It's May 2003 and the June issue of House & Garden is landing on newsstands across the globe. Inside? A filmmaker's Bermondsey loft, a sensitively developed Gloucestershire garden, and a selection of pretty, botanical-themed tiles. Also inside: a wealth of chrome, silver and stainless steel. The issue's shopping pages feature striking silver pieces set against a dark mahogany backdrop. A crisply tailored flat in Chelsea is complete with a Thirties chrome and ebonised wood coffee table, steel slips around the fireplace, and a bathroom with all-chrome hardware. A second house, in Knightsbridge, showcases a Fifties American glass and steel table alongside a silver bowl filled with hydrangeas. The issue is symptomatic of the noughties' love of chrome fittings, and of silver as the preferred metal accent. It's a trend that, come the 2010s, was subsumed by a love of brass. But recently we've noticed a reversal occurring: silver is well and truly back.
Earlier in the year, we canvassed the House & Garden team, asking what trends our editors thought 2025 would bring. Our Style Director, Ruth Sleightholme, said: “Across surfaces, hardware and even hanging pots and pans, it looks like silver and chrome fittings are back, with bronze and copper taking a well earned rest for a while.” Our editor, Hatta Byng, took the commitment one step further, opting for chrome fittings in the bathroom and kitchen of her newly renovated house. From the shower hardware, to the kitchen tap and wall lights, the through-line of her house is striking silver.
The return to cool-toned metals is one that interiors writer Eleanor Cording-Booth has noted too. “Our lust for stainless steel kitchens has continued for another year and we have extended our love of the metal into the rest of our homes. The newly converted have begun to trade their previously-favoured brass for nickel, aluminium and chrome. We’ve seen the silver resurgence with hardware and decorative accessories such as candle holders, lamps, slim aluminium frames for artwork, plus vases and indoor planters. The latter two are especially striking when the organic form of natural greenery is juxtaposed against shiny silver metal.”
It's a trend that we have recognised in the pages of the magazine too, as more designers and houses across the globe replace beloved brass with cool chrome. One such example is interior designer Charlotte Boundy, who likes to use a measured dose of silver in her projects. In a Victorian house in Oxford, a stainless steel bath tub elevates the more traditional feeling bathroom, and in Charlotte's own house in Shepherd's Bush, the use of pops of silver in unexpected places, such as the pendant light in her study, keeps any stuffiness out of the room.
It's not just in kitchens and bathrooms that silver is sneaking back either. In Zoe Zimmer's Notting Hill flat, chrome takes centre stage. In the hybrid sitting and dining room, Zoe has employed silver slips either side of the fireplace, as well as choosing a steely silver for the grate itself, lending the space a casual glamour. Her chosen dining chairs, the ‘Cesca’ model by Marcel Breuer, are a charming mix of chrome and wicker.
It seems that steel, silver and chrome are permeating product design as well as interior design, with the launch of Buchanan studio's latest collection. Released at the end of 2024, the ‘Daydream’ collection features a range of steel dining tables, side tables and an ottoman. Named after the material's often “surreal reflections”, the collection is a celebration of its “beauty and versatility, as well its recurrence in Buchanan Studio projects.”
Of course, it is not solely an aesthetic turn that's causing a return to chrome, but a practical and financial one too. Typically, chrome hardware is more accessibly priced than polished or brushed brass and the cost of maintaining it is lower too. Interior designer Sarah Peake notes, “I love brass and how it ages over time, but decided on polished chrome in all my bathrooms for practicality – it is so easy to keep clean – and money saving.”
For those concerned with choosing a particular metal in their house, we'll leave you with sage advice from the ever-practical Rita Konig. She says, “I never worry too much about committing to one metal throughout a room - you never notice, but when it is all painstakingly matched chrome or brass, it can result in a rather too uniform look. It's good to have a bit of a combination, but take your time to find the right pieces because they are surprisingly important to a room.”
