Let's start with brass. If you remember, I restored the brass handles on the Art Deco dresser we upcycled. I did some research and decided that the best way to restore brass was to soak it in vinegar. Vinegar is one of my secret loves. It is a miracle worker, from leaving streak-free windows to restoring brass.
If you have lightly tarnished brass, it should only have to sit for about an hour. However, our brass was really tarnished. So I let it sit for at least a day. One of the tricks to restoring any metal is polishing. I took an old rag that I had and polished the handles at least a couple of time before they were ready. I would take them out, polish them, and put them back in the vinegar until I was happy with the restoration. This project is really cool because you can see the residue in the vinegar. When I was done, there was a brown rim on my bowl from the residue. I left my handles a little aged because I like that look, but you can keep working on them as long as you want!
Now for the silver!
For the silver, I used this trick from Pinterest. It was super easy and it didn't leave my sink a mess becuase of the foil!
However, I made some helpful modifications to the process. Like the brass, my silver was severely tarnished, so it took a little more work. Here is a before picture:
So to make sure that I got most of the tarnish off, I would periodically take the silver out and polish it with an old rag. You could see the tarnish all over the rag, just like the brass. Then, I would soak it longer and repeat the process. I repeated it until the silver was as nice as I wanted it to be. Also, don't forget to plug the sink before you do it or the solution will all drain out (it's easy to forget, trust me).
Here are some during and after pictures:
And voila, that's how you restore brass and silver. If you have any questions about the tutorials or if you want to know how to restore other metals, leave me a comment!
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