DIY

26 May DIY Tutorial: How To Clean (Really Really Dirty) Brass Hardware

Hello Friends, pardon my absence the last couple of weeks while we wrapped up school (which was way busier than I imagined - whoosh!) and dealt with our porte cochere ceiling collapsing on our car (more on that later), not to mention my continued recovery (I'm feeling much better by the way, and am very close to being released by my doctors!). This past Saturday, I finally sat down to tackle a task I had been needing to work on for quite some time - cleaning the hardware on the campaign built-in for our Master Bathroom. This is a "before" picture, and this vintage campaign piece turned bathroom built-in, purchased at Scout Design Studio in Dallas, has had a major face lift since the photo below was taken. [caption id="attachment_7807" align="aligncenter" width="306"] scout design studio[/caption] As you can see, there is A LOT of hardware to be cleaned here.  Over 50 pieces...But I was undeterred at the beginning.  After all, this is not my first go-round at cleaning campaign hardware.  I've done it millions of times. I promptly pulled out my Brasso and started scrubbing.  At first, I did not remove the campaign hardware from the main piece, simply because those brass T's and L-shaped pieces are a beating to get off without bending them.  (I often recommend not removing campaign hardware for this very reason)  However, after scrubbing and scrubbing with Brasso, I quickly realized this was not going to be an easy job.  Therefore, all of the hardware was removed from the furniture piece very, very carefully.  Once I had all of the brass hardware on a flat surface, I switched to Bar Keepers Friend and started scrubbing. I was surprised, yet again, to see my cleaner was not denting this grime at all. So that's when I decided to pull out all the stops.  If you have beyond dirty brass hardware, these are the steps you need to take to ensure the quickest, most efficient way of bringing these brass beauties back to life.