Considering its commitment to quality, craftsmanship and creating authentic products that last, Southern California–based Newport Brass doesn’t introduce new designs lightly—quite literally. A pleasing weightiness, to both the eye and the touch, characterizes all its products, giving them undeniable presence. “We know that when people bring them into their homes, they’re going to have them for a very long time, and we want them to be as excited decades later as they are on day one,” says Chris Wilson, the brand’s principal design and development manager. To achieve such longevity, Newport Brass doesn’t lose a moment chasing trends. Its releases for spring 2026—which include the Kimbell bath collection, the Pardees kitchen collection, and whisper-slim showerheads—share a sense of timelessness. Function is paramount, with meticulously proportioned forms accentuated by precise, hand-applied details that echo the spirit of grand design movements gone by without ever blatantly mimicking them. It’s a balance that’s in the brand’s bones: “Newport” refers to both the relaxed, accessible aesthetic of its home state’s iconic harbor and the heritage of its Rhode Island counterpart.
“As European traditions in art and design traveled from the East Coast across the country to California, they got distilled down into their core essence,” says Wilson. “What the West Coast does well is bring a refined chill to previously elaborate constructions.” Dispatching with overwrought ornamentation so that only the most essential decorative elements remain, Newport Brass crafts a narrative of intentionality, simplicity and restraint. No matter the style, the story always starts with the substance that makes up the second half of its name.
POLISHED TO PERFECTION
“We begin with brass,” says Wilson. “There’s nothing more durable.” Historically used for items exposed to water and air, this integral substrate anchors the brand’s entire portfolio, giving each design heft in the hand and permanence in the home. Forged from solid brass, the various silhouettes make powerful statements on their own, but their base material, he adds, “allows us to proliferate our 22 hand-applied finishes.” The choices range from burnished Antique Copper and glamorous French Gold to rich Oil Rubbed Bronze and scintillating Stainless Steel, each giving handles, showerheads and spouts a special glean. Sparkling like jewelry, the pieces reflect light throughout a room—and in the case of Uncoated Polished Living Brass, patinate with age.
Trends may be ephemeral, but Newport Brass does accommodate a spectrum of tastes. “There’s a cyclicality to preferences,” notes Wilson. “Finishes that are popular today—Polished Nickel comes to mind—maybe weren’t 10 years ago.” Upon its introduction, matte black was celebrated as urban and cutting-edge. No longer the new kid on the block, it’s now an alternative neutral. “Matte black had an interesting impact on oil-rubbed and Venetian bronzes—darker finishes with reflectivity and nuance,” he says. The pendulum is swinging back to such weathered brown and beige tones that foster an ambience of warmth, which explains why golds are currently coveted. “One staple replaces another,” he adds. But there will always be a place for can’t-go-wrong classics: Chrome—“perhaps the purest expression of finish for a faucet,” per Wilson—is a perennial pick. Particularly for a bathroom.
KIMBELL’S INDUSTRIAL KNURLING
The latest entry to Newport Brass’s bath offerings, Kimbell presents a comprehensive, architecturally driven assortment characterized by its structure, scale and materiality. Expressing an industrial influence, the collection gives a grounding touch of gravitas to contemporary interiors. “The pieces feel like they weigh approximately a thousand pounds,” jokes Wilson. Belying their substantive bodies, the smooth cylindrical forms are accented with in-house knurled details that deliver irresistibly tactile interest.
“Knurling is a crosshatch design where two lines come together perpendicularly,” he explains. “But the knurling in Kimbell is so delicate that when you run your hand over it, you can hardly feel it at all. It’s breathtaking visually, but it’s not disruptive like on an old wrench you’d find in your grandfather’s garage.” Back in grandpa’s day, knurling served a practical purpose, providing a tighter grip for motor oil–coated mitts, and the same intuitive impulse to reach out and touch the texture carries through to the bathroom collection. “It’s a nice way to interact with the fixtures,” says Wilson. The juxtaposition of subtle decoration with brass mass epitomizes the brand’s elevated, occasionally playfully contrarian, approach to craftsmanship. “Kimbell is a fun style mashup,” he continues. “Well-proportioned. When it comes to industrial designs, how often do you think, ‘Wow, I love those slender and dainty products!’?”
The collection includes lavatory faucets, tub fillers, trim plates, bidets, and lever and—Wilson’s personal favorite—cross handles. Commonly associated with more traditional looks, the latter translates to modern spaces in its Kimbell iteration. “No rule is hard-and-fast when it comes to plumbing, and an industrial version challenges conventions in a way that enhances and improves the product,” he says. Which is not to suggest it was an easy adaptation. The extensive knurling demanded mathematical alignment, impeccable uniformity and consistent depth, all executed at Newport Brass’s Southern California facilities. “Manufacturing the cross handle so that all those lines are perfect gave our engineering team a lot of sleepless nights,” he recalls. A self-described perfectionist, his own expectations kept him awake too. “I’m always determined to do the design justice,” he admits.
