We are in the process of refurbishing the 90+ year old heat vent covers in our house. They are cast iron and had a tremendous amount of dirt/grime and paint on them. We had them sandblasted and would now like to paint them. We're shooting for an antique brass color but can't seem to find anything that looks classy and understated.

We tried Rustoleum's Burnished Brass Metallic but this was too yellow and had a 70's like sparkly finish. The guy at the Lowes paint aisle said that anything labeled "Metallic" would have that look.

We did a couple of grates using Burnished Silver from PlastiKote and those turned out really well. Unfortunately they don't make anything in a brass-tone in their "Classic Metals" line.

Any recommendations?

P.S. We thought about re-plating them but estimates have been about $150 per grate and that's out of our budget right now.