I did polished nickel hardware and lighting in my kitchen with chrome faucets - I really don't notice the difference in the finishes and think it looks great with the added bonus of the chrome faucets having been so much more affordable.

I think it will be great and wouldn't hesitate I always say they don't have to be twins, they just have to like each other. :)

Nickel is brown. Chrome is blue.

I almost did chrome but I admit that I was so in love with polished nickel and its buttery look that I couldn't bring myself to do chrome only cause of how blue it looked in comparison. I was willing to have some weird staining issues and some more maintenance to have to do occasionally (plus in an older house, polished nickel often looks stained anyway). However I found a GREAT compromise in finding a solid stainless faucet - not chrome. It cost a lot more, it's true, but I checked and there are other less expensive brands besides the spendy brand I ended up getting that offer stainless instead of chrome (couldn't afford mine, FYI, but ended up giving in cause I'd been bitten by it, you might say). What I love about the solid stainless is that it's right there in the middle between nickel and chrome. It's not blue at all yet not as yellow as nickel. It's drop dead gorgeous in polished - looks almost nickel in fact. So that's not necessarily much of a help financially but it would offer a more pleasing color with absolutely no maintenance.

All that said (!), i think there's nothing wrong with having a chrome faucet and nickel hardware! Things being not too matchy-matchy is a good thing. My upper cabs have black butterfly hinges and knobs and my lowers have hidden hinges and polished nickel latches, and my faucet has both stainless (as if it were nickel) AND black on it, to tie them together. Oh and the pendant light above the sink has a black cloth-covered cord and a polished-nickel canopy so that also helps blend things the black and silver. And all of this is only cause it was cheaper to leave the old black hinges and knobs on the upper cabinets (and throughout the rest of the room) than to replace them with some fancy polished nickel.

Theresse, you owe us a review of that faucet! How does it function?

Traditionally, many faucets were nickel until around the 1920s, and then for most of the twentieth century they were chrome, no matter what other metals were in the kitchen. So metals can certainly be mixed. However, nickel changes the way that chrome looks when it is in close vicinity--it makes it look cheap. Like a fluorescent tube light. If the metals are far from each other, you don't notice it. If they're right on top of each other, it's glaring.

Marcolo - I love the faucet in every way but these two ways: a) there's a slight jiggle which I'm told is normal (back to front jiggle, if that makes sense). It's minimal and doesn't affect how it functions but after two other faucets first, I realized I had to stop being so picky. There are also ways to make it tighter but it would involve some monkeying (e.g. replace some inside part with another part). b) the levers are 99% straight but I want them 100% straight. A plumber happened to be over today and darn it if I didn't forget to ask him to try straightening them out. But in the past - with a past faucet of the same type from them - they were a bit off in another direction. And yet the guy whose kitchen inspired me and who I managed to contact had neither of these issues. I'm hoping that too can be monkeyed with but it might have those grooves (?) which after moving to the next one might make it too far the other direction - who knows. I can make them straight (pointing straight down in the off position) but the left side isn't 100% turned all the way as far as it will go (still no dripping though which is good).

What I love about it is that it's powerful; if you pop the spout up it sprays and if you have it down, it does the usual thing. I love that it's not so powerful that it sprays you all over and yet still sprays you enough (due to being so tall - as all good-quality faucets do when they're tall) that I usually keep in in the shower position in which case it doesn't spray you at all. I love how unique it is and how no one ever notices how camouflaged it is - how you just pull the camouflaged hose off the top of the neck and spray all over your sink for better cleaning (or into a coffee pot). I love that it's the ONLY wall-mounted, traditional looking, gooseneck faucet that offers a built-in sprayer with no holes being cut into one's countertop. I love the choice of levers/handles/wheels (stainless, white with think silver stripe or black with thin silver stripe) - they look very elegant. And lastly, I love the solid stainless steel, polished. Looks very warm - almost like nickel - and is stunning to look at. So if we were talking stars, I'd give it a 4.5 or so out of 5. Customer service is good, too. How's that? Did I leave anything out? :)

I didn't catch who made it. Thanks for all the rest of the review!

Theresse, I came very close to getting the same faucet years ago but totally chickened out. I always wondered if it worked. Thanks for posting your review and I'm so glad you're happy with it.

I have PN cup pulls and a chrome faucet. Visually, I don't really notice that the two are different...or at least other people who come in the kitchen don't :). I will say, that I prefer the warmish PN over chrome in general, but didn't really think to get a PN faucet at the time. In hindsight, I kind of wish my faucet were also PN...but the cleaning would be a real PIA I think, given how my pulls get really spotty and there's minimal water involved....haven't really heard much about how high maintenance a PN faucet is or isn't. Maybe people can weigh in about that...that would be my only deterrent. HTH.

Oh geez - I really hijacked this threat - so sorry Athensmomof3! It's a Jaclo Steam Valve Original (whatever that means). And they ARE expensive, so I apologize for that as well cause I know you mentioned not wanting to pay as much. It's funny cause I have this tiny little kitchen with very few luxuries and then this really nice faucet and dishwasher (Miele). I'm sure if I"d knocked a wall down and gotten a new stove, etc., I wouldn't have spent so much on a faucet but I decided to splurge since I couldn't - ironically - afford to do anything really significant in the kitchen! They tend to run about $1,100 if gotten in polished and about $1,000 if brushed. Or at the time anyway - maybe things are different now.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/07/01/retro-pipes-for-the-kitchen-sink/

http://www.homeportfolio.com/catalog/Product.jhtml?prodId=137072

Note that most online pics have it in brushed, not polished, for some reason...

http://www.homeportfolio.com/catalog/Product.jhtml?prodId=137081

Here's the one in our house - though it's pre-tiling and pre-painting and I'm not sure the faucet was clean for the pic. The levers I have now point downward when in the off position as apparently that's how it's supposed to be:

And here's a pic showing the polished nickel bin pulls below and how the color doesn't clash, if you can tell anyway (the stainless counter might throw things off a bit):

Oh - here's the one with the levers pointing downward as they are now:

Ok so we should drop this Jaclo business and go back to the business of finding solutions to the original poster's dilemma! :) If you can find an affordable stainless steel one (that is to say, with stainless steel finish rather than chrome), that's a great solution/compromise. If not, you can distract from the faucet's blue tint simply by having a faucet that's attractive, stylish or special somehow, you know?

Look at the FKB--there are dozens and dozens of kitchens there with chrome faucets and brushed nickel pulls. They all look fine.

I agree that a nickel air switch or soap dispenser next to a chrome faucet is going to be unpleasant, but pulls/knobs? Not unless you have drawers behind your sink.

I did it and it looks fine. You don't even notice the difference.