This is the view from the foyer. You'll be able to see the light over the stairs and the kitchen island/pendants. Do they need to match? I was thinking an oil rubbed bronze chandelier might be a good choice since you can see the gold in the mirror from the foyer and I was worried that satin nickel lighting would not match. I have already changed the lighting on the ceiling in the hallway and entrance to something without any gold accents.

Thank you very, very much in advance for any suggestions!

Bronze hinge

Satin hinge

I'll be putting cup pulls on the drawers,either in brushed nickel or oil rubbed bronze.

My house was also built in 1991. I still have cheapo brass fixtures and hardware in the bathrooms. One day... In my kitchen I went with antique pewter pulls/knobs on the cabinets, with concealed hinges on my white painted cabs. They seem to work with stainless and black/oiled bronze (pendants). I hate the old brass and wouldn't give it any power to influence your choices now, rather plan to eventually get rid of it throughout the house. Of course, you can't see into my bathrooms from the kitchen, and that's a very good thing. :)

When I had exposed hinges, I thought they were ugly and dated, but I've changed my mind on that. I see plenty of nice cabs I love with exposed hinges.

I wouldn't worry about matching the finishes - do what you want. We have brass throughout our house and nickel in the kitchen and I never notice it.

Thanks for the advice. A question for linelle...Did you have to bore holes in your cabinets to put in the concealed hinges? I really don't like the look of my hinges and would love them to be concealed but with them being for the face frame cabinets, I am having a very hard time finding concealed hinges that would fit. I don't have the expertise to install the hinges that I have seen and it would be nice if I didn't have to hire someone to cut the holes for the hinges.

Thanks again!

I agree - do not let the brass influence your decision. I think ORB will work very nicely throughout your home. However, if you want brushed nickel in the kitchen, then go for it. I would strongly suggest you choose your counter slab first though! if you got a slab that called for nickel hardware - you can still do ORB lights in the kitchen, as they will flow with the rest of the house.

I love the notion of mixed hardware for cabinets - I used Colonial Bronze knobs, which allows you to choose 2 finishes - one for the outside of the knob (eg. ORB) and one for the face (eg brushed nickel). Just an idea. I know you need to choose your hinges now tho. If you have an inkling of your granite choice and you know ORB will be the finish of choice, then go with ORB.

We had all brass throughout our 1950s house too - and we are slowly but surely changing everything out to ORB and we love the result! We do have satin nickel/pewter in the kitchen, nickel in 3 baths (2 polished, 1 satin) and 1 polished chrome in another bath. All main doors and hinges will have ORB hinges and levers when we're all done.

Good luck!

Melissa- go to HD or Lowe's and get heat-proof black spray paint and paint that puppy. The fireplace brass, I mean. I did it 5 years ago and it's the best thing ever. I HATED looking at that stupid yellow brass and trying to decorate around it. Now I have a beautiful matte black and I didn't have to spend much time or money.

OOOH!!! I'll go ASAP for the paint.

My husband is going to ban me from this website. Our simple painting of the cabinets, granite and backsplash is getting bigger and bigger with every post. I've now added the powder room to my to-do list, new lighting throughout the house, painting the fireplace, new door knobs.... They're things that have been bothering me for two years so it will be reall nice when everything is done.

Also, you can paint brass light fixtures. I had a huge, hideous polished brass chandy in my dining room...it had like 18 candles, huge! And so brassy! I found an ORB-type color spray paint and lost the brass! It still wasn't the most gorgeous chandy, but it wasn't so in my face!

I also painted ALL of the ugly brass in our house when we sold in 2009 (house built in 1990) We could nt change the fixtures in the MBR so I painted everything ORB from rustoleum. Including the exterior of the shower door and a ceiling fan. All turned out beautiful and the house sold in one day to the first couple who looked at it. They came at 11 am and stayed til 7pm when we signed the sales agreement. No kidding.
We became friends with them as we live next door now and she painted the INSIDE of the shower door and it worked well and looks fine. Of course she has a wipe down after every shower.
Honestly you name it - I've painted it. ;)

Another vote for the spray paint!! I painted light fixtures and my fireplace. Cover everything in site before spray painting!! It gets everywhere.

tape and cardboard. Fabulous glimmer, no?! (ugh)

after. The vents were white so they got the royal spray paint treatment too :)

This thing got it too! was just as gold as that fireplace!