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Question: We renovated our kitchen 10 years ago in French country style. One of my favorite details is the “jewelry” we chose for the cabinet knobs and pulls. Over time, the antique-looking finish has worn off, especially on the most-used drawers and cabinets. This reveals a silvery metal beneath. The hardware is no longer available, so I can’t replace it. Is there a way to restore the finish?

Answer: There are several ways to perk up your hardware’s finish, depending on how much you want to pay.

For a new finish that nearly matches the original look, you could hire a company that does custom plating and refinishing, such as Metal Magic in Walkersville, Md. (metal magicrefinishing.com). Owner David Sisson looked at the pictures you sent and said the shiny metal peeking through shows that the hardware is plated rather than being solid brass or another metal. Virtually all modern cabinet hardware is plated, he said, because brass is too expensive.

Unfortunately, recreating an antique finish involves more steps, and thus more cost, than simply replating with a shiny metal. Sisson said he would need to sand the old finish off each piece on a buffing machine, then dunk it in a plating tank to coat it with copper, as a primer, followed by a coat of the final metal color. That would be brass for you, but he could plate the hardware with a topcoat of nickel, copper, silver or even gold.

“It doesn’t come out of the tank looking beautiful,” Sisson said. He would do more buffing and polishing, then immerse the piece in an oxidizer to give the brass a brown patina. The final steps would include more polishing and applying a clear coat to prevent fingerprints from blemishing the finish.

Hardware manufacturers have equipment that creates a realistic antique look, Sisson said. But refinishing small hardware is a custom job that requires a lot of work. Sisson estimated your cost at $60 per pull set. Yours are more intricate than most, for which he typically charges $50. If you skipped the antique treatment, you could save about $10 a pull. Refinishing each knob in an antique finish would cost about $25.

Kitchens often have dozens of handles and knobs, so at $25 to $60 per piece, this could really add up. For a less expensive option, you might be tempted to get a can of metallic spray paint and refinish them yourself. You can find lots of tips online about how to do this, but be forewarned: The rare web pages that include follow-up results after a year or so show that paint wears or flakes off heavy-use hardware. Sisson said it isn’t worth the effort.

Something close to that could be a good, cost-effective option, though. Have the pieces powder-coated rather than replated. Powder-coating deposits tiny bits of paint on a surface using electrical charges; it results in a uniform finish and is far more durable than regular paint. Preparing hardware for powder-coating costs less than prepping for plating because you don’t need to remove all of the old finish. The surface simply needs to be smoothed, usually by blasting it with a grainy material. Powder-coated finishes are available in many colors. If you chose a color such as dark bronze, you’d still have the intricately shaped hardware you love, and it would have a fresh finish. But the new finish would not look antique because powder-coating results in one color. If Metal Magic did the powder-coating, Sisson said, it probably would cost $30 per pull set and $12.50 per knob.

Or, if keeping the antique finish is more important than keeping the existing shapes, you could buy new hardware. Lee Valley Tools, which has an extensive online catalog at Leevalley.com, shows suites of hardware with coordinated handles and knobs. Styles with handles similar to yours include 17th Century and Triple Bead Suites I and II. But make sure the new handles have the same distance between screw holes as your current ones. Triple Suite II handles come in two sizes, 64 millimeters (just over 2½ inches, clearly too small) and 96 millimeters (about 3.8 inches). If the larger one works, each new handle in an antique brass finish would cost $11.30, or $9.60 if you order 10 or more. Each knob would cost $3 to $5.80, depending on the size and number you order.

Three Halloween fall decor projects are happening this week in Colorado Springs. Make a "Hocus Pocus" sign at Crafted Colorado Handmade Market on Oct. 20, paint a pumpkin to support The Unsteady Hand artist collective for people with Parkinson's on Oct. 21 at Art 111 Gallery Gallery & Supply, or paint a sugar skull mug with Color Me Mine at FH Beerworks' Colorado Springs taprooms on Nov. 1 and 2.