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About a month ago I received an email from Elte announcing Kelly Wearstler’s new line of bedding with a prominent photo of said linens and a whole lot of brass, above left. Well, if it’s good enough for Kelly, it’s good enough for me.

Actually Mike and I have been “collecting” brass for the last few years. It started innocently enough; we wanted some bedside lamps to work with our gold headboard and brass seemed to hit the right note. After those lamps came another. Then another. And another.

Although brass has been making a comeback thanks to designers like Wearstler, there are still hoards of people who won’t go near it. Which is why it’s so easy to find on Craigslist and in junk shops.

Any child of the 1970s will remember the cheesy, decorative brass “plates”, above, embossed with renaissance hunting and drinking scenes — my Mom was a fan. When I had the bright idea to modernize a couple of brass-top coffee tables (here and here), I hadn’t considered what to do with the discarded trays, which are etched with fantastic patterns like the Islamic design, below right.

Maybe I’m kidding myself but our trays feel more legit than their ’70s cousins because they’re all real trays from India, North Africa, the Middle East. They’re large and heavy, the biggest one is more than three feet across. We decided to hang them in our stairwell which was a bit of a dead zone and could stand up to their enormous size. They sure add shine to the space.

Elsewhere, we have a brass bust of an Asian warrior and of course, there’s our Middle Eastern brass pendant light, which casts such magnificent shadows.

And as much as our home has become the house of brass, I’m still hankering for more. Last week, we dropped into Toronto’s Elliott & Ward where I saw an amazing pair of 1970s brass side tables with 1″ thick glass tops (below, $295 each). If I had the sheckles I know exactly where I’d put them.

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