The biggest difference between faucets in a showroom and faucets in daily household use comes down to one simple word: Shine. While most sink faucets start shiny and beautiful, over time they tend to grow dull and dirty. People are constantly washing their hands, soap is splashing onto the faucet head, and stains and water spots accumulate, taking away the faucet’s original luster. Has this happened to your bathtub/shower faucet or your sink faucet? Have you noticed a general dinginess around the faucets in your bathroom space? If so, here’s what you need to know about bathroom faucets and how to keep them looking like new.

How to Know If Your Faucet Needs Polishing

A clean faucet is a shining, streak-free faucet. When you notice an accumulation of spots and stains building on your bathroom faucet, you know it’s time to do something. This is true whether your faucet is made of glass, porcelain, chrome, brass or another material.

Benefits of Polished Faucets

It’s not hard to see the advantages that come from a clean bathroom, whether you’re talking about spotless floors or sparkling faucets. Regardless though, here’s a breakdown of some of the specific benefits to expect when you keep your faucets polished:

• Like-new feeling. It’s as true of faucets as it is of automobiles — the better their condition, the newer and more valuable they look.
• Overall sense of cleanliness. Creating a clean bathroom feel requires every component to be tidy, from the countertops to the sink faucet. Water spots on the faucet won’t work.
• More of a wow factor. In terms of creating a strong first impression to guests and visitors, a sparkling faucet goes a long way. Keeping it clean and polished turns it into more of a showpiece.

Tips for Polishing Your Bathroom Faucet

To polish a faucet, you’ll need a simple list of tools: cleaning cloths, soap, vinegar, water and perhaps an old toothbrush. Additionally, here are some tips and tools that can be useful to remember:

• Pull from the liquor cabinet. Believe it or not, vodka can be a great cleaning tool, at least when it comes to bathroom faucets. Soak a cleaning cloth in the alcohol and use it to polish glass, porcelain or chrome fixtures.
• Try an acidic medium on soap spots. Basic white vinegar can be effective at removing soap scum and water spots. Similarly, lemon juice can help get rid of these tricky scum marks.
• Apply oil to the clean faucet. Once the faucet shines again, rub some baby oil on it to ward off new spots and add a sparkling finish.
• Avoid scouring pads. Abrasive cleaning tools might work well on kitchen pans, but they should stay far away from your bathroom faucets. Because abrasive cleansers can damage and scratch the faucet’s finish, avoid them, using cloths and old toothbrushes instead.
• For brass faucets, dry and gentle is key. To get rid of spots and scum on brass faucets, stick to a damp cloth or a cloth dipped in warm, soapy water. Using anything more abrasive can damage the fixture. Likewise, once the faucet is clean, dry it thoroughly. You may even want to keep a cloth in the bathroom to regularly wipe the faucet after use, preventing new water stains from forming.

To make your sink faucets beautiful, use the tips above to stay on track. Also, when you’re looking for new bathroom faucets, come to Modern Bathroom. We’re proud to offer a wide range of features and fixtures to outfit any style of bathroom.

Are you looking for a great way to create a beautiful, stylish bathroom? If so, then think about glass — one of the year’s top bathroom trends. Here is a quick look at the many stylish ways the design world is putting glass to work in the bathroom.

The Shower

If you want to decorate with glass, then the shower will be an essential part of your theme. Here are a few ways you can really take off with glass:

• One timeless favorite is glass shower doors. Use textured glass or smooth, clear glass — either way, you’ll make a big statement.
• The glass shower enclosure is very popular right now, particularly the clean look of a frameless enclosure.
• Framed enclosures are another great (and lower cost) option, especially when they are designed to look like French doors and windows, or windows with transoms.
• In more compact bathrooms, sliding enclosures will give you the same look as a glass enclosure, but since the doors slide rather than swing, you won’t need to worry about making sure there is enough room for a swinging shower door to open.
• Glass block enclosures are incredibly versatile, letting you build a shower in any number of shapes, sizes and designs — including showers with beautifully curved glass walls.

The Bathroom Sink

There are two great ways to incorporate glass in the bathroom sink: One is to make use of glass sinks, particularly vessel sinks, which tend to resemble old-fashioned washstands.

The other way to use glass around the sink is to go with a glass countertop over an open-framed vanity. Continue the theme using a glass vessel sink on the glass counter or choose a vessel sink in a contrasting color. In some high-end bathrooms, the glass counter is even illuminated from below, which adds a pleasantly modern ambience.

Using Glass Elsewhere in the Bathroom

The shower and sink aren’t the only places you can use glass! In fact, there are tons of smaller accents that will help you create a stylish, cohesive look. Consider the following ideas:

• Add an air of elegance by installing a cut-glass chandelier as the bathroom’s main light source.
• Install glass shelving, whether you use smaller shelves near the sink for your necessities or larger glass-shelving units for big items like towels.
• When it comes to mirrors, bigger is better. Not only will they enhance your glass-oriented theme, but they’ll make the room feel more expansive.
• Put glass tile to use. Glass tile comes in a vast array of colors and styles. It works well as tiling for shower walls or as a backsplash behind the bathroom sink.
• Don’t forget about the windows! One great way to use windows as an accent is to match them with the shower. In other words, if you have a glass block shower, then consider glass block windows, and if you have a framed enclosure that features transoms, then make sure to continue that theme with the window.

As you can see, there are many ways to get the look you want using glass fixtures and accents. Make your bathroom beautiful with glass, and this is one trend that you’ll enjoy for years to come.

Forget Hillary, Bernie, or Trump. The really big deal is Apartment’s Therapy’s Big Reveal Makeover Contest. See, this lucky lady made over her apartment bathroom a few months back & decided to enter it in the contest. A refresher of the budget-sized but impactful makeover:

Do you know what I could do with $1000? How far that would go at Target and IKEA? That I could buy some fantastic creation from a starving artist or a fabulous piece of furniture?

Voting ends in one week, October 28, so I need as much help as I can get. Unfortunately, AT posts new contestants each day, so those who were announced earlier on have more time to receive votes. That was not me, as I just learned I was accepted a few days ago.

That’s why I need your votes! To help a sister out, go here, log in/register, and then click the heart to “favorite” my room.

Thanks so much for your help! Together, we can do this!

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Filed under: Bathroom, Before & After, DIY, Rental Decorating, Reveals + Makeovers