Finishes for faucets, door knows etc

[maudefindlay]

What would you go with for a new build? For door knows I definitely prefer the lever/push down vs turn door knows, but am uncertain on what finish to go with. What do you love?

[Susie]

Levers are easier for arthritic hands, but they're also easier for toddlers and motivated pets.  Accordingly, we stick with knobs.  Even when our kids grow up, there will always be dogs.

I wouldn't say there's any finish I "love," it's just not something I care deeply about.  I care most strongly that the quality is good, and the house looks coordinated.  So many good ways to do it.  Schlage has generally been pretty good for us in the past, as brands go.  We tend to use brushed nickel for interior door hardware, but YMMV.  

We also tend to do brushed nickel faucets from Delta or Moen (from a plumbing supply retailer, not a big box store).  The big box stores often have "exclusive" styles that are made with lower quality than you'd get of the same brand from a plumbing supply store.

[InBetweenDays]

I also prefer knobs to levers. Our interior doors are white and we chose oil rubbed bronze for the knobs.

Most -actually probably all - of our bathroom fixtures are chrome.

[candreco]

I like matte black or oil-rubbed bronze. I particularly like matte black mixed with other metal finishes, like our primary bathroom has a light fixture that's brushed gold and matte black mixed, and the shower/towel hardware is black and the sink hardware is gold.

[ellipses84]

There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s just a preference and there’s some pros and cons to certain types. I personally like black including black window frames, but I have more of a modern, minimalistic style.

Most people want to match everything but you should consider how all the door hardware, cabinet hardware, plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, and even sometimes window frames match and if some of the more unique things you have your heart set on come in the finishes you want. For example, my sister is renovating her kitchen and really wants a sink that has a cup washer. There are a pretty limited options for sinks like that in limited metal finishes.

You can mix and max metal finishes so it’s not the end of the world if your bathroom fixtures don’t match your kitchen or if you have one feature light fixture that has a different metal.

For wear and tear, a lot of the darker Bronze fade / show wear on faucets and handles people touch a lot and shiny chrome shows water spots a lot. Stainless steel / brushed chrome are really durable and will always to be easy to replace in kind, but not the most trendy right now. Nickel tends to be a more yellow silver and chrome is a more blue or true silver.

[dr.girlfriend]

I did brushed nickel levers, I think you could buy a pack of like 12. They are nice.

For bathrooms I'm really liking brushed gold against white tile. Didn't do it in my big bathroom but did something similar in the little one and love it.

[maudefindlay]

ellipses84 thanks for your thoughts. That was helpful to read. Definitely don't want to be matchy matchy, but also want things to mesh well.

[simpsongal]

We have aged brass schlage knobs - classic and inoffensive. As long as you're not picking bright shiny 90s brass and a decent quality, it'll be fine.

[darby]

I work in new construction & matte black is super popular right now. It works well with various styles & also looks nice with stainless appliances.

[deadwing]

Sept 20, 2024 14:03:50 GMT -5 darby said:

I work in new construction & matte black is super popular right now. It works well with various styles & also looks nice with stainless appliances.

Do you know if the matte black finish holds up? This thread got me looking at new knobs/hinges for my doors and I noticed some reviews mentioning matte black wearing off with use.

[darby]

I’ve been in a model home with it every day for the last 18 months & it still looks brand new & doesn’t show smudges at all. I know that’s not the same as a lived in home, but the bathroom gets super regular use as does the kitchen & all doors/knobs. I also haven’t had any homeowners complain about it at all.

[dancingirl21]

Unless you know for sure that you will be doing black elsewhere - kitchen hardware, lighting, stair balusters, etc., I would not do black. I think it’s going to be trendy and go out of style faster than other options. Now, my opinion changes if you are doing a more modern build with lots of black elsewhere.

We did a first floor renovation and I chose nickel. You can definitely mix metals. Our kitchen hardware is a champagne brass and looks good with nickel door handles and hinges.

[cuadrado]

What style is your house? 

We went with nickel everywhere except for we did an antique brass in a few select places. 

