housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
How our gunmetal fixtures are doing after 1.5 years
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"Aiyo if you do gunmetal then it will peel and become ugly leh!" Raise your hand if you've heard/read/come across this as an aspiring homeowner in love with gunmetal fixtures. We heard it too - so many times - but we still went ahead with the gunmetal fixtures because Duck really loved the colour :') It was something she'd been gunning for (pun intended!) for a long time so we decided to take the plunge and get all our bathroom fixtures in this colour. (also maybe because she'd gotten tired of having non-plated toilet fixtures at her parents' home for the last 20+ years and wanted a change). So does gunmetal really peel? Does it become ugly? This is how our fixtures are holding up after 1.5 years... 
First up, our master bathroom! The rain shower set we have from Zaffiro is doing really well - no obvious signs of peeling or flaking or damage, even though we use it multiple times a day for showering (and sometimes to wash the shower area LOL). 
Unfortunately, the tap we have from Zaffiro isn’t doing so well - the finish has started peeling away in some parts, but thankfully these parts are not really visible unless you stick your head in and really inspect the tap (which we hope our guests don’t do…. Because that would be kind of strange). We also have a bidet spray that doesn’t have a brand. This seems to be doing alright - some minor scratches around the area where the spray fits into the holder, but also not really visible unless you pay close attention to it. 
Next, our common bathroom! Quick disclaimer for our common bathroom is that it is a lot less frequently used than the master bathroom. It’s mainly used by guests to wash their hands and feet, so the shower isn’t used very much - which is probably why the shower is still is pristine condition :) The bidet spray here is doing much worse though, with lots of pretty obvious peeling and scratch marks around the holder. Our tap has also mysteriously incurred a huge scratch - we don’t really know what/who caused this, so we’re just living with it and pretending it doesn’t exist. The tap is from Pozzi, which we bought off Shopee. Our common bathroom also has a gunmetal towel rack from Taobao, which we also regularly use to hang up our hand washed laundry or random clothes/towels/rags. This is also in great condition with no peeling whatsoever. 
Lastly, the kitchen! The main item here is our kitchen tap and sink - we took a HUGE RISK here by getting not just a tap and sink in gunmetal, but also one from Taobao. We anticipated installation issues at first, and were pleasantly surprised that our ID and contractors were able to get it installed without any problem - we left the sink in the house and it was just magically installed the next time we visited. Apart from one big scratch at the side of the tap, the rest of the sink and tap are still in pretty good condition. Everything works great and there has been zero peeling, although there’s the occasional rust mark around the drainage area (which we’ve always managed to remove with baking soda or surface cleaner). We suspect that the scratch mark on the tap might be caused by a random pot/pan/baking tray hitting the tap while doing our dishwashing (our sink is pretty small hurhur) so it’s a glaring reminder for us to be careful always :) 
Overall, we would say that gunmetal... is really a hit or a miss. Peeling definitely happens, and while we try our best to be gentle with the fixtures, we're also not sure how else we can prevent it (sometimes it happens in places we don't really touch also) But of course, do your due diligence by choosing products from reputable brands - we're not sure if these issues could be prevented if we'd chosen fixtures that were more high end (e.g. Hans Grohe and Grohe). That said, we're still thankful that apart from the peeling and scratches, all our fixtures still work (even though they are not high end brands) well so all the 'damage' has purely been aesthetic so far... or so we hope. Fingers crossed!
23 August
