Installing bathroom accessories like towel bars and paper holders costs Capital Home Builders & Developers very little, but the gesture is making a huge splash with home buyers.
"It's so minimal and you're actually doing something that the customer would appreciate," says Marlene Dienes, president of the Thomasville, Ga., custom building company, who says many of her competitors sell their homes sans accessories. "If you give them the whole package, they don't have to wonder, 'How do I go about matching the accessories to the fixtures?'"
Little has changed over the years in the category of bathroom accessories; most consumers are happy with some combination of the perennial "basic eight": a couple of towel racks and a towel ring, robe hook, paper holder, soap dish, toothbrush tumbler, glass holder, and shelf. What has changed--big time--is how important it has become for all of those pieces to match each other and all of the bathroom's other metals.
Coordinated Collections
Not long ago, it didn't matter so much to consumers when a builder installed a chrome showerhead in the same bathroom as a gold-hued medicine cabinet. But it does now.
"People really do want everything to match," says Alison Zepp, chief marketing officer for Grohe America, which, like a growing number of manufacturers, creates a line of bathroom accessories to match every faucet style. "If you don't have all the accessories in the same line, people will say, 'I will make another selection.' Before, they would say, 'What's the closest thing to match?' Now, they're holding their ground because they really want the bathroom designed as a room."
So faucet manufacturers, which traditionally deferred to specialty companies for the little extras, started making and selling bars, racks, shelves, and hooks to match their lavatory and bathtub faucets. Most are sticking with the "basic eight," but some, like Moen, produce coordinating cabinet door pulls, toilet trip levers, and mirror frames, or, like Price Pfister, offer matching doorknobs and levers.
Dienes goes so far as to match the bathroom door hinges in the handful of homes she builds each year to the rest of the room's metals. "Whatever fixture the customer picks out, we come up with a match, color-wise, throughout the bathroom," she says. "It just looks better. It looks uniform."
That uniform look starts with the lavatory faucet, whose finish determines the color and sheen on all other metals, says Nicolas Grohe, director of product development for Hansgrohe, which hired a team of international designers to create its high-end hooks and holders. "You start with the faucets, then the showerheads, then the accessories," he says. "The whole thing starts with a vision of the bathroom."
Rebecca VonEiff, a Baltimore interior designer, agrees. "Every project I work on where I'm doing a bathroom, the accessories are equally important and are selected at the same time as the other fixtures so they all coordinate," she says.
But interior designer Robin Barkin, manager of the Lee L. Dopkin kitchen and bath showroom in Baltimore, advises builders and homeowners to put off selecting bathroom accessories until the last minute. "A lot of times people will order a paper holder and two towel bars, and then when everything's done, there's no place to put them," says Barkin. "Wait at least until all the drywall is up so you can see where you can place the accessories."
Finish Lines
Perfect coordination is unlikely if the builder mixes and matches among manufacturers, notes Brett Jordan, director of the shower and accessories business for the Black & Decker Hardware and Home Improvement Group.
Just a few years ago, when manufacturers offered only two finishes--shiny, polished chrome and shiny, polished brass--it was easy to match one company's robe hook to another's faucets and a third's shower door. With the emergence of so many finishes, however, have come as many variations with the same names, like "brushed nickel" or "satin nickel," for example. So there's scant consistency across manufacturers.
"So the finishes have been driving the trend, really forcing that all of the products really match in a suite," says Jordan. "It can make the difference between a pretty ordinary-looking bath to a very decorative, higher-end look."
Stylish finishes range from bright, polished chrome to soft, brushed nickel to dark, oil-rubbed bronze. Polished chrome is a bathroom staple, and brushed silver tones, like satin nickel, are steadily becoming more popular. And while nobody is predicting a speedy return of the once-perpetually popular polished brass, designers have noticed a preference among some high-end clients for hints of gold in bathrooms and kitchens, mostly as dark, rubbed bronzes.
"We're expecting a softer brass to be the next brass," says Jordan, who says chrome will continue its reign for at least another year. But bronze will continue its slow creep at all price points, he predicts, showing up on everything from kitchen appliances to ceiling fans to electrical switchplates to towel racks.
Growing Options
Though basic accessory packages haven't changed much, Barkin says builders can skip the toothbrush holders and soap dishes. "They're passé," she says. "People are using vanity soap pumps ... and electric toothbrushes."
In their place, Barkin suggests builders offer beautiful etched mirrors and medicine cabinets or electric, anti-fog mats behind the mirrors; towel warmers; and stylized grab bars. She's also partial to hanging wire baskets inside the shower.
