Hooked on… copper!

Kelly @ JAX Decor & Design

Thanks to Julia at Hooked on Houses for hosting another Hooked on Fridays :-)

I’ve been hooked on copper for a long time — ever since I was totally into southwest design and went on a holiday to Arizona in 1990. Not so much into southwest design now, but I still love copper — especially when it’s bright and shiny and new and has a beautiful warm glow :-) The verdigris (green patina) it acquires with age is beautiful too. Like on the roofs of the Parliament Buildings (center background) and the Chateau Laurier (right foreground) in Ottawa (photo from www.flickr.com).

Parts of the Chateau Laurier roof were recently replaced with new copper, so it has a nice combination of shiny & verdigris copper. This layer of verdigris is formed by the reaction of air with copper and has a protective effect against further corrosion.

Just a little Copper 101 courtesy of Wikipedia. Don’t worry, this is a very non-scientific overview, not university chemistry!! ;-)

Chemical element symbol: Cu (Latin: cuprum)

In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, hence the origin of the name Cyprium (metal of Cyprus), later shortened to Cuprum.

Copper has a history of use that’s at least 10,000 years old. In Europe, Ötzi the Iceman, a well-preserved male dated to 3300-3200 BC, was found with an axe with a copper head 99.7% pure.

The Earth has an estimated 61 years of copper reserves remaining.

Copper is:

• An essential trace nutrient to all high plant and animal life, including humans. Found primarily in the bloodstream.
• A ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
• Anti-germ/anti-bacterial.
• Used for piping, electronics, architecture, biomedical applications, household products, and coins. By weight, US nickels are actually 25% nickel and 75% copper.

OK, that’s your copper lesson for the day :-) Now let’s take a look at copper used in beautiful ways… like the roofs on these two houses…

Two pictures above from ornametals.com

And a chimney…

copperexclusive.com

Moving indoors, copper is beautiful in the kitchen. Not only does it add warmth to a space, but because it’s anti-bacterial, it’s great for countertops. And the cool thing is that the appearance will change with the patina over time. I read somewhere that you can bring back the original copper colour by cleaning it with ketchup!

trendir.com  empiresheetmetal.com	furniturestoreblog.com
homesbyrexbrown.com   concordsheetmetal.com	concordsheetmetal.com

A beautiful copper vent hood…

 trendir.com

A serious (and expensive!!) copper stove from La Cornue in France…

Small copper kitchen accessories too…         

thisoldhouse.com

Copper sink with wall-mounted faucet in the bathroom…

archiexpo.com

And some copper pedestal sinks (all remaining sink & tub pictures from www.trendir.com)…

Even a copper whirlpool tub!!

And funky copper bar sinks…

 

I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to use copper in our house. I’d LOVE to have a copper faucet in the kitchen. Maybe a copper countertop too. But for now, these small touches of copper will have to do…

I really would have rather replaced the cabinets than just the door & drawer handles — but even with 47 handles to replace, that was the cheaper option!! ;-) I used brushed copper handles on the doors and pulls on the drawers. The styles are different, but the same finish ties them together.

 

	Not really copper — closer to oil rubbed bronze. But on both pieces, copper shows through from under the darker colour.
	The switch plate cover isn’t really copper. I painted a regular plastic white switch plate cover with metallic copper paint, rubbed on some burnt umber paint to make it look a bit aged, and finished it with a couple of coats of sealer. 7 years later, it’s still in great shape!!

Oh, and I can’t forget… Rosa, the copper-coloured horse!!

So there you go — warm & wonderful copper outside and inside, in all different shapes and sizes :-)

Now head on back to Hooked on Houses to see what everyone else is hooked on this Friday…