We highly recommend mixing metals in your space for two big reasons:

It makes the space feel layered and collected, rather than straight from a list, and

It gives you flexibility over time. If you have more than one metal in a space, you don't have to stand in the aisle at Home Goods having an identity crisis about whether you can bring brass gadgets into your room without it looking out of place. You have a palette of finishes to play with.

But there's an art to it. There are a few metals that really don't go together, and some look better together than alone. Let's go over them!

1 - UNDERSTAND UNDERTONES

Undertones are SO CRITICAL when choosing metal finishes, paint colors, and basically any material. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, an undertone is the color underneath the color you’re looking at. Gray is a great example. Have you ever picked a gray paint and put it on a wall and it turned lavender? That means it has a purple undertone. Or did it turn greenish? Yes, a green undertone is the culprit. Almost every material has some kind of undertone that you need to recognize.

Warm undertones can be found in brushed brass, gold, polished nickel, brushed nickel, and copper.

Matte black has a neutral undertone.

Cool undertones are found in polished chrome, silver and stainless steel.

T This is critical because it leads to rule #1 of mixing metals – when in doubt, stick to the same base tones.

Cool undertones and warm undertones often don't go well together. Stick to the same undertone for a consistent result.

You can use matte black as a wild card - its base tone is neutral and works with both warm and cool base tones.

Top tip – never, ever, EVER mix chrome and nickel. They are both shades of silver, but with different undertones, and they look terrible together.

2 – MIXING SURFACES

Brushed, satin, polished, hammered, matte – these all work too. In our book, you can mix these pretty freely! Polished nickel or chrome look great with matte black. Hammered copper works with satin oil-rubbed bronze. Satin antique brass works with polished nickel.

The only thing we don’t recommend – mixing two finishes of the same color. For example, don’t mix polished nickel and brushed nickel – it will look like you tried to make them all match and failed.

Rule #2 – if your metals are different, you can mix the finishes.

3 – HOW MANY METALS TO MIX

Rule #3 when mixing metals – always 2, but no more than 3 surfaces. This creates a layered space that still feels cohesive and purposeful. When you go beyond 3 metal surfaces, you end up with an eclectic style. If eclectic is your thing, go for it! But if your goal is to create a cohesive, well-put-together space, stick to 2-3.

Here are our favorite combinations!

Brushed brass + polished nickel

Matte black + gold or brass

Matte black + nickel

Matte black + gold or brass + nickel