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Coastal French Metals, Hardware & Finishes

It’s hard to choose just one. And in selecting Coastal French metals, we don’t. We mix it up!

Coastal French metals include bronze. Also picture iron-looking fireplace doors and a brass side table.
Coastal French metals are mixed: Bronze lamp, iron-looking fireplace and clock accents, brass side table

Like adding textures, mixing the metals in Coastal French design adds some interest for the eye. Without being too loud, metals provide a range in color where the Coastal French color palette leaves off.

Coastal French design mixes metals like brass and gunmetal.
Brass ring accent tile and gunmetal cabinet pulls/hinges

Coastal French Metals List

That said, there are only so many metals considered seaworthy. Those are the handful we deem ‘coastal’ in Coastal French design:

  1. Brass
  2. Bronze
  3. Copper (and its patina version, verdigris)
  4. Gunmetal
  5. Iron (boats of old)
Copper lantern on house
Copper

In modern times, steel is the name of the boatbuilding game, but at Skating Pond, interiors lean more Old World. In our house, the only things in stainless steel are the appliances and a single faucet. That faucet is in a high-traffic powder room, and it keeps the look monochrome with a gunmetal mirror and light fixture.

Our Favorite Pair

Of the five, we largely gravitate to brass and iron. Combined with wood accents, brass lends warmth to the cool tones of the Coastal French color palette. In our kitchen, we used Brizo’s Luxe Gold finish. It’s unique — brass in color, with bronze (orange) undertones and a satin finish.

Brizo's Luxe Gold faucet looks like brass

We use a lot of iron instead of matte black because it has that pitted texture, too. These Pottery Barn holdbacks and curtain rods are perfect examples:

Iron comes in gray, but also black when it’s wrought. You see wrought iron all over Paris (those balconies!), so that’s where the ‘French’ comes in. (That, and the verdigris green you get when copper patinas — think the Statue of Liberty .. a gift from the French)!

Wrought iron balconies over Les Deux Magots in Paris. Photo by Brandee Gilmore

French Gold is left out of discussion. There are exceptions, like our master bedroom. If you want a room to feel more French than Coastal, that’s your prerogative. Go ahead and throw that gold and gild in there!

French Gold can be sprinkled into Coastal French design.

Let Me Finish

As for the finishes of metals, we like that rustic look. Dark gray gunmetal tones are one option. At the other end of the spectrum are the latest PVD-coated satin or burnished finishes. They’re attention-grabbing without being shiny. Polished fixtures look a little inauthentic and unrealistic for the Coastal French life — unless you’ve got a crew of cabin boys, or servants in the chateau to keep them shipshape and spiffed up!

2 thoughts on “Coastal French Metals, Hardware & Finishes

  1. love the little details like door knobs and faucets. I also love the look of the glass lamp- I’d fill it with my sea glass collection. Do you know a good source for purchasing a lamp like it?

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Brandee Coleman Gilmore is a freelance journalist obsessed with Coastal French style, slow travel and finding the little joys in life.