What color goes with polished gold brass fixtures?

I would recomend moving away from that polished gold brass. If you do it one room at a time you can approach the cost easily. We started with the master bath and changed out the fixtures and faucets, and then moved to the door knobs in the house, and then did the rest of the light fixtures after that. We actually kept the gold for the front door and the kick plate. I would not invest any money in gold brass fixtures or hardware at all. If you don't have the money now, go ahead and paint and everything how you want it. You can change the faucets and lighting to match the paint later. Go with oil rubbed bronze or like a brushed nickle finish. Those are very instyle and will update the whole look of the house. But yes, before you sell you need to have all the hardware match. It is not so important for like a powder room or guest room, but the over all house should match. You can do different things with the powder room or guest room.

I do think they should all match in the same room, but not necessarily in the whole house. I have an upstairs bath in cream and black toile, and the sconces are brushed nickle as are the faucets, doorknobs, shower curtain and drapery hardware.
We just did our downstairs bath in chili pepper red and cream, with antique bronze fixtures and hardware.
The color palette in each bath was reflected in the choice of metal finish.
If you were buying a new house, you would expect the builder to match them all, as he hasn't known what you would want in the first place, so for the sake of unity, he would match it all. But what you want is a reflection of your decorating style and color choice in each room

if you are very careful, you can use steel wool and get a brushed look. it will at least tone it down.

by rubbing the item (light fixture or faucets) very gently in one direction you will get the brushed effect. try it on something inconspicuous first.

i have a hammered brass planter that i want to tone done, so i spray painted it black and after the paint dried i rubbed over it with fine grit sand paper. it changed the look completely and works much better. that may be an option for you as well.

you can always ignore the brass that exist. use what ever you like, bronze or silver...and somehow the metals will blend and work together.

hope this helps.