I think polished nickel is warmer than polished chrome. Nickel has a bit more red spectrum than chrome (blue spectrum). Polished anything will tend to show prints more than brushed. In a master bath it's generally not problem though, it's more in a kids' bath. "Upgrade" is a choice. Remember "upgrade" doesn't always mean it's better quality or it fits better into your design scheme. If you want to upgrade for personal reasons or if you need a certain look to carry off a certain style/design element, that's one thing. You want the warmth of nickel, you want no polished surfaces, or you need the darkness of ORB, etc. However, I've seen designers try to strong arm customers into "upgraded" finishes by preying on their "keeping up with the jones'" insecurities. I realize I'm not really answering your question. I guess in some obscure way I'm encouraging you to design your master bath for yourself and not for your next door neighbors. Best, Mongo

We had polished brass and I just recently changed them to brushed nickel b/c I wanted a "softer" look on my cabinets. The polished brass did not show any fingerprints. I think the chrome sounds very nice with your color cabinets! It depends on the look you want - do you want the knobs to stand out or be more suble?

"lynn2006: Ohh, good point - we'll have to consider what looks best with ss appliances! We're planning on doing our own trim for the Ikea cabinets, so I've done a bunch of googling on paint matches. I read that Simply White (which happens to be our trim color for our casings; I love it) is a match for Lindingo. While Ben Moore's Cloud White and Ralph Lauren's (potentially discontinued) Studio White WW09 are good matches for Adel White. The Adel White Ikea cover panels that we bought Do Not seem to match the doors!!! They are a brighter white and much glossier!! I don't know if we are the only ones with that problem, but we are returning them and plan to make our own (hopefully better matching, and cheaper!) cover panels instead. (This may have been more info than you wanted - sorry about that!)" Thank you for letting me know since I have not looked at Ikea yet and I had planned to go with the shaker door and drawer without any slab drawers and fell in love with the inset but Home depot is having a sale and I got a good price on fancier doors that I first thought were not my taste but they are growing on me when I saw the price and how much better storage I would have and they are close to the BM Cloud White color which is what I wanted. I may have to take a trip to Ikea and back to the local store with the inset cabinets and then price it all out. Home Depot is offering free trash can and recycling bin and organizers, free hardware (but I am having a touching time falling in love with the free hardware), free double silver ware drawer, free paint finish upgrade, free pull out shelves (but I really wanted drawers) and I am waiting for a price on the granite counters and the removal of the soffit, removal of the old cabinets and the tile installation. I love the Ikea organizers and my others choice is covering the soffit with trim since the bigger cabinets are pretty but I am not even 5 feet and have enough problems reaching selves right now and need a stool and ladder for the higher shelves. I am not sure which to vote for yet since I have not begun this process yet but I chose the chrome for my bathroom since I liked the bling.

Yes, you should mix metals, but I would do more of a contrast than chrome to brushed nickel. If you're doing chrome for your faucets and shower fixtures, then pick something more interesting for the other hardware like oil rubbed bronze or gold. If you pick things too close together sometimes it looks like you were trying to match and just slightly missed. Make sure the difference in metals shows that it was intentional.