[maudefindlay]

Sept 22, 2024 16:30:45 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

What style is your house? 

We went with nickel everywhere except for we did an antique brass in a few select places. 

It's maybe Craftsman style or a mix of that and farmhouse. The exterior is a dark shingle shake and white trim with dark bronze windows. Our current house has all oil rubbed bronze faucets and doorknob. I like that look, but they do show a lot of wear so was wanting to look at other options. Thanks for sharing what you have used. I bet that looks nice. We will have a free standing tub in our primary bath and want to do a free standing faucet with shower head combo for it and I could see us doing something fun for that like the antique brass.

[nicolewi]

FYI your cost will be higher with certain finishes. For example, polished nickel is really pretty, but it also will generally cost a lot more than, say, chrome. Chrome is usually the least and it's a classic choice, but it is shiny and not everyone wants that. This will have an impact especially in something like a bath where you have to order a bunch of shower/bath hardware as well as a faucet.

I like the black but I do wonder if it's more trendy and also how it will hold up.

My parents did black door hardware in their condo, but champagne bronze in the kitchen and one bath. I know the gold tones aren't for everyone but I personally really love the look. I think they used chrome in the other bathrooms.

We have oil rubbed bronze, too. It's held up well on all the faucets but doorknobs show wear.

[wawa]

We mixed and matched. our door knobs are all brushed nickel (just the basic Schlage ones from big box) and 10 years later I have no regrets, they're fine, but our bathrooms we coordinated within each bathroom without trying to match throughout the house. Oil rubbed bronze looked best with the tile in the hall bath, so that's what we did. Downstairs is brushed nickel. Our master bath is chrome. It's not as if you can see any of those fixtures at the same time, and they all have very different tile, so i was more concerned about each of these little rooms with closed doors feeling cohesive as a stand alone unit. Didn't even occur to me to match all of them together. The tile layout
We haven't done the kitchen yet....it's a mishmash. When we do that I think it'd be more important for it to coordinate with the light/door/etc fixtures since it's open to more rooms.

Also huge ditto to getting your plumbing fixtures not from a big box.

[SusanBAnthony]

I hate levers aesthetically so that is a nope for me. Its easy to swap interior door knobs in the future if we ever need them.

I like polished chrome and shiny gold so we have a mix of those two. I think they look good together. They aren't just willy nilly- door handles are gold, kitchen and bath knobs and faucets are chrome. Light fixtures are mostly chrome but a couple gold. I like the flexibility. I dont need my entire house to completely match. I juat dont want it to look like the metal finishes aisle threw up in my house.

I found that when my parents tried to do dark bronze / "oil rubbed bronze", it was tough because the finishes across manufacturers didn't match perfectly. That looked weird to me. Close but not quite is worse than intentionally mixing IMO. All chrome matches so its easy.

[SusanBAnthony]

Sept 20, 2024 15:38:10 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Sept 20, 2024 14:03:50 GMT -5 darby said:

I work in new construction & matte black is super popular right now. It works well with various styles & also looks nice with stainless appliances.

Do you know if the matte black finish holds up? This thread got me looking at new knobs/hinges for my doors and I noticed some reviews mentioning matte black wearing off with use.

I work in construction/building materials. Generally, not as well, but its variable manufacturer to manufacturer. Any chrome or brushed nickel finish will last but for black I'd go pretty high end from a reputable brand.

[deadwing]

Sept 28, 2024 11:11:31 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Sept 20, 2024 15:38:10 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Do you know if the matte black finish holds up? This thread got me looking at new knobs/hinges for my doors and I noticed some reviews mentioning matte black wearing off with use.

I work in construction/building materials. Generally, not as well, but its variable manufacturer to manufacturer. Any chrome or brushed nickel finish will last but for black I'd go pretty high end from a reputable brand.

Thanks. I like both matte black and satin nickel, but I think I'm leaning nickel for durability. If I'm going to replace my hideous shiny gold tone knobs and hinges, I don't want to regret my choice in a few years when the finish isn't holding up.