Issue 03
you know them, you use them, but do you love them?
Faucets! Taps! Whatever you call them, you cannot deny their importance. And like many other objects in the home, they can easily blend into the bland background of every day use hardware, which makes it all the more notable when a faucet becomes a beautiful piece worth its own moment of your attention.
You can also find faucets and handles in many antique and restoration places. These older pieces are higher quality metals and fabrication than what is made today. They also add a lovely touch of the classic, lived-in energy to your space, never mind the loveliness of reducing your carbon footprint by not buying something brand new (and the loveliness of restored/used items usually being cheaper). It’s a great weekend activity to drive around to your local architectural salvage, vintage home goods, and antique places to source this sort of thing!
I. Mongers Architectural Salvage
This Norfolk-based architectural salvage yard has an impressive collection of restored taps, handles, and showers, one of the best online selections I’ve found yet. They have other sanitary ware as well if you want to do a completely salvaged bathroom, or just get an additional piece or two. In general, however, for ceramic bits like sinks, cisterns, toilets, or tubs, you should definitely look at them in person to double check for any damage as well as to take your own measurements.
Authentic Reclamation Ltd. is a similar Sussex-based salvage yard, though it’s not clear how much restoring they do their faucets. And it looks like they’re reorganizing their taps stock page. I’d keep it on file anyway, for those of you who have architectural hardware files…
For other second-hand options, you can also check places like Craigslist or Ebay, or in Ireland, DoneDeal or adverts.ie. Obviously, you’ll need to ask the seller for all the necessary details and make extra sure everything is functional before going forward with a purchase, but from a quick glance it looks like there are some good antique options on adverts.ie when you search ‘vintage taps.’
Waterworks is a fabulous company known for their faucets, taps, showers, sinks, bathtubs, and more. It was hard to pick which item to highlight because they have so many great options. Ultimately, I went with the ‘Henry One Hole Lavatory Faucet with Two Tone Cross Handle.’
With many finishes available for all the pieces in the Henry line, they combine modern simplicity with a classic balance between utilitarian and rounded shapes. They are also made to order, which is always a thrill. Unfortunately, Waterworks pieces cost a pretty penny, so take that into consideration before planning your next bulk sanitary ware order. But one can dream!
III. This antique handmade Moroccan brass tap
Sold by MarocDecorStudio on Etsy, this vintage, handmade brass tap is pretty much to-die-for. Its measurements are reportedly the following: distance from wall to the spout outlet is 3.93” (10cm), and face plate diameter is 2.95” (7.5cm). It’s a perfect little piece to brighten up a small corner in your house with its delicate pattern and unlacquered brass that will only get more beautiful with age! It’s affordable too. I will absolutely be getting this or a similar tap for future projects in my home.
Quick note: I can’t vouch personally for this shop, but I have purchased multiple antique Moroccan pieces on Etsy and they’ve all been fabulous. In general on Etsy, and especially for ‘antique’ pieces, I recommend exploring other items on the shop’s page, and reading as much as you can about their profile and the piece itself. You can also message the seller via the item’s page and ask for more photos or more details, and take it from there. Plus, if you buy multiple items, you can sometimes ask for reduced or free shipping! Etsy sellers love a personal connection and touch. Stay tuned for more Etsy hauls from PLT in the future!
IV. Unlacquered brass taps - a selection
Unlacquered brass hardware makes me drool with envy, with desire, with the endless urge to surround myself with beautiful and special things. I’m like Golem with my precious unattainable sacred unlacquered brass. The way this type of brass ages is like automatically adding ten gold stars of coziness and sophisticated lived-in vibes to your space. I couldn’t possibly choose just one shop or tap to recommend to check this box of what I knew I needed to share with you today. So below, you can find some of my top pics from a few months of research. Again, these are not cheap, but if you can swing it, even one piece will completely change your space
Devol Kitchens UK Aged Brass Ionian Tap
Devol is, for the interiors fan, almost universally considered the best of the best. You can - and should - spend hours perusing their website and yearning to suddenly live inside in one of their projects. And you can also look at their shop, where they sell individual items from their own personal brand. Compared to some places, the handmade aged brass tap by Devol I’ve linked to here is actually not insanely expensive. I’d much rather spend £560 on that than £1700 on fake gold! Not everyone would agree with me, however, and that’s what makes design fun.
Aston Matthews UK Brass Collection
Aston Matthews is a British company that is over 200 years old and still going strong. According to their website, they have over 2000 lines of products available and recommend visiting in person to check them out. I’ll put it on my bucket list! In the meantime, their brass collection boasts a wide array of styles and shapes that I found it worth sharing with my loyal audience :)
These bespoke taps can be made with a variety of finishes, as visible on the linked page. The unlacquered brass option is disgustingly beautiful and they have a great variety of faucet/tap/shower/handle options to choose from. This is the perfect situation for the control freak with a big hardware budget for their next project.
Samuel Heath is another 200+ year old spot that has a large catalog of faucets, taps, and other architectural hardware. The linked page is basically their think piece on their use of unlacquered brass in their projects. This amount of time and work going into a page about one specific type of metal, plus the ostensible quality of their huge collection of in-house designed pieces makes me believe these would be worth the investment. This fascinating website I just discovered did a thorough review of their hardware and generally agrees with me. (They did a review of Waterworks too, and it doesn’t seem to have held up as well as Samuel Heath!)
V. My Kitchen Faucet! Crosswater Brand - Cook Single Lever Kitchen Sink Mixer Tap
I always wanted one of those big, slightly industrial kitchen taps that you can pull out and spray all around your sink. It took me a bit of researching to figure out exactly what the internet needed to hear to provide me with suitable options. Luckily, a large bathroom warehouse store in Ireland had this piece, which ended up being exactly what I wanted. It works great, the metal is solid, it’s an impressive size - almost two feet tall - without being obnoxious, the neck is quite flexible and long when unhitched from the holder piece, and it’s easy and effective switching between the spray and stream functions. Plus, it won’t break the bank compared to many larger tap options.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading.
Talk soon,
xo Lilian
P.S. you can message me on substack with any ideas for future newsletters or items you’d like me to include or review!