The Easy Way To Clean And Polish Copper

I have started decorating for fall. I know it’s early, but I have blog deadlines coming up soon that I need to get ready for. When I was thinking about the way I wanted to celebrate my favorite season this year, I only wanted to decorate with things that make me happy. I really want to be more conscious about everything that I bring into our home and that includes decor for every season and holiday.

Fall is all about neutral decor this year for me. Muted tones and textures will welcome the season with open arms. I went through three totes of fall decor and only kept a few things. Then, I decided to head out to some of my favorite thrift stores to see if I could get inspired for new fall decor. I found some amazing copper pieces that would be “neutral bling” in our fall home. The only problem was that they had lost their luster and needed a little “pick-me-up”. I found the easy way to Clean and Polish Copper and wanted to share it with you today in case you want to add more copper to your decor.

Let me start off by saying that I didn’t want my copper pieces to be really bright and shiny. I wanted them to retain some of the “dullness” they had, with a hint of sparkle. This easy way to clean and polish copper gave me that. 

I love metallic decor and add it to our home in small areas. In the fall, copper is my favorite metallic color. While at the thrift store, I found two beautiful mugs and a deer figure in copper.

They were a little dull, but that didn’t bother me. I liked that they looked “aged” but wanted them to be a little shinier. 

When I got home, I researched different ways to clean the copper and there was only one thing that worked for me.

Lemon and salt.

I started by using the lemon on its own.

That didn’t work.

Then, I tried sprinkling salt on a cut lemon and rubbing it on the copper.

That didn’t work.

Last, I made a paste with the salt and the lemon.

I put it on the copper and used a lemon-half to rub the paste all over the copper.

I let the pieces sit for about 10 minutes and rinsed the paste off and fully dried the pieces with a towel.

This method cleaned the copper and did bring out some of the shine on each of them. The mugs worked the best. I think if I would have let the paste sit longer, it would have gotten even shinier, but I didn’t want that.  

I don’t have a ton of copper in the house, but I like that there are a few pieces of sparkle in the decor. It was kind of fun to try different ways to clean and polish copper too. I like figuring out easy ways to things that I used to think were hard. It was easy and gave me the outcome I was looking for. Whenever I discover things like this, I love sharing them here in case you are looking for solutions to the same things.

The mugs could be filled with so many things for fall, but I wanted to add some of the dried hydrangeas from our backyard. 

I will be sharing more of my fall decor in a post coming up soon! It is always fun for me to decorate for a new season. It is a great excuse to get rid of all the things that aren’t working anymore and start off with a clean slate.

Do you decorate for fall? What are your favorite colors for the season?

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