00 Fixings and Faucets

I found the German website Megabad that has resonable prices for Duravit bath fixings and delivers to Italy when the time has come. That means I do not have to buy everything here and now in China and ship it and store it! I am relieved. How to store 6 bathrooms? Where and without disappearing...

I have good experience with several Duravit products. E.g. the toilets from the Serie Starck 1 and Starck 3. The picture left shows the wall mounted compact WC Starck 3 (360cm x 475cm). This fits perfectly small bathrooms and guest toilets. I have them all with WonderGliss surface finish for longterm 'clean and attractive-looking'. It costs 149 Euro (or 193 Euro with WonderGliss) via Megabad.

What is the advantage or disadvantage of a one piece WC? Has anybody experience? Or is it just a matter of space and design? We have thick walls and could mount them all. My husband says it would look nicer. Or should we use a one piece toilet for the masterbathroom like the one in the picture (Duravit Starck 3)?


Regarding the faucets we just love the simple design of META.02 by Dornbracht (see left picture). However, here in China I found some design copies from Beijing based brands that seem not bad either and cost only a fraction.


While the original Dornbracht faucets cost between 170 and 225 Euro via Megabad (depending on what you want), the Chinese one by Boloni cost about 83 Euro and by CIBOL about 60 Euro only (all plus plus pop-up waste, siphon, screws etc.) Left picture shows the faucet by CIBOL.
(Remark: Looking at CIBOL's website, you find a showroom picture looking pretty much like the latest cover of the Duravit brochure. While Boloni has no pictures on their website. Probably they do not want to get into trouble with all the European brands they copy.)

For the sinks I am not sure yet. Too many options:

In my opinion this is the smallest and nicest designed 'one piece double sink' Grand Kanal by Rapsel (110cm x 50cm).

This is another Duravit sink from the 1930 Serie. This would match our iron claw foot bath tub in the masterbathroom. However, we tend to combine the one 'antique' looking bathtub and its matching 'antique' looking faucets with modern classic style fixings and faucets for shower, toilet, bidet and sinks.


More modern but classic would be this Happy D sink with chrome stand from Duravit. Unfortunately the chrome stand is more expensive than the sink and I would need two of it for the masterbathroom. Maybe I find something else.




For my sons tiny bathroom (the one that hangs on the side of the house) I thought about this Vero sink (left picture), still Duravit. It comes in different sizes and I thought about the 500cm x 470cm one. But maybe instead of this edgy sink a curvy sink, like the Happy D, would be better for a children bathroom.

Still so many decisions to make. But one is done.
We bought the iron claw foot bath tub last Saturday here in Beijing. The Chinese brand name is Varro, but somehow it is related to the US brand StThomas. I am not sure if this is their Chinese joint-venture, but Varro definately delivers products to StThomas. So we spend only about one tenth of the price StThomas charges in the US. I hope it does not break after one year!



Links:
The German Brands:
Duravit
Dornbracht
Megabad (online discounter)
The Chinese Brands:
CIBOL
Boloni
Varro