You can darken chrome with heat. Back in my Harley-riding days, it always irked me that my fancy chrome drag pipes immediately turned yellow, then blue, then dark (almost black) where they were bolted to the jugs. Lots of heat at that connection. So you can probably take your buttons off and use a torch to get the same effect.
Chrome is a difficult finish to paint. You have to do the prep work, or it just won't adhere properly and will flake off later. You can google how to paint chrome and find lots of tips, as it's a popular thing to do when people want to "black out" their vehicles or change the look of their house fixtures. The problem with doing it on jacket buttons is that they're tiny and usually have a lot of crevices due to the decorative casting. Sanding them properly would be a challenge.
Prepping them right for painting sounds like a lot of work, especially if you don't want to take them off the jacket. Personally, I think it would be easier and more forward-thinking to go ahead and remove the buttons and convert the attachments to a ring design. This is very commonly done on these type jackets so people can swap buttons later as their tastes change (or for different levels of dress). You may want or need shiny buttons later. So if it were me, I'd save those buttons and just replace them with darker ones for now, using a keyring type connection through the material.
*edited to add: I know this isn't a motorcycle thread, but here's a close-up of the color you could expect on chrome with lots of heat. See where the exhaust pipes connect. The hotter it is, the darker the chrome turns.
Originally Posted by Tobus
You can darken chrome with heat. Back in my Harley-riding days, it always irked me that my fancy chrome drag pipes immediately turned yellow, then blue, then dark (almost black) where they were bolted to the jugs. Lots of heat at that connection. So you can probably take your buttons off and use a torch to get the same effect.
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