I ended up buying mine from Pottery Barn in a chrome finish. After shopping around, I think their prices are relatively modest. However, after a year of dealing with a TP holder that always sagged and pivoted on its one anchor screw, I bought another from Rejuvenation that cost twice as much but had two screws. Finally! It is substantially nicer in overall quality. That being said, most folks on the pot don't usually spend a lot of time appreciating the TP holder.

My bathroom fixtures in our recently redone bathroom were all from Home Depot because it was the style and finish that I liked the best. All are holding up well with no problems. And they were not expensive. We got four hooks that we hang towels on, rather than a bar. And one toilet paper holder. It is an arm only, so that the kids will actually replace the toilet paper. No springs or things to unscrew to put the toilet paper on or off. Here is what we went with: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Glacier-Bay-Single-Robe-Hook-in-Oil-Rubbed-Bronze-BTB41000ORB/203153539

Thanks for the suggestions. I was looking at home depot too and I think there is still a pottery barn around here so I will also look there. I will be going with chrome as well to match the faucets. But I am leaning toward the old-style TP holder that is in the wall instead of one of the free-arm ones.

I ordered mine from amazon- I just got "builder grade" lookalikes to the store I was looking at them here. They were 130 at the store, same one was 30 on amazon. !!!

Both are heavy, solid, and look lovely. Bars are one of those things I don't know that you really "see" after you've lived somewhere for a week or two.

I did feel they were of a superior quality to the stuff I saw at home depot.

I can't imagine spending money to redo a bathroom and then buying "builder grade" fixtures for it. There is a reason they're cheap!

I like solid metal towel bars - solid brass with polished nickel plate will last for decades.

And having them professionally installed makes a huge difference than it being a "honey-do" project.

Depending upon their location, it may make sense to use grab bars as towel bars, and then they can always be used as grab bars as well, later on.

I used Kohler Purist Grab bars as towel bars in both tub/shower areas, and I will probably use the same at the vanity because it will match.

It depends on how hard you are on things, too. We had relatively basic towel bars in the house I grew up in that were never a problem in 45 years, but I've been in a lot of houses where they are bent, loose or have been pulled out of the drywall, because people are rough. Grab bars are sturdier and require better anchorage.

Before we remodeled our master bath, I had Gatco brand towel bars, towel ring, and tp holder purchased from Home Depot. Then we remodeled and because I wanted a double towel bar that didn't jut out too far overall but had good spacing between the 2 bars, the only one I could find ended up being the one we already had. So we have had them 12 years and they still look and function perfectly fine. At first I thought that I couldn't use big box store bars after putting a high-end vanity, etc, into the bath, but then I realized as long as they look good and function well, it doesn't matter. No one is taking them off the wall and testing if they weigh as much as solid metal ones.

12 years ago when we did minor changes to update our old house, we bought all new towel bars and toilet paper holders from Menards or Home Depot. They've held up just fine even though we now have three kids. I'd just look at them carefully before buying them.

I've was struggling with this question last week. We are going with mostly modern fixtures and the ones that appealed to me were the Kohler Purist line. I saw that Delta Trinsic looked very similar but all the Delta pieces are significantly cheaper. (Sometimes they are 25% the cost of the Kohler.)

So I ordered a TP holder and a towel ring from both. I very quickly saw the difference in quality when I opened the packages. The Kohler products are twice as heavy and look like they would hold up much better. So we are biting the bullet and spending more on the accessories.

However, I will say I ordered a contemporary styled Grab Bar from Delta because those were also considerably cheaper than the Purist bars and the quality of that seems very solid. I hadn't thought of using them as towel bars, and that might work. The style seems pretty similar to the Purist. We do need some grab bars because this is our guest bathroom and we have guests that need them, but I want them to go with everything else.

I do think spending more on quality is often worth it, but there is usually a sweet spot where paying a little more means better quality. But after that point, sometimes you are just paying for style and name. Finding that sweet spot is sometimes hard. I certainly don't think I could spend $500 for a single bathroom accessory, but it does appear I will be paying more than $100 for at least some of them. :-)

I think the main difference is that cheaper ones are often made of zinc while expensive ones are made of brass, and some are drop-forged.

From How Stuff Works:

Manufacturers now use many different techniques to forge metal. Four of the most common include:

• Drop forging - Hammering hot metal into dies.
• Press forging - instead of forcing hot metal into a die with a hammer blow, it is pressed into the die with hydraulic pressure.
• Roll forging - The hot metal is pressed between two rollers.
• Cold forging - For smaller pieces, the metal can be pressed into the die without heating it significantly ahead of time.

The reason why manufacturers want you to know that a tool is drop forged
is because this tells you something about the strength and durability
of the tool. The other two ways to make a tool would be casting it from
molten metal or machining it (cutting material away) from a larger block
of metal. The advantage of forging is that it improves the strength of
the metal by aligning and stretching the grain structure. A forged part
will normally be stronger than a casting or a machined piece.

I used Kohler grab bars in both baths and in one bath the bar doubles as a towel bar. It's for safety, because it is at the tub area. Be sure to have wood blocking where you will put the bars. They will stay put.

I knew of an equestrian barn near me that had non blocked walls for their towel bar, and that darned thing was always falling down. I think people were using it for a grab bar too.