I can hear your pain! All these little decisions drove me nuts too. I would be in a deep sleep in the middle of the night and all of the sudden, I'd sit stright up. Hubby was like "what's wrong, what's wrong" I said "I can't decide on which lights go with which faucet" Uh, honey...go back to sleep! LOL!

The only thing that really helped me was photoshop. I photoshopped every single room together. I'd put the lights, faucets, flooring, cabinets all together on a page and print it out. It was so helpful for me to see it all together.

Your levers and hinges are a matter of personal choice so I think you'll get many different ideas here. My choice based on the fact that most of your hardware is sounding like it's going to be in the cool family would be Brushed Nickel. I think it goes well with chrome fixtures too. I wouldn't do the ORB unless most of the other hardware is dark. Just my .02

P.S. I'm not the expert Photoshopper on here...that would be Squirrelheaven but I can cut and paste some photos for basic ideas if it would help. Let me know!

Lindy

I just flipped through all my house idea photos and I saw several homes with BN fixtures and ORB door levers and hinges. It all looks good. Gee, I'm not much help am I?

L

I just tried to make sure that I was reasonably consistent within rooms, but otherwise went with an eclectic look. All outside lights and door hardware is black. Our mailbox, mounted on the porch by the front door is copper and is a great pop (glad I didn't go black). All interior door handles are Emtek's silver patina. The hinges and door stops, though, are black. Kitchen knobs are also silver patina. Lighting and cabinet hardware in Master bath, laundry and powder bath are brushed nickel. Lighting and cabinet hardware in upstairs baths are chrome. But most light fixtures and ceiling fans are ORB.

All of these finishes would probably drive some crazy, but it works for us.

Hey Jenny,
That's exciting that you're getting to the stage of picking out finishes! It is kind of scary, though. One thing that helps is to physically walk through the house in order to figure out which areas you can see at the same time. Sometimes it will surprise you!

In my house, I'm having oil-rubbed bronze door hardware throughout (stained doors and trim) and chrome bath/kitchen hardware. Most of my light fixtures are antique/vintage, so they are all over the map.

Some people like for every finish in the house to match, and some like to mix them. Personally, I think a house where all the finishes coordinate too well just screams "brand new house," especially if they are all in the trendy finish du jour. To me, the only thing that matters is to match the finishes that are the same type of item in the same room. Like, I would prefer to have all one finish on the faucets in a particular bathroom, but they wouldn't have to match the door hardware in that room or the faucets in another room, etc.

Finishes are one of those things that can drive you crazy, but very few people will ever notice them once the house is done.

Jenny how exciting! I feel your pain. Here is what we are going with....so far:
Kitchen island light is antique pewter along with the dining light and micro lights above the bar. The kitchen faucet is also pewter. The other faucets in the house are brushed nickel. BUT, I found a ceiling fan for our bedroom and it was ORB and I loved it so I got it. I am thinking for all the door handles we are going to go with the ORB. I think the pewter or brushed nickel everywhere make it look to (my OP only)and really I love the look of them together! We are even thinking of getting a ceiling fan for the living in ORB but I did find an antique pewter one at Lowes that I really really like.

I say go with what you like. You can never fail there!

Good luck!

That's so funny because I'm somewhat going through the same thing...I had to e-mail my faucet supplier because she needs to know what faucets we're buying from her in order to order the valves for the plumber who's coming next week.

Thing is, we're buying some of those furniture vanities that come with faucets and sinks. BUT I had to ask her if I can pick the finishes for the tub / shower in those bathrooms AFTER the vanities come in to match them as closely as possible!

We're planning on doing ORB in the places with custom built ins - master bath, laundry room. But in the kitchen, I will have a hammered copper sink so that fixture will be copper.

They probably won't match EXACTLY to the vanities but I'm not going to sweat it. As long as it's close enough and doesn't clash, I won't worry. (Yah - yah - I'm sure I'll have to eat my words when I freak out about them not matching perfectly after the fact!!)

So, I guess you can think of it this way. If fixtures and finishes are mixed, it just looks like the house has evolved. Some people like that, some don't. I do. I tried to not have everything match exactly because that's what I like. And let's face it, one company's orb is not the same as anothers, same with antique pewter and brushed nickel etc. etc. I was just shooting for things I liked that I thought would look good in that room.

Amy

It really will look fine to mix them, and it sounds as if you have a good thing going already on which will be which. I think what you described is a good "mix"...the silver finishes for plumbing fixtures and kitchen hardware and pendant lights...the ORB bronze for outside lights, front door, DR light fixture. That really all makes sense and I think ORB door knobs or levers and hinges would look good.

Thanks so much for the responses (and reassurance!). I'm not sure if I'll go with ORB or BN for hinges/door levers...but I'm glad to hear that it doesn't sound like it will be crazy-looking!

jennymama:

Despite what they told me at the plumbing supply showroom about ORB fixtures, they did show more wear at our old house, so this time I'm sticking Chrome, Polished Nickel or Brushed Nickel for faucets and other plumbing fixtures and leaving the ORB for all hinges/door levers/knobs. It's much easier to clean than ORB.

But for lighting I stuck with ORB in most rooms and Chrome or PN in the guest baths.

There's no problems mixing and matching as far as I'm concerned.

I am trying to choose cabinet hardware for our master bath. The faucets are chrome and the cabinets are antique white with a brown stain in the seams. I feel like the ORB hardware really pulls out the brown accent in the cabinet color, but polished chrome would obviously match the faucets. Would it be ok to add the ORB? � if so should I add ORB somewhere else in the bathroom too? I have chrome door knobs (I could send them back and exchange them for ORB). I haven't ordered toilet paper holder, robe hooks, towel bar, or the handle for the frameless shower door. Please help me with ideas!!! TIA