She notes that accessory prices can run from ultra-affordable to high end, and recalls the $900 crystal-cut faucet in a powder room that the consumer matched with a $200 toilet paper holder.
On the design front, most manufacturers are seeing a slow move from traditional styles to a minimalist, contemporary look, and most have seen a boost in business over the past four years. "People are becoming more comfortable with their design capabilities because of magazines, TV shows, and the Internet," says Tim Bitterman, senior product and brand manager for Moen's Creative Specialties International. "That has really increased the consumers' IQ from a decorating standpoint."
So pros who don't offer to install or upgrade accessories are leaving money on the table, Bitterman says. "Those sales are going to go somewhere else--to the retail competition," she says. "A builder who builds homes for several hundred thousand dollars and goes with base accessories or no accessories at all is really foregoing a sale and a huge-dollar profit opportunity." BP
Delta
Delta. The Lahara collection comprises water-conserving plumbing fixtures and matching accessories, including towel bars, a robe hook, and a paper holder. Sleek lines and stark angles are reminiscent of ocean waves, the company says (Lahara is Sanskrit for "wave"). The line comes in multiple finishes, including chrome, aged pewter, and Venetian bronze. 800-345-3358. www.deltafaucet.com.
Price Pfister
Price Pfister. The Ashfield collection's traditional accessories are inspired by the line's country-pump handle faucet. Ashfield includes two styles of towel bars, a towel ring, a spring-free paper holder, and a robe hook. The accessories are available in polished chrome, satin nickel (pictured), oil-rubbed bronze, rustic pewter, and rustic bronze. 800-732-8238. www.pricepfister.com.
American Standard
American Standard. The Asian-inspired Green Tea collection features whirlpools, showerheads, faucets, and accessories. Rectangular lines replicate the shapes of a traditional Japanese teahouse while flowing edges evoke images of a kimono, a common element in the traditional tea ceremony, the manufacturer says. The accessories are available in polished chrome and stainless steel. 800-899-2614. www.americanstandard-us.com.
Watermark Designs
Watermark Designs. This extended shaving mirror is part of the Buckingham collection, which includes towel bars and a towel ring, paper holder, robe hook, soap dish, glass shelf, and wall-mounted mirror. The shaving mirror swivels, is easily adjusted, extends up to 12 inches from the wall, and features optical-quality glass with magnification, the company says. 800-842-7277. www.watermark-designs.com.
Moen
Moen. The traditional Addington collection sports a detailed ribbed design that tapers into a smooth ball tip. The collection includes a double robe hook, pivoting paper holder, towel ring, and towel bars. It features the manufacturer's EZ 2 Install Mounting System, with slide-and-lock architecture that eliminates the set screw. 800-289-6636. www.moen.com.
Duravit
Duravit. Part of the manufacturer's e-mood bathroom furniture collection, this multi-function mirrored cabinet discreetly houses an optional soap dispenser, tissue dispenser, cosmetics shelf, and power outlet--with no visible cables. It also features functional lighting and atmospheric colored lights with programmable mood lighting, and a night light automatically switches on when the room gets dark. 888-387-2848. www.duravit.com.
Danze
Danze. The Sirius suite infuses sculptural European elegance with contemporary design, says the firm. The collection includes soap and lotion dispensers, tank levers, towel bars, glass shelves, a toilet brush holder, a robe hook, and a spring-free paper holder. 630-679-1420. www.danze.com.
Hansgrohe
Hansgrohe. The Axor Massaud line is a nature-inspired collection from Jean-Marie Massaud. The designer views the pieces in this collection as unique, ceremonial sculptures, dispossessed of technology to connect the homeowner to water, the company says. In addition to the usual towel bars, soap dishes, and paper holder, the line includes a freestanding towel holder, freestanding mirror, and toilet brush with holder, as well as a candle holder, cosmetic box, and flower vase. 800-334-0455. www.axor-design.com.
Kohler
Kohler. The Margeaux collection features straightforward forms softened by fluid lines, with traditional shapes interpreted in a modern way, according to the company. This line comprises 14 accessories, including the valet (pictured), a piece that includes a wall hook and matching clothes hanger. The accessories come in polished chrome, vibrant brushed nickel, vibrant polished nickel, and vibrant French gold finishes. 800-456-4537. www.kohler.com.
Atlas Homewares
Atlas Homewares. Geometric shapes give the Element collection a futuristic feel, the manufacturer says. The collection features a square paper holder (pictured) and square knobs, as well as towel bars, towel rings, and a tissue holder that coordinate to tie the bathroom together. The accessories are available in brushed nickel and polished chrome. 818-240-3500. www.atlashomewares.com.