Savvy Saver Magazine
Savvy Saver Magazine

Contemporary elegance with ZACK stainless steel

Contemporary elegance with ZACK stainless steel
June 26, 2013

ZACK has become synonymous with quality, offering a stunning range of stainless steel home accessories. Things started back in 1985 when ZACK was founded in Oststeinbeck (located just outside of Hamburg in Germany) by Bernd Mackenroth, who still runs the business to this day. In just over 20 years the brand has gone global and it now works with multiple distributors – the good news for you is that there’s now quite a few stockists in the UK. The beauty, as like so many other design icons, comes from the sheer simplicity and high quality materials used – without this there would be nothing to set it apart from cheaper reproductions.


With new exclusive designs produced every season we’ve picked out a few of examples of how much you’ll pay for certain pieces; each one guaranteed to add contemporary elegance to any room.



Home and living products

If you’re on a tight budget you can pick up some subtle design classics such as a simple clock for around £50, alternatively there’s also a stunning range of stainless steel candle holders in a similar price bracket. You’ll find the same fabulous build-quality with each item made only from the one material, in some cases just with additional rubber pads to avoid scratches to furniture. This is a great place to start as it makes the brand affordable for everyone and you’ll soon be hooked.

As the budget increases your choice will be opened up significantly, with the fire bowl (at over £300) being one of the most popular products with trend setters. There’s also various umbrella stands, clothes butlers and small tables in the £150 - £250 range, all of which are guaranteed to make a statement. Everything featured in the top picture is within this bracket to give you some idea of what to expect and it’s easy to see how well they all work together.



Stainless steel bathroom accessories

This is where it gets really interested as the range of items for the bathroom is by far the most comprehensive on the market. Not just out of stainless steel products, but across the whole market of bathroom accessories. Each collection is extensive, meaning it’s easy to get the exact look you’re after without having to try and mix and match across different stores.

So what do you get for your money? Well, simple touches like hooks can be bought for just over £5 and will instantly transform the drap backside of your bathroom door. Stepping up to the £40-£70 mark opens up a world of soap dispensers, toilet brush sets and general storage. Granted, the soap dispensers are around three times the price of others on the market which may look fairly similar, but the quality is vastly different. Whilst most will fail within a year due to jammed push mechanisms or will start corroding and creating an eyesore, the ZACK stainless steel is in a whole other league. You can still expect it to be like brand new after three years, which makes it just as affordable over cheaper alternatives over the product lifetime.

Moving up to the £150 - £250 scale will give you access to stand-alone towel rails and large laundry bins – still stunning if you can afford them but within the bathroom category you’re just as well off with the products in the lower price range.



Kitchen and barware

Finishing off with kitchen storage and gadgets, together with barware (as it should always be), this is where ZACK again excels and sets itself apart. The company has kept it’s philosophy of simplicity is best, even when other manufacturers are attempting to produce kitchenware that tries to be everything but ends up being nothing.

On the barware side the range starts at around £10, which will get you a simple, yet elegant wine stopper or foil cutter. Moving marginally up to £20 gives you a choice of wine holders, with ice buckets and coasters available from £50. At the top you’ll find wine cooler buckets on stands, which are just about the most elegant piece to use at a dinner party. Very unassuming, simple designs and without the ‘bling’ effect you can end up with chrome versions.

The kitchen collection is greatly more varied (as you’d expect), ranging from pizza cutters (at £15) to kitchen towel dispensers. There’s a few ‘quirkier’, yet still functional pieces within the category like the Livo Nut Screw which we love, putting the simplicity back into the nutcracker. The wooden slatted breadboard is another, as it rests within a stainless steel tray to catch all of the crumbs – ingenious idea! Most items in the kitchen range are around the £30 mark so it’s a good place to start if you’re looking to add some finishing touches to a new kitchen or want to try a few ZACK products before going bigger.



Our tip on extending the life of what you buy further

ZACK stainless steel products are built to last, but the company appreciates other parts like toilet brush heads can deteriorate with age. For this reason they make sure you can find spare parts readily available from suppliers. Therefore you can rest easy that if you do invest in some iconic pieces, you’ll be able to easily get replacement parts if needed.



Where to buy ZACK products

There’s a few retailers now in the UK, with most operating solely online.  Proleno.co.uk has the most extensive selection we’ve come across, closely followed by Victorian Plumbing, which focuses purely on the bathroom side.
 
 

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