Metal

Metal finishes are applied to furniture, joinery and architectural components in steel, brass, aluminium and stainless steel. The base metal is selected for its mechanical properties — steel for structural elements, brass for hardware and fittings, aluminium where weight is a factor. The finish is built on top: polished to mirror, brushed to a hairline, chemically aged and patinated, or coated to a specified colour or alloy appearance.

PVD coating — physical vapour deposition — deposits ionised metal vapour onto the surface at the molecular level, producing a finish in brass, gold, chrome, black or nickel that is harder than the base metal itself. It resists scratching, tarnishing and repeated cleaning at a level that electroplating cannot match. PVD is specified for furniture hardware, handles, architectural ironmongery and components that receive regular contact.

PVD on stainless steel is also the specification choice where a brass, bronze or nickel appearance is required on a structural element — a frame, leg or base that needs to carry load. Brass is a soft metal and cannot reliably fulfil that structural function. Stainless steel, polished and then PVD-coated, delivers the same surface appearance at lower cost than fabricating in solid brass, with the mechanical properties of steel retained beneath.

Powder coating applies a dry powder electrostatically to mild steel or aluminium, then cures it under heat to produce a finish harder and more impact-resistant than liquid paint. It can be matched to any RAL or NCS reference and is suitable for external architectural metalwork, furniture frames and joinery hardware where durability and colour consistency are both required.

Patinated finishes — burnished bronze, antiqued silver, aged steel — are built by hand through chemical treatment, burnishing and wax sealing. No two pieces are identical. The character of a patinated finish deepens over time and can be specified at varying degrees of distress, from lightly aged to heavily worked.