THE JEWEL-LIKE DETAILS OF PARDEES
In the kitchen, the new Pardees suite brings sleek minimalism plus selective ornamentation to an array of graceful, curvaceous faucets, water dispensers, pot fillers and side sprays. An expansion of the brand’s popular bathroom series, the pieces combine distinctive detailing with clean, elegant lines. Tall, precision-cut coining—picture the edges of a dime, elongated—defines each silhouette, imbuing the allure of fine jewelry into the heart of the home. “Pardees is a style chameleon, working well across both modern-leaning and more traditional spaces,” says Wilson. Evoking ancient Persia, it takes inspiration from the sublime geometry of courtyard gardens of paradise.
“The peaks and valleys of the coining, especially in a mirrored finish, endlessly capture and reflect light, catching the eye”—an effect Wilson describes as both welcoming and wonderfully intuitive. “Due to the well-considered positions of these decorative ridges, your hands instinctively know where to go,” he explains. On the Pardees bridge faucet, coining on the pulldown spout and the hubs of the two lever handles flanking it creates a triangle of textural touchpoints that attracts through its symmetry, “drawing you in.” The piece aptly symbolizes Newport Brass’s attitude toward ornamentation: Applied sparingly, with intention and restraint, it’s much more impactful. “There’s nothing over the top; nothing that feels extra or incremental or out of place,” says Wilson. “Everything belongs.”
Coining throughout the collection provokes a sensory response as well. Run your fingertips over the ridges, and the tiny vibrations reverberate all the way up your arm. “It’s almost rhythmic,” he muses, “and honestly a little childlike, which is fun.”
SPRINGTIME ALIGNMENT
Alongside the releases of Kimbell and Pardees, Newport Brass has refreshed a few of its most popular collections this spring as part of its 2026 product roadmap. Among the extensions is a new category: slim showerheads. “They’re an exciting engineering challenge, and they make a lot of sense,” says Wilson. With a paradoxically bigger spray face of 11.5 inches in round or square profiles, Newport Brass’s new designs provide broader coverage for a more indulgent, rainfall-inspired experience, but their slender silhouettes keep the spotlight on veined marble or mosaic tile walls. “You get that task component but can still luxuriate in the rest of the space, spending too long in the morning standing and thinking underneath the stream.”
The East Linear and Taft lines now include midheight lavatory spouts, and Taft also offers a bridge faucet with side spray, while the Heaney collection has added pull-down kitchen and prep faucets with paddle-style handles. “Taking into account the focus on larger farm- or galley-style setups—we have a customer who recently bought an 8-foot-long kitchen sink—a pair of Taft bridge faucets beautifully suits a more widespread horizontal configuration,” he explains. “And for folks who are more space-constrained, the Heaney pull-down is easy, simple and compact.” The new pieces allow designers greater flexibility to address different needs, tailoring solutions to every type of kitchen or bath.
“The primary kitchen is where you put that statement design, at your show sink,” Wilson continues. “Behind it may be a butler’s pantry or prep or spice kitchen, plus a coffee station and a cocktail bar.” Within each of its collections, Newport Brass has complementary products scaled to these individual sections that together present a cohesive appearance. “When you’ve got a thousand-dollar bottle of bourbon at your wet bar, you don’t want your guests distracted by a disproportionately massive pulldown faucet above a diminutive sink,” he remarks. Rather, the just-right-sized fixture, finished in gleaming gold or bronze, should cast a little light on the enticing amber liquid.
Regardless of whether they’re scaled to accentuate a shower stall, soaking tub or double-wide kitchen sink, Newport Brass’s designs will always make an impression. Their inherent solidity, sculptural shapes, deliberate details and appealing polishes ensure they’re not only in alignment with a lot of different aesthetics but also built to last. “While nothing in our design and manufacturing process is necessarily easy, faucets and fixtures are simple machines,” he notes. “You turn a handle and the water comes out. Sometimes it’s cold. Sometimes it’s hot.” But beyond fulfilling that basic function, the brand’s pieces answer a more emotional need for beauty and dependability. “They integrate gracefully into a home,” says Wilson, evoking one of Newport Brass’s core tenets. “They have a certain presence.”
This story is a paid promotion and was created in partnership with Newport Brass.
Homepage image: Knurling adds tactile interest and dimensionality to Kimbell cross handles in Polished Nickel Natural finish | Courtesy of Newport Brass
