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jennibg_gw

stainless or brushed or something else?

17 years ago

how do you know what kind of finish to put on your faucet?

light maple shaker cabs, creamy granite, brazillian cherry floors. colonial home.

I'm thinking that the stainless may be too modern. I used to have brushed nickel but it was harder to keep clean than the staineless.

Comments (7)

  • 17 years ago

    Silver finishes, especially chrome are timeless and you'd be surprised at how well they work in any style but IMHO faucet design, not finish dictates if it will work in a room or not. The exception to that may be ORB, which many have said is a fad and will one day look outdated. I've also heard that it doesn't wear well. We too have a colonial, more traditional in style, and to be honest, I've just chosen the style & finish that I liked at the time, and it's all worked out. In other words, just don't worry, get what you like and it will look fabulous!

  • 17 years ago

    I have polished chrome just because I like it. I have stainless appliances and ORB hardware.. I agree with lukkiirish chrome is timeless. I have it in all my bathrooms as well.

  • 17 years ago

    I also agree that chrome is timeless but it also depends on the faucet. Our last reno I had a vintage looking kitchen - in that it had hard wood floors, white cabs, black counters. And was in an old home. Since we did stainless appliances, we did brushed nickel hardware, thinking that was best. The faucet was stainless looking but it was modern - functional instead of for aesthetics. And it looked really good. But had we done a more vintage faucet, like a bridge or gooseneck, then we definitely would have done chrome.

    this kitchen is similar - creamy white cabs, soapstone, stainless appliances. but we're doing the faucet in chrome b/c it's a bridge and i thought it would look better.

    I also agree that ORB will likely be dated soon, but I wasn't ever that crazy about it anyway, so that might be a personal view. I was considering bronze for my hardware but reconsidered. (now down to black or pewter. Ugh. STILL can't decide.)

    Ok that was rambly LOL but what I'm trying to say is that you can totally do a stainless faucet - we did it in our previous reno and it looked great. The appliances were modern (because they weren't vintage looking repos) and so it blended with those.

  • 17 years ago

    Brushed nickel difficult to keep clean???? I've found our BN faucets very easy to keep clean...much easier than the chrome faucets we used to have in the kitchen & still have in our upstairs bathrooms! Even water spots don't always show.

    BN is a matte finish...I would think any matte finish would be easy to keep clean...BN, brushed SS, even brushed chrome...

    Kpaquette...how about "antique iron"?

  • 17 years ago

    Buehl! You're a genius! The cabinets we're installing in our master bath are very similar to the cabinets in your picture and I've been unable to find anything that works for me but I love love love that finish and it looks beautiful with the cabinet. Thanks!

  • 17 years ago

    Take a look at the Vibrant Brazen Bronze finish that Kohler offers. It isn't copper, brushed nickel or orb but somehow looks like the three melded together. I used it with moss green glazed cabinets and Ivory Coast Silestone which has creamy/sage tones. My pulls and knobs have a German bronze type finish and while they don't match the faucet exactly, they blend nicely and they aren't that close to it anyway.

  • 17 years ago

    Buehl those are the knobs I'm considering! Well, I was looking at the "flower" instead of the oval one, and I'm debating between the D and drop pulls - I just ordered samples.

    Who makes yours? I was looking at top knobs - they have black or "pewter" but the pewter looks kind of antique-y - might be the same as what you're posting?

    Actually maybe not. Yours looks darker. :-)