OK, so I'm delving into an area that I know little about now... DECORATING. Weekend before last, SWMBO and I ran up to this salvage place and found a door for my bedroom closet, along with some doorknobs and rosettes to match the rest of the house. Now in the rest of the house, where I've been replacing wiring devices, I've been replacing them with white Decora, per SWMBO. However, my own personal tastes are a little more conservative; the little bedroom is MY ROOM and I'm doing it up old school, with an Oriental rug and as much as I can, fixtures roughly appropriate to the age of the house (1948.) I've already located some of the real deal .040" thick brass receptacle and switch plates with the nice crisp corners, and the wiring devices in that room will be brown as would be typical. (never mind that this particular house is, um, inexpensive enough that it would likely have had ribbed Bakelite or other plastic plates, I'm exercising a little artistic license here.)
Question is this. Some well meaning sort polished and lacquered the plates for me already, and the knobs will have to be polished before they are installed as they were lacquered as well but the lacquer wore off in some places and is crazing in others. The brass in the rest of the house (appears to have been originally unlacquered) has a nice brown patina which SWMBO says she likes better than bright brass, and I tend to agree with her. Is there some easy chemical means to acquire such a patina, or should I just strip everything and polish it bright, install it, and ignore it for a couple decades?
Sidebar question - the rosettes I picked up were brass plated steel. Is this something that one could re-electroplate at home, or would it be best to send them to a professional plating shop? I do have the capability to electrolytically derust them and also have the ability to buff them if a copper undercoat is required. The sum total of my knowledge of plating is due entirely to my experience restoring old cars, where I just send stuff off to the chrome shop (well, I did have two little emblems gold electroplated for my '62 Stude hardtop, as reproductions were not available, but I paid someone to do that as well.)
thanks,
nate