The Arts & Crafts furniture movement is associated with elegant oak bedroom furniture and beautiful wood dining room furniture. However, wood isn’t the only material associated with the era, during the American Arts and Crafts movement. Finer and more attractive than iron, less expensive and easier to work with than silver, copper became the leading metal for decorative ornamentation during the American Arts and Crafts movement. Hand-hammered lamps, chargers, candlesticks, and other decorative wares have become iconic collectibles, but it’s important to remember that copper is also an exemplary material for architectural use. Copper sheeting is perfect for crafting the best downspouts, half-round gutters, and flashing. Copper truly straddles the line between function and art. The stunning, motto-embossed fireplace hoods at Craftsman Farms are considered among the era’s most memorable works.

As the oldest metal in use, copper is enjoying renewed popularity almost everywhere in and around the house. Reproduction copper and mica lamps and copper basins appropriate for either the pantry or the garden are becoming more and more common in modern décor. There are many beautiful reproductions of the objets d’art so fondly associated with the original movement. But we are increasingly also seeing the use of copper for functional items like range hoods, sinks, lighting, and architectural trim, a trend that is far more persuasive today than it was a hundred years ago.Even the most utilitarian of these functional items can be beautifully decorated. A notable example is architectural copper used on the roof, with its embossed leader heads and ornamented rope-style downspouts.

You can most readily find copper in the kitchen. Especially popular are hammered copper sinks. These heavy-gauge copper sinks are usually chemically patinated to stabilize the finish. For a dramatic look, choose a copper range or fireplace hood.

Another great place for copper is in faucets and decorative hardware. These fittings are constructed from brass and bronze, and then a coppery-hued finish is chemically applied. As a fairly soft metal, copper will develop an attractive patina or coloration when left on its own. But fingerprints and other human contact will make it blotchy and unattractive. This is the reason for patination, which is a stable coating that creates the look of age.

Copper provides a beautiful medium out of which decorative lamps and light fixtures can be crafted, especially when paired with mica or art glass and treated to an artist’s hand hammering and patination. These days, hammered finishes are fairly common in reproduction vases, chargers, and other tabletop accessories, but you need to be aware that some work is better than others. The Michoacán region in Mexico is considered a great source of affordable hand-worked copper. Closer to home, many artisans produce closely copied period reproductions of chargers, candlesticks, vessels and the like, and imbue them with their own sense of the Arts and Crafts spirit. Other artisans have branched out, incorporating techniques such as Repoussé, where the piece is hand-worked and hand-tooled in order to create more figural, three-dimensional results. Approaches like this require a superior level of craftsmanship.

Copper is also becoming increasingly popular in the garden. Copper basins are perfect for birdbaths and fountains, and copper is also stunning in the water-channeling devices known as rain chains, which have channeld and stored rain water for hundreds of years. Frank Lloyd Wright, for instance, incorporated a sculptured rain chain in one of his Usonian houses. In any garden, these long linear skeins of rings, inverted bells, or fluted cups are certainly both useful and beautiful.