How to Remove Tarnish

Hi there, everyone!

I know this isn't the most exciting title to post, but today I do want to talk about how to get rid of tarnish- tarnish on brass, that is!

Remember when I repainted this dresser from the thrift store and turned it into a TV stand here and here?

If you look closely at the handles above, you can tell that they have some tarnish on them. Actually, scratch that! They didn't just have a little bit of tarnish, but quite a bit of tarnish.

FYI- eventually I will paint the handles with more of a bronze color (which is kind of what they might look like in the picture already, but nope, it's tarnish, and I need to get rid of that before I paint them).

SO.......exactly how do you get rid of tarnish on brass?

Well, here are some quick steps you can follow.

Steps 1-3 are the before pictures of the TV stand and the handles, so I will skip to Step 4.

Step 4: My hubby, daughter, and I took a trip to Lowe's to find some tarnish remover and here is what we found!

Brasso from Lowe's


Okay, and now you can see with this close up of the handles that they are pretty dirty and need a good cleaning!!  :)

Step 5: To prepare, I laid down a tarp and got to work by laying out each handle individually.

And why I didn't take a picture of the handles out on the tarp, I'm not sure. But I promise I did use one!!

After the first couple of cleanings, here is how they began to look. I had to clean these things three different times, and while they aren't perfect, they are good enough.  :)

To clean each handle, I just took some paper towels, added some Brasso to the handles, and wiped off the tarnish with the towels.

And that's it! It was a pretty easy and semi-quick project to complete.

Again, I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the cleaning process, but you wouldn't want to see those anyways.  :)

Step 6: Here are our "shiny" new brass handles after they were reattached to the TV stand. 

I can't wait to paint them soon! I think I will go with a Rubbed Bronze glaze or something similar.

Step 7: A few more pictures of our new TV stand.

I guess this isn't really a "step" but I made it one anyways.  :)

And some more close-ups!

And here is the before and after picture...

 I'm not loving the original brass, but it's nothing a little paint can't fix!  :)

Hope to have these handles painted by the weekend!

Linking up here today.

Thanks for stopping by.