Bathroom, Online Shopping, Trends
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ABC in the Bathroom (Anything But Chrome)

If you’re currently planning a bathroom refit and looking to break with convention and not go down the easy route of chrome brassware… you’ll soon experience what I refer to as The ABC Nightmare. Anything But Chrome. Black and Brass are currently the choix du jour and has been for a while but the market is taking some time to catch up.

As you already know our loft bathroom was graced with a black tap, bottle trap and waste from Olif. The Minimo Matt Black Tap is still available on their website, which they’ve recently revamped, so definitely worth a look.

They also do gold, copper, bronze and anthracite taps… basically, Anything. But. Chrome. So sourcing a black tap for our loft shower room wasn’t too bad… but could I for the life of me find a shower or a shower screen with black fittings (that wasn’t a million ££’s)?

No. No I couldn’t.

But guess what? They’re finally trickling down onto the market, so I thought i’d save you a month’s painful search and pop ’em all here for you. ABC right on a plate. You’re welcome.

First up, Soak.

Soak are offering you the Peyton Matte Thermostatic Black Shower for £150.

I definitely would have gone for this if the shower head was round, not sure why I don’t like the square heads… but I don’t. But if you’re looking to achieve the look, at £150 this isn’t a bad start!

Soak’s new Hotel collection includes a range black brassware offerings…

Iker Basin Tap – £129.99 and Iker Countertop Basin Tap – £119.99

A black wall mounted basin tap for £130! Oh how I was looking for one of these I could afford this time last year. Well they’re here you lucky ducks. And the good thing is they’ve got the pop up waste too. A black tap with a chrome waste isn’t a good look.

Black Pop Up Basin Waste – £12.99 

Iker Bath Tap – £149.99

Shame they don’t offer a black overflow to work with this bath mixer tap. See how weird that chrome looks against the black? That would drive me mental.


 

Onto Victoria Plum:

 

They’re offering the Mode Spencer Thermostatic Twin Valve Shower for £349.99. 

Or there’s the Orchard Wye Shower at £175. 

Why don’t I like square showers? Oh I know, it’s because bathrooms are already full of hard edges and surfaces, the last thing they need are more squares. That’s it.

Ms Plum also has the Mode Shower enclosures… and doors which start at around £450.

I’m not 100% convinced on the finish. They look a little shiny in the images. But if you’re desperate to avoid all things chrome and would prefer not to take out a small loan, this might do the trick.


 

Ok next. We’re onto Meir, an Australian company that designs and manufactures premium matte black tapware. It’s black, black or black for these guys. I like it!

Since August this year they’ve introduced a range of their matte black kitchen and bathroom fittings to the UK market in their online store. Definitely worth checking out as they stock all those extra bits like shower grilles and bath wastes.


 

BAGNODESIGN are another company that offer most of their brassware in a plethora of finishes including copper, gold, nickel, matt white, bronze and of course, matte black.

Black – The New Chrome

They seriously have way too many designs to list here, so i’d highly advise jumping onto the site to take a look.

They don’t have prices online, so would need a phonecall or two to work out if these guys will fit your budget or not.


 

Bespoke Taps cater for the more traditional market whilst also offering a huge range of finishes. Check out just how many here:

Compared to some other companies Bespoke Taps’ price point is very competitive.

Bert & May – £918 and Bespoke Taps – £390


 

Moving onto Lusso Stone who i’ll be ordering from shortly for a big bathroom refurb i’m working on (more on that soon-ish).

They have just about everything we need from taps, to bottle traps, pop up wastes and showers.

AND in capitals. AND they have a Crittall style, matte black shower screen which i’m very excited about. It comes in six sizes ranging from 600mm to 1200mm meaning you can create your own walk in shower enclosure.

Industrial Shower Screen – prices from £400 to £900


 

There are companies out there that can run special orders for things like stabilising bars for walk in shower screens. Kudos offer finishes in bright and brushed nickel and gold and matte black.

Project by Fiona Duke Interiors featuring brass stabilising bracket from Kudos.


 

Spiral Hardware offer an 8mm Glass Bath Screen Kit in specialist finishes including chrome, matt black, brushed stainless, gold (polished brass), starting at about £120.

Project by Interior Therapy featuring bespoke Shower Screen from Spiral Hardware.


 

Last but not least is a relatively new company called Drench who plan to revolutionise the industry with their shower screens and enclosures. I am very excited by this.

All of their designs are available in black as standard or any RAL colour as a bespoke order.

“You can have any colour but chrome. You can have any design but frameless.”

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Prices look to start at around £900, so it’s an investment for sure, but man, they are sexy as hell.

They also offer tinted, frosted or fluted glass. I absolutely love this fluted glass above, it’s stunning and I want it immediately.


 

So then, has that been of use to anyone out there currently pulling their hair out because they don’t want flippin’ chrome? Let me know if i’ve missed anyone off the list peeps. And don’t forget to Pin or bookmark this post if you’re planning a bathroom refit, you might just need it!

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14 Comments

  1. Kerry says

    I love black tap ware but I do wonder how it would fare in a hard water area? Could you use a descaling product (cilia bang for example) without damaging it? X

    • Karen Knox says

      Hard to say really… always best to check directly with the manufacturer. Our Olif tap has cleaned up nicely with a damp cloth and looks as good as new a year later. But we don’t use that bathroom every day…

  2. Beautiful examples here, Karen! Why has it taken so long for the trickle down of these products I wonder? Next time I replace a tap I definitely want black, copper, brass or rose gold for a change – they look stunning.

  3. Oh my god this is SUCH a great resource!!! Love it! When we did our bathroom back in 2014, I wanted brush brass everything and it was just not anywhere. Nowhere. Nada. I ended up going with antique brass which I like and all but it was impossible to find a shower in any finish other than chrome and so that’s what we ended up with. I’m actually looking forward to redesigning another bathroom in the future because there’s so much more on the market and it’s getting better by the year. Wish we’d catch up with the States already though – they’ve had amazing brass stuff on the market for years now xxx

  4. Great post with so many great products, I never would have thought of having black but it works amazing. I wish I could give my bathroom I complete makeover, I would go for white and gold!

  5. Such a great round up post. Amazing. Love the crittal style shower enclosures. Maybe when I do my loft conversion I could squeeze one in.

  6. I hate chrome, really hate it. Brass is a bit too glam for me but I adore the black. We currently have our house up for sale and are keeping our fingers crossed that it does so quickly but we’ve spotted another house. It needs a new bathroom and I’d love to do something similar to yours. It’s so nice.

  7. Shruti says

    My own experience with a matte black kitchen tap is that the black coating comes off leaving ugly brass peeping through. Because basically it is brass hardware underneath. So please enquire about this before buying! My tap came from Germany. And did not think to enquire beforehand. 🙁

  8. Such a great post! I designed a restaurant this year and was looking for brushed brass taps – it was next to impossible without spending a small fortune!! It still amazes me how much bathroom furniture is but those smaller touches make the world of difference – the matt black options are stunning – Chrome in a bathroom will forever remind me of all the rented apartments I have ever lived in!! xx

  9. Amanda Woodward-Brown says

    Oh my goodness this post is a lifesaver and has saved me trawling the web for a bath screen with a brass finish – thank you! Off to look at your other posts now.

  10. Charlotte Bradshaw says

    Hi, I have just found this post and it’s AMAZING! I seriously don’t want chrome and it’s driving me mad how expensive and unavailable it is to find anything else such as bronze/brass which I want! Thank you for understanding this problem and writing a post addressing it 🙂

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