Restoring and Cleaning Brass Hardware in 3 Simple Steps
When we first walked through our house there were termites, structural damage, and barely a kitchen or bathroom to speak of. It was the charming little details that made us fall in love. The wood mantel, the built-in cabinet in the kitchen, and the charming little glass doorknobs on every door.
Of course, most of those charming little glass doorknobs were also sloppily covered in paint. The basement door specifically looked like it had been through the ringer, and the door knobs had multiple layers of bubbling paint. During our kitchen and sunroom renovations I knew I would need to tackle that door and was excited to see how that hardware would turn out.
If you’ve never restored old brass hardware, don’t be worried, it’s actually really simple – no home improvement project scaries here!
3 Simple Steps to Restoring and Cleaning Antique Brass Hardware
If your hardware isn’t painted you can skip straight to step 3!
Step 1
Put all your hardware in the crockpot with enough water to submerge them. I did this with my glass knobs and the glass was completely fine. Set on low heat and let it go for 10-12 hours or overnight.
If you are working on an old house, I highly recommend getting yourself a used crockpot just for house projects. It’s way more useful than you may think. When we upgraded our crockpot the old one was officially deemed the “construction crock pot”. You can also find used crock pots at the thrift store for cheap to use for this. You definitely don’t want to use your crockpot for food after this, so just go ahead and pick up a used one!
Step 2
Once your crockpot has cooled down full you can fish out your hardware. Most of your paint should easily come off with just a rubbing of a rag at this point. You can use fine steel wool to help you loosen any tough bits to help out with any tough paint spots, but typically even the thickest paint slides right off after it’s soak in the crock pot long enough. Fully dry off with a soft cloth your hardware once the paint is completely removed.
Step 3
Ready for the extra magical part? Set all of your hardware out on an old towel or rag. Top each piece (the brass portions at least) with a generous amount of Brasso. Use a tooth brush to gently rub in the Brasso. Let sit for a couple minutes. Scrub gently with the toothbrush, then rinse fully under in tap water to remove all Brasso.
Seriously, this stuff is like magic! I was kind of shocked the first time I saw this stuff do it’s work, and it’s all said and done in just a couple minutes.
Tips for upkeeping
Once your hardware has that clean brass look once again you’ll want to keep it up! While you can always hit it with Brasso again to really shine it up, you can also use one of my favorite gentle cleaners – Bar Keepers Friend. I also use BKF on any porcelain surfaces and it works wonders.
Don’t have any BKF or brasso? Some warm water with a little baking soda is an easy and dependable alternative. As long as you keep up your brass polishing fairly regularly you should be able to wipe down your hardware with soapy water for normal regular cleaning!
Check out how our sunroom makeover turned out!
