Why Unlacquered Brass is a Finish That’s Impossible to Forget
31 October 2025When properly cared for, natural materials like wood, cast-iron and brass will last generations. But unlacquered brass boasts a particular charm. Here’s why unlacquered brass adds an authentic, character-filled touch to your home.
What is Unlacquered Brass?
Unlacquered brass is a natural, living finish that patinas beautifully with use, creating a raw, rich and layered look. Dulled by age, and naturally polished from regular touch, it’s a finish that is characterful, low-maintenance and perfectly suited to a TradCo restoration home where beautifully-aged hardware adds a sense of cohesion to historic spaces.
A Style of Two Finishes
In the unlacquered brass world, there are two primary finishes, each with their own aesthetic and benefits: unlacquered polished brass and unlacquered satin brass.
Unlacquered Polished Brass
Unlacquered polished brass is the more traditional style, so it’s ideal in a heritage renovation where it will help embody the building’s history. At first its finish will be glossy and bright, reflecting light in a searingly clean fashion. As it ages, though, the areas most often touched and rubbed will start to darken. Every touch adds its own imprint onto the brass, and as the years pass and these areas tarnish, you get a tangible sense of the people who have experienced these objects — all you have to do is look at the brass they encountered on any ordinary day.
Unlacquered Satin Brass
For a more contemporary home, unlacquered satin brass might be the way to go. It’s less reflective thanks to the many fine lines that make up its brushed surface, and has a softer, matte look overall. It ages less dramatically than unlacquered polished brass, developing a muted aesthetic as time goes on, whilst retaining its sense of warmth.
The Beauty of Patina
With no protective coating on the brass, depending on location and environmental factors, it can take as little as two days, or as long as two years, for the metal to age, darken and develop to its charming, aged state. The natural beauty of its ageing process feels and looks organic, and along with its progressively darkened colour, it can also see variations in texture, evolving in your home over time.
How to Care for it
Whether its unlacquered polished or satin brass, its upkeep is the same. It needs to be polished regularly with a dry, soft cloth and metal polish: simple.
Unlacquered Brass on Doors
The Arapiles Club House Project uses unlacquered polished brass to cleverly link new hardware into a heritage property from the 1880s. TradCo’s Unlacquered Milton Door Knobs and Georgian Cupboard Knobs are particular highlights, melding seamlessly into the folds of this home as if they had been there from its very beginnings.
Unlacquered Brass on Drawers
To transform a kitchen into the farmhouse-style the owner wanted, the drawers were elevated with TradCo’s Unlacquered Satin Brass Domed Cupboard Knobs and shell-like Classic Drawer Pulls, their classic forms and material linking new with old.
Domed Cupboard Knob - D38xP35mm
Domed cupboard knob in solid brass or iron. Available in 3 sizes. Matching backplates available separately.
See productUnlacquered Brass on Cupboards
This Adelaide Hills Coach House, which dates back to 1870, has been renovated to sympathetically reflect its status as one of the oldest buildings in the city. The kitchen features TradCo Unlacquered Satin Brass Domed Cupboard Knobs, their elegant finish reflecting the owners’ desire to keep interventions minimal, whilst their ever-changing patina ages with the building, both echoing its history and adding their own contribution to it.
Domed Cupboard Knob - D38xP35mm
Domed cupboard knob in solid brass or iron. Available in 3 sizes. Matching backplates available separately.
See product
