Taobao Items for Toilet—Yes or No?
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A peek into our bathrooms, styled with both a mix of Taobao finds vs locally bought fittings! ✨ For the key shower & sanitary fittings, these were purchased locally to avoid any compromise on quality. We’ve seen all too many stories of horrible peeling and poor quality fittings from Taobao, especially for the bathrooms where there’s potentially going to be lots of water most of the time. 
For our master toilet, we did get the vanity & cabinet set from Taobao—this was the window facing “dry” area opposite the partitioned shower, so we figured it would be alright to save cost for this one. Some other factors leading to this being a Taobao buy included: • The wall for the basin cabinet side is extremely short, and it needed to be highly customisable since we can’t exceed the length of the wall • We didn’t want a top mount basin, and under mount sinks were usually of fixed dimensions which I’ve heard was tricky for our limited depth • Overall cost reduction in getting an integrated sink (don’t need to pay for stone tabletop + basin separately). Integrated sinks/ cabinets sold off the shelf were also limited in designs and colours After some sourcing on Taobao, I came across vanity cabinet sets which are stainless steel and not wood based (from the cabinet doors to the shelving & drawer compartments). Even though we’re not 100% certain if they are real 304 stainless steel, the material seem to be steel based and we liked the idea that it would probably still be better than wood based cabinets in terms of humidity and mold prevention. 
Our locally purchased fittings include this rain shower set, mixer tap and bidet jet spray. The idea is to buy fittings that do come into contact with water from a reputable supplier, and we got ours at Wonder Bath & Lighting through our ID’s recommendation. 
Taobao finds here are the foldable towel bar and a collapsible hook set. The towel bar can easily be folded flat while the wall hook set below comes with collapsible hooks that can be folded in when not in use. These are essential features as the bifold swing door would hit the towel bar when open, and if you’re also not intending to have your towel bar above the toilet. It was also easy sourcing for these fittings on Taobao in our desired length and in gunmetal colour. Both of these turned out to be very sturdy and at an affordable price. 
This hand towel hook deserves a shout out just because of its great quality. I loved how solid it feels and was honestly another great Taobao find. 
For the common toilet, we did however go with a built in quartz tabletop + wood cabinet from our ID’s carpentry along with a store bought sink due to where our shower partition is. While they are two very contrasting looks, I kind of liked the different vibes of both our bathrooms and I’m curious to see if both types would hold up well!
24 October
