Well-selected lighting and plumbing fixtures are the jewelry of the home. At least this is how I view them. So I think naturally the trends we see in jewelry, we’ll also see sometimes picked up in a pendant light or a faucet. (I don’t think this relationship works as well in reverse, though to their credit the marketing minds at Moen have tried the whole faucet-as-necklace look…but I digress)
I’m talking about rose gold. Specifically, rose gold on beautiful, clean, and contemporary shapes. This interesting tone is produced by mixing yellow gold with copper, and after a strong run the last 2 years in jewelry and watches, we are now seeing it as an available finish in some higher-end home products. I think this finish is catching on in fixtures right now in part because of this decade’s continued “warming-up” of contemporary interior design. We’re over the chrome, with glass, with leather, with more chrome definition of contemporary. We crave something a little warmer and more sensual, but still gravitate to clean lines and uncluttered forms. Hence the recent resurgences of bronze, copper, brass… and now rose gold, as finishes.
Dornbracht introduced its 18 karat rose gold “Cyprum” finish this year, which is stunning in all the clean and contemporary lines Dornbracht is known for, and I think it makes the now almost ubiquitous MEM arc faucet look all new and fresh again. I gasped out loud just like I remember doing 10 years ago when I saw its elegant shape in chrome for the very first time.
I wouldn’t say rose gold is by any means a use-everywhere finish. It’s not even a use-everywhere-in-the-same-room-and-make-all-your-fixtures-match finish. Like this Movado BOLD rose gold watch, this is for a statement piece in the home, and like this Tiffany & Co.’s Elsa Peretti Wave bracelet I wouldn’t hesitate to use it in the same room with chrome and silver-tones. For an occasional warmer alternative to chrome, I think rose gold is a strong option. Look how gorgeous it shows against warm, earthy travertine.
I admit I’m also intrigued by the opportunity to let rose gold go where yellow gold or brass just can’t, or shouldn’t. Back to the contemporary faucet example, put that same fixture in polished yellow gold and hello, Miami Vice. Try rose gold, and you just might be on to something.