Black, chrome or brass letterbox?: Choosing the right finish for your front door

Are you drawn to the timeless elegance of a brass letterbox, the modernity of a satin chrome letterbox, or the rustic texture of pewter finishes? Finishing touches become the focal point of your front door, and choosing the right letterbox is a decision that requires time and consideration, so let’s explore the different options available and how each one will impact the look and finish of your entryway.

Finishes

Before picking out the best finishes for your door, let’s take a look at what the different features are, including:

• Letter Plate: This is an opening on the door or wall through which mail is delivered, often flanked by a decorative or protective flap.

• Letter Plate Cover: Found on the interior side, this feature serves to conceal the physical letterbox, enhance privacy, and reduce drafts

• Letterbox: This can be standalone or integrated into the door, and offers a secure way to receive mail.

These fixtures are all important features of a door, and together they allow a household to receive correspondence without security risks, ensuring that your letterbox not only looks great but also stands up to the elements and meets your security needs.

Styles

Once you’ve decided on the features that you want to include in your door, it’s time to start thinking about how you want the end result to look and what styles you will need to achieve this. 

Selecting the perfect letterbox is more than a matter of functionality; it's a statement of style and personal taste, and your choice can significantly influence the overall look of your home, so let’s explore the different styles available.

Aged Styles

Aged finishes, including brass and bronze, create a welcoming finish for a home’s entrance, complimenting both contemporary and classic door designs.

Our aged bronze features, manufactured from solid bronze, offer a very dark, rich colour that adds character and depth to any door. Each piece has a unique texture and colour, due to the processes we use to age the metal, and to preserve this intense finish we finish each piece off with a durable matt lacquer, which enhances the durability of these features and makes them the perfect practical choice. 

Our aged brass features are a similarly attractive option for different door types, offering unparalleled charm and long-lasting character. They are made from solid unlacquered brass, and are the perfect choice for more traditionally-styled doors and homes, thanks to the unique finish created by our accelerated ageing process. This process causes a darker patina to form on our brass letterboxes, usually around the edges and lines, which offers a characterful contrast with the well-polished finish, and ensures that no two brass letter plates, covers, or boxes are the same.

Beeswax

Our beeswax fixtures, all unique to From the Anvil, stand out for their natural, understated elegance, and are much visually softer options than some of our other fixtures. Crafted from anti-corrosive beeswax, this unique finish offers a rich matt look and a colour palette that spans from blue to a deep red ochre, offering a distinctive depth that is not found in standard treatments.

This process leaves our beeswax products with a natural-looking finish that is a much softer alternative to the harsher aesthetic of black powder coatings, and the gentle sheen provides a warm, inviting touch to any entrance, blending seamlessly with a range of architectural styles and door materials.

Black

Whilst black can be considered an overly safe, potentially uninspiring finish, the subtle sheen of our black letterbox furniture provides a striking contrast against any door. Applied to a solid steel base and baked in a high-temperature oven, the black finish develops a subtle patina that accentuates its clean silhouette and offers durable, corrosion-resistant properties.

This finish works best when incorporated into traditional settings, such as stained or painted timber, whilst our matt black fixtures offer a more distinct contemporary look that suits more modern entrance ways. Particularly impactful in composite or uPVC doors, our matt black letterboxes are designed to add the perfect finishing touch to your redesign project, so explore our black letter plate, box, and plate cover range today.

Polished Styles

For a more elegant, refined-looking letterbox, our polished range offers a sleek, reflective quality that captures the light and reflects the daylight for a brilliant shine. Each style brings its unique character to any home improvement or redesign project, and all of our polished surfaces are manufactured to protect against corrosion and tarnishing, ensuring a long-lasting addition to many different architectural styles. 

Our polished brass and bronze fixtures exude a warm, classic appeal, with our brass letterboxes being made from solid unlacquered brass and polished for a long-lasting reflective surface or a naturally-aged look, depending upon your preferences. Our bronze finishes are made from solid bronze, which is firstly aged and then repolished, for a subtle contrast that runs throughout the lighter and darker areas, and finished with a durable lacquer to prevent deterioration. 

Our polished chrome, stainless steel, and nickel features contrast this aged, classic look with a cooler, more contemporary finish that allows these polished metals to shine. Our chrome letterbox products are crafted from solid brass with a chrome plating, offering a high sheen and a bright, reflective surface, whilst our versatile marine stainless steel pairs well with both warm and cool tones, complimented by our polished chrome features. Finally, our polished nickel is a single layer of plating on solid brass, producing a bright, reflective surface that offers a warm, subtle glow that cannot be replicated by other finishes.

Satin Styles

Satin letterbox furniture, with its elegant, matt finish, is perfect for those looking to create an understated and functional entranceway, as satin finishes minimise fingerprints and smudges for a clean appearance with minimal maintenance. 

Made from solid brass with chrome plating, our satin chrome fixtures provide a matt alternative to our polished chrome letterbox furniture. Favoured for its understated, less reflective quality, as well as its ability to pair well with our satin marine stainless steel, these fixtures are high in chromium and nickel content, offering outstanding corrosion resistance and a matt finish that compliments cool design tones. 

Finally, our satin brass also offers a distinctive matt appearance but stands out with its rich, warm undertones, which is achieved through a thorough brush with a satin wheel and a lacquer finish.

Pewter

Our pewter letterbox fixtures are manufactured using processes that showcase the natural charm of steel and result in a rustic, textured finish. Forged from a durable steel base, our unique manufacturing techniques result in contrasting textures which allows each finished fixture to stand alone as a feature piece in any entrance way.

Choosing the right black, chrome, or brass letterbox

Make an excellent first impression on anyone who visits your home with our chrome, bronze, and brass letterbox range. Whether you are looking to add character, depth, or unparalleled shine to your front door, selecting the perfect combination can transform your entrance into a welcoming statement, so explore our full range today and find the perfect chrome or brass letterbox for your home.