I would call my water supplier if you have municipal water. For a few weeks I was detecting an odor coming from my faucets. I called the water company. Two men came out and took various samples. It turned out that I had very high chlorine content. They also took samples from my taps that had filters and those had much lower levels of chlorine. They explained how that happened, it was very interesting to learn what was going on at the water co. If you have private well water you're probably on your own, but if it's public you should probably call them to see if they'll inspect your water and/or test it. If many more people are having this problem and calling in to them it might tell them something.

upon review of this thread we want to point out that there are varying types of black finishes - some are pitch dark black - and are powder coated - some are black or graphite and a plated - i.e dipped into chemicals - and plated with copper, nickel etc... - some black finishes will have a lacquer on it - a shiny or matt ...these black finishes vary greatly across different plumbing companies as they might be using different metal finishing companies (either in house or outsourced) - u could ask the manufacturer where the actual finishing is done and keep that information on file with you.

To msrmom: I am attaching my other bathroom that is not quite 100% complete yet. Still have art to go.. But in this one we went with Brushed Nickel right down to the toilet flush handle. My vanity lights and the hanging light are white linen. both with brushed nickel. I feel like I am really stuck now on the black and white bathroom. I was reading that the gold could go out of style and the black, but I have had the hole cut into the counter so it's too late. I absolutely love the brushed nickel. It is a beautiful colour. What I could do is change the hardware to brushed nickel, toilet flusher and then maybe some pictures like the attached. This is not my favourite for art, but it got me thinking about silver type finish.

I don't believe lighting and plumbing need to be of the same material. For a crystal lighting fixture one must have crystal faucet handles? Yes, they make crystal faucet handles but...really? We have similar shiny chrome faucets and the sconces are modern but with kind of an antiqued brushed brass finish and frosted glass and they look great. Adds warmth to the room. Go with the side sconces, the lighting is phenomenal, it eliminates the glare from overhead. We got dimmable bulbs for times when you just don't need all that light. Actually we got a mirror the width of the vanity top and the sconces were placed on the mirror where they would naturally be on the sides. Wow.