For many years now, the trend in home decor has been everything stainless and pewter, or all chrome and silver. While I grudgingly admit that I myself currently have a kitchen full of stainless appliances, I have always had a soft spot for brass. Don't get me wrong, I do not miss the brass headboard I used to own from the 80s, but I love, love, love classic brass decor. My old brass and glass coffee table, not so much. I have never been alone in that opinion, but for a very long time I have been in the minority. At Brass & Silver Traditions, our pewter and silver finish items have outsold the brass since 2007. Over the past ten months, though, our brass products have surpassed the sales of the other finishes across the board.
For the past year or so, conversation about brass decor revival has been popping up with increasing frequency. Imagine my delight when I saw this recent article in the Wall Street Journal: The Brass Revival in Home Decor. Sure enough, brass is making it's comeback, but this time with more class than the shiny metal enjoyed during the last brass heyday. This naturally delights me both personally and professionally. Just this month we have had two brides who have selected all brass items for their centerpieces. Hooray for shiny metal! That said, I definitely plan to avoid brass kitchen appliances as the WSJ article suggested may become popular. Any quality decor scheme should know it's limits. I don't know about you, but I draw the line at owning a brass refrigerator.
The economic conditions of the past several years have made running this business extremely challenging. Through it all, I have always continued trying to pick up where Viringia Metalcrafters and Baldwin Brass left off. The road continues to be uphill. Still, I feel blessed to have the problem of being unable to produce enough inventory as opposed to have inventory that nobody wants to purchase. The resurgence of brass home decor gives me great hope that wonderful things lay ahead. Just writing this post makes me want to celebrate with a big sale on everything brass. I think I will call it "All That Glitters" and feature as much of the brass as we can fit on the page...