving a little bit of fire and a whole lot of smoke when we were having it delivered to our house. I'll leave the details out to protect the privacy of those involved. As I was saying, because of this major incident, we HAD to have to furniture refinished. When they brought it in our house, I was amazed at the wonderful job they had done. However, I noticed that the handles were quite different. They were shiny and I mean SHINY brass handles. So, I politely said to the guy, "do ya'll" (a little southern rhetoric) "have the original handles that were on the set?" He politely responded, "these are the original handles." "Oh", I replied. You see, they were polite enough to polish the nice brass handles for me to make them all shiny instead of leaving them tarnished. Well, it sorta ruined the look for me. I loved the way it looked when my aunt had it all those years and to me, it just didn't look like the same furniture. So, I did a little "googling" to see how I could tarnish the brass. Most people said use liver of sulfur. I just didn't have the time to go out and buy that. So I decided to live with it...for a year. Then, when I got the silver set (you know...the one from yesterday's post which I'm sure you read), I came home and put it on my buffet. It made the SHINY handles stick out like a sore thumb. Hence, the inspiration for my project.

Isn't it amazing what a little ammonia will do!

And...After the Project

As I was finishing up the project, I noticed that the little round disc that attached the handles to the furniture weren't really tarnishing that well. I think my little "discovery" indicated that this particular part of the hardware wasn't really brass. So, what's a girl to do? I headed to my local hardware store and purchased a little spray paint and viola! It wasn't my first choice, but I really had no other options short of attaching the beautifully tarnished handles with ugly green disc. Oh, well, I guess that's what I get for not being patient enough to let nature take it's course and tarnish in it's own sweet time.