Polished Brass Platter – from Trash to Treasure

Digging through my diy “stash” in the garage a few months ago I pulled an ugly looking platter out of the cabinet.  It was gross and grungy.  And honestly, I don’t even know where I got it.  It might have been included with a bunch of stuff at a yard sale or thrift store.  But seriously it was so gross I’m sure I wouldn’t have bought it on purpose.  I decided to do a little work on it before I tossed it in the donation box.  Turns out, there was pretty under the crud so today I’m going to show you how beautifully polished brass turns that trash into treasure.

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Normally I would search for the best way to polish brass with natural products but after reading the ingredient list online I feel comfortable using brasso.  One note, because it contains ammonia do not use this in your house.  If you’ve never polished brass before do so in the garage with the door cracked for ventilation.

This picture does it too much justice, it looked a lot worse in person.  You can see in the pic above where I gave it the tiny polish to see what was under all that crud.

I followed the directions on the Brasso bottle and shook it up well.  Instead of spreading it on the rag I opted instead to spread on a first coat with a chip brush.  Almost immediately the creamy color brasso started turning blue.

I let it sit for about 10 minutes and let it work before returning to wipe it off with the cloth.  Here’s what it looked like after an easy wipe of the cloth.  Much better but not perfect yet.

I applied another light coat and let it sit for a few more minutes.  After wiping that layer off I began really giving it some elbow grease and the beauty of the treasure really started to shine.  Even with the yucky black spots on the same cloth it was really shining.  Applying some fresh brasso to clean sections of the cloth I polished until I thought it couldn’t get any prettier.

I finished up the polished brass with a clean cloth to buff and polish the platter until it was ready for its new home.

I just started experimenting with mixed metals and gain more confidence in how it looks all the time.  While the Living Room Shelves may not be the permanent home this intricate polished brass platter looks good next to the simple gold elephant.

In this close up so you can see all the beautiful details.  I love the little birds and temples that circle the platter.  As best as I can tell this was made in India.  There are no markings on the back so it’s hard to know for sure.

Don’t forget to Pin it, and for more Decor Inspiration follow my Decor Board on Pinterest.

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