How to faux paint a brass patina

The kick plate on my front door was shiny brass, even though the rest of the hardware had developed a nice patina over the years. I’m not sure if this style of door is even supposed to have a kick plate, but because of the visible damage on the door itself, I had to put it back. But I wasn’t going to put it back shiny. No, ma’am.

I suspected it was just laquered, and thus protected from weathering. But after stripping it and a failed attempt to speed the oxidization process with vinegar, I realized it was probably plated brass, which apparently doesn’t oxidize.

At this point, my only option to make the plate match was faux painting it to look like patinaed brass. Brass is made of copper and zinc, so the patina takes on a greenish cast like that of copper. There might be products out there (glazes, etc.) that do the same thing, but I already had the paint and thought I would give that a try first.

I experimented with a bunch of different blacks, browns, golds and greens on the backside of the kick plate and finally found a winning combination that matched the rest of the hardware close enough.

The recipe I came up with started with a base coat of a deep brown. (The paint I had on hand has yellowish undertones.)

After that was dry, I mixed up a very, very watery medium green wash. (The same green I used for this chair and this table… similar to the color of copper patina.) And spread that thinly.

A few super thin coats of the watery green and a lot of blending, and I got a good approximation of a natural brass patina. After all was done, I sprayed it with an exterior clear coat.

I didn’t do anything to the existing brass screws, but the new finish matches them almost perfectly.