I'm hardly an arbiter of good design principles, so this is offered with that caveat.

If I were designing a new house, where everything was being done at once, I might do things in a similar fashion from room to room. But the reality is, I'm doing my kitchen soon and it may be years before I can update my bathroom(s). By then my taste/style may have changed.

And, when you're in my kitchen, you can't see inside the bathroom (and ain't that a good thing!). So, no coordinating necessary. :)

The more I think about it, no, the entire house should NOT match.

If everything in your house is, and is going to, match everything else, then diverging for the kitchen can be a problem. In general, no, they don't have to match unless you have a unified design scheme for the whole house. Most people I know don't do that. Each room has its own character and color scheme. These should look good as you transition from room to room, but the metals aren't going to be what clash unless you have really out there choices.

I try to stick with color families. I would put chrome, brushed nickel, glass handles and silver in a home. I would put brass, oil rubbed bronze and blacks through a house. There are warm colors and cool colors. I try to keep the same undertone throughout. That being said it depends on what kind of personality you have. You don't have to have each room have the same feel it is just my personal preference.

We just did a whole house reno and so did everything at the same time. My kitchen is brushed nickel (except the light fixtures) as are all the doorknobs, my bathrooms are chrome but the light fixtures are brushed nickel and all the other light fixtures in the house are ORB. It's a real mix but seems to work because we followed the same lines.
For example: my bathroom fixtures while the are chrome are long arced curves as are the light fixtures even though they are brushed nickel. As long as something ties them together such as shape or style I don't think that the colour has to much.

Like blfenton, we just did/kinda still are doing a whole house reno. I picked the silver family (chrome and nickel) for everything from kitchen and bath faucets, pulls, door hinges, handlesets, etc. I haven't picked all my light fixtures yet but plan to go with the same color family there also. I felt like everything should be similar knowing it would be my only chance to get everything new all at once.

We just finished building our home and we did ORB on the door knobs in the entire house. We have ORB lighting and faucets everywhere except in the master bath we have chrome lights and faucets. Also, in my daughter's bath we have chrome lights and faucets. They look totally fine with the ORB door knobs in the same room. I like mixing it up and having something different in those two rooms.

What nini804 said.... ;-)

I don't think it needs to match. I have brass in most of my house including door knobs, switch plates, etc. but I am not considering brass for my kitchen. I think walls define individual spaces and each room can be unique.

Also, consider that it is common to have ss appliances and orb fixtures and hardware in the same kitchen.

Why would you even care?

It is not like the finishes are side by side, or even in the same room.

We did a whole house gut reno and additions. I did want a uniform look throughout, and so all of my interior doors have antique white porcelain knobs with antique nickel plates. My front door entry is sterling silver, but most of our other exterior doors (5 of them, plus another 10 or so around the pool area) are brass, from the PO. That was too many to redo, considering they were very nice.
Our kitchen and 3 of the baths are nickel. But my girls wanted brass for their bath, the pool bath has antique chrome taps, and both powder rooms are ORB. My kitchen hardware includes antique brass, nickel, orb and porcelain...

I think it works fine (I guess we all like what we choose!), in part because the house is all shades of white, so the metals are in a very neutral backdrop. The other unifying element is that they are all vintage look or actual vintage pieces. To my mind, mixing a modern fixture with traditional is a bit jarring ... but finishes are fine to mix.

Door knobs should match...and everything else can be different. I agree with the fact that same throughout looks like "Builder's Special". In our new house, I put chrome faucets in all the bathrooms. They are affordable and they are always easy to clean. I also have chrome lights in the bathrooms. I have ORB knobs everywhere. The hardware/lighting in the kitchen is ORB...Come to think of it...all of the lighting (except bathrooms) are ORB. In the guest bath in the basement, everything is ORB...even the lights because I liked the light fixture better in the ORB option. Just get what you like!

Capegirl

I hope it's ok bc I have brass, brushed nickel, orb, and chrome in my house!

