Decorating in Metallics

Silver, Gold, Copper, and Iron...

Metallic hues can be wonderful accents in home decor; you just need to know where to put them, and how to balance them.

Silver is an important color in Feng Shui, where it correlates to the zone in your home that supports your travel fortune and your ability to receive well timed help from other people, including strangers. In this zone, the use of silver and grey are most auspicious, especially in the form of silver objects like boxes that hold wishes, or good luck pendants. If you can't afford real silver, silver colored metal will still help your case. Wind chimes are often made of silver colored metal, and are indeed auspicious.

Gold in Feng Shui is considered a form of yellow, and therefor correlates to the health zone in the center of your home. Gold accents would be auspicious if placed here.

In terms of purely aesthetic sensibility, silver is the easiest color of metal to combine with preexisting decor. Its cool tones go well with taupe, and with most color themes. The exception to this would be a room with strong yellow undertones, like a sand colored theme. In that case, a gold or possibly copper colored metal would blend in more successfully, as they are warmer in tone.

The difference between gold colored metals like brass, and copper, is that the brassy metals have very yellow undertones, while copper has a rosy pink undertone that compliments the warmth of the gold, unless it is allowed to weather into a green.

Iron is usually a mat black or dark charcoal grey, and does not sparkle or shine. Iron and copper, having been used by most people (rather than just nobility) in a bygone age, lend a rustic ambiance to a home. Wrought iron is also good for creating ethnic decor themes, like the decor of Tuscany, with its Mediterranean style wrought iron mirror frames, fire place screens, banisters, gates, and wall art that creates contrast between the mat black of the iron and the color of the wall in geometric and curvilinear patterns. Wrought iron is also good for Gothic themed decor.

Keeping all of these above mentioned differences in mind when you chose door knobs, furniture joints, drawer handles, light fixtures, curtain rods, and frames, can make a big difference in the finished look of your decor. Using a brassy curtain rod on the wrong room can ruin the look you've so carefully assembled. Take a sample of your fabrics and carpet, and even your wood color and wall paint, with you when you shop for hardware, finishings, and appliances, to be sure that you chose something that won't clash.

One of the bigger mistakes in the modernist decor movement was the over use of metallic surfaces. A bit of sparkle here and there can be a lovely touch to tie a decor theme together, but when too large a surface area is covered in metal, the effect is alienating. Back then, we were proud to have finally reached the moon, all things metallic and streamlined were considered space aged, and therefor cutting edge. Now we look back at some of those modernist decor themes, scratch our heads, and ask, "But who would want to come home and snuggle here?" Remember, this living room is where you will take refuge after a long hard day, and huddle in a blanket with tea when you are sick. Is this room comforting? Furniture that is predominantly made of stainless steel may win design awards, but would you want to curl up on it? You can add silver colored accents in more tasteful ways.

A great way to add silver or gold accents to a room's decor, is with the use of Asian silk brocade fabric or trim. Here are some suggested sources:

The Chinese export plenty of silk brocade, and some motifs include silver or gold colored thread. The sari fabrics and silk brocades of India are stunning with silver or gold thread used as accents, especially in the trim ribbon

The paisley motifed wool shawls of Kashmir often have gold or silver accents in them, and would look lovely on the back of a couch, chair, covering a shelf or console table, or hung on the wall.

Additionally, statues from Thailand and India are often silver or gold colored. There is a Chinese symbol of prosperity shaped like an antique monetary unit which is often hung with a red tassel, and is always made of a shiny metallic colored material.

Africa also offers many metallic accent pieces that can become attractive focal points for a room's decor. Gold or copper colored fish pendents and beads from West Africa look beautiful as finishes on the ties for drapes.The silver amulets of North and East Africa look fabulous when incorporated into light fixtures like a chandelier, and especially so when hung directly on the walls and in niches as art, framed by the wall or niche itself.

Kitchens are easy to decorate with copper pots, pans, and molds. Cut work from thin copper sheets and copper wire are also used to make artistic images of the natural world or cultural symbols that sometimes include a candle votive. Just be careful not to allow these to touch exposed electrical wires.

With so many ways to introduce metallic colors to your home decor, you are sure to find one that fits your needs.

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