I put off touching anything in this room for years because the whole category felt like a trap, buy the wrong basin or the wrong tub surround and you're stuck looking at it every morning for a decade. What changed was finally gutting a tiny rented flat's bathroom and realizing the fittings matter more than the tile ever did.
The colors and finishes that actually make a bathroom easy to live with are the ones that don't shout. Soft white, a warm stone shade, matte black or brushed nickel on the taps and handles, these wear well because they don't date the way a bold colored suite does. Chrome still earns its place too, it wipes clean in seconds and shows water spots less than people warn you it will, as long as you dry it off now and then. What I'd steer away from is anything too glossy paired with anything too cold, a shiny white basin against stark white tile with no warmth anywhere reads like a dentist's office, and a colored tub or sink from a few decades back, the avocado and dusty pink stuff, almost never sits well in a modern room unless you're building the whole space around it on purpose.
Where things really clash is mixing metals without meaning to, gold taps next to a chrome towel rail next to a black mirror frame looks like you ran out of one finish halfway through and grabbed whatever was on the shelf. Pick one metal tone and let everything else, the hooks, the handles, the shower fittings, follow it. And be careful putting anything delicate feeling, thin ceramic, pale unsealed stone, hardware with a soft brushed finish, anywhere near a family bathroom that gets heavy daily use. It will show every knock within a year.
How these things age comes down almost entirely to upkeep, not luck. A good basin or tub keeps its surface for years if you rinse it after anything acidic touches it and don't let products sit pooled on the finish overnight. Taps develop a kind of quiet solidness over time, the good ones get a slightly heavier, more reassuring turn to them, while the cheap ones start to feel loose and rattly within a year, and you'll hear it before you see it, a thin clank instead of a solid click when you set something down on the edge of the basin. Toilets and sinks with proper weight behind them stay stable and don't creak underfoot or wobble when you lean on the rim.
The detail that makes a bathroom a genuine pleasure, not just functional, is a tap that turns off with one quiet, solid movement, no drip after, no squeak, just done.