Honestly it's purely personal. Our doorknobs are all brass and we have a rustic home with wood stained doors (not white) end I'll probably change it at some point but I'm thinking aged brass instead of shiny. ORB is kitchen hardware and some bathroom cabinet hardware, in those same baths I have chrome faucets and one bathroom has nickel. I like it all but I'm not matchy matchy personality. Our last house had mixed doorknobs, all glass knobs but some had ORB and some chrome. I don't follow rules well.

The metals in my house do not match. When we redid the master bath 5 years ago, we went with ORB for the faucets, shower doors and cabinet knobs because it looked better with the travertine/slate look we were doing.

We are slowly updating our kitchen and went with brushed nickel for the knobs, even though they are the same cabinets as the ones in our master bath. We had a lot of other "silvery" things and the brushed nickel just seemed to go better.

The doorknobs throughout the house are brass. Too lazy to change all of them.

I think it's fine to mix finishes.

We switched everything to chrome. I still have a stray doorknob or 2 probably, but we have new knobs for them. I'd use other silvers or black, but shiny brass would not work here.

I'm torn about matching too. We are remodeling a home right now and I can't get myself to buy a single light because of this problem. I think our house is more rustic but I also like the shiny chrome look for the bathrooms. I am always drawn to classic styling but our house is not "classic".

Its funny, but in our area, the builders in the 50s used shiny brass most places but always with chrome in the bathrooms. Since we switched over to all chrome, it got it away from a "builder's special" because that made it different. No builders I have ever seen did all chrome.

Every room is different with its own character, so no, don't bother matching. Always do what you love in each room and you can't go wrong.

We have stainless in the kitchen, including the Kohler Torq bridge faucet, chrome in the upstairs bath (polished nickel would have broken the bank in that room) and polished nickel in the upcoming basement bath (wife is getting her 2nd dream bathroom). The fixtures in the two bathrooms are the same line (Porcher Reprise) mainly because I got great deals on display units from various bath showrooms as it was discontinued. $150 for polished nickel pillar faucets for example.

If you're going for a particular look for a specific room, then of course your should choose fixtures that match the look you're going for. If you have brushed nickle in the rest of the house but want a rustic master suite, then use ORB because nickle would be jarring and out of place.

However if you have a more typical home with the same flooring and paint throughout, then changing hardware/fixtures would look unplanned and out of place.

Since you're just asking for opinions - mine seems to be different than everyone else's. I think everything should match. The kitchen faucet was broken (and white plastic) when we bought our house. I found the faucet I loved (Delta Victorian in brushed nickel), and then replaced the kitchen sink, 4 bathroom sinks, 1 tub/shower, 1 shower, and 1 Roman tub with the same matching faucets. I replaced the brass door handles, 1 every payday, with brushed nickel. No cabinets in the house had handles. I added those, also in brushed nickel, to all bathrooms and kitchen. I'm just OCD about matching I guess :) (The toilet paper holders and tank handles also match the faucets!)

I'm with nini804. We're building now and are coordinating but not matching. It works for us. Our exterior doors will have ORB hardware. I haven't had to pick out the interior yet but may got with either ORB or antique pewter.

We went with chrome plumbing fixtures in the baths because I like the shine. But in the kitchen I'm pretty sure we'll end up with polished nickel because of the warmer tone (chrome has a bluer tone) that will go with the silver leaf and crystal dining chandelier that's in the room wide open to the kitchen and the bronze light fixtures elsewhere. For that reason we'll probably change out our chrome faucet to stainless since its not made in polished nickel.

I love mixing finishes because I love really putting thought into a space. But I can see how it can be overwhelming for a lot of people. It's easy to just pick a finish and go with it. That's why designers get paid the big bucks I guess. I've been up many hours trying to figure out if this goes with that, etc. lol!

What does ORB stand for?

ORB = Oil rubbed bronze