the big little kitchen | Think Small, Live Large
Gorgeous Sinks for Every Space
Finding Everything You Need, and the (Right) Kitchen Sink
As much as we would like to think otherwise, we all spend a lot of time in front of our sinks. Life in the kitchen is not just about gourmet cooking. There are also those tedious tasks like washing, peeling and chopping vegetables before we cook and the even more tedious job of scraping dishes and scrubbing pots after. This is true even if you have a dishwasher, which takes away only a little of the tedium. Who wants to do all of that standing over an ugly sink? With the many, many possibilities on the market today there is no reason for anyone to put up with a dingy sink, no matter the size or configuration of their kitchen. What follows is a quick overview of a little of what is out there, with an eye to the needs of smaller kitchens and a few tips about the ins and outs of buying the right sink for your kitchen.
Just because it’s the site of our least appealing culinary activities, there’s no reason the kitchen sink should be anything less than stunning, no matter the size of the space it occupies. The market is full of great options in every size that meet this standard, like the 24-inch KOHLER “Whitehaven” farm sink, left, or the 17-inch undermounted “Kore” from KRAUS, right.
Fittings:
First Things First
The place to start when choosing any sink is with the layout of your kitchen. You don’t want to fall in love with a particular sink too early in the process and then discover that it’s not going to fit spatially or stylistically into your kitchen. Don’t even go there until you have a firm idea of how the rest of your plans are going to shake out. Then your choice will largely be determined by the location and size of the sink cabinet you are using and the style and appearance of the rest of the kitchen. The maximum size of the sink you use will depend on the cabinet it’s going into and whether you plan to use an undermounted, a drop-in or a farm sink (a.k.a, apron-front sink). Undermounted sinks tend to be the most popular, because, as the name implies, they’re secured to the counter from underneath and thus leave a smooth, clean counter, but their flanges and the clips needed to attach them generally require a cabinet 3 to 5 inches wider than the sink itself. Drop-in sinks, sometimes called self-rimming sinks, don’t present this problem, nor do most apron-front sinks, although with some installations an extra 3 or 4 inches of cabinet width may be required.
The depth of a sink varies from 7-inches for most budget sinks to 8 or 9 inches for better-to-premium sinks. However, some people prefer a deeper sink that can run to 10 or 11 inches deep. The choice is entirely yours, except with a farm sink, in which case the depth of the sink will determine the height of the apron, which in turn will determine which sink cabinet you can use, so check with your cabinet company before buying any farm sink, to be sure that their sink cabinets will work with your sink.
Like many sinks, this 25-inch drop-in sink/work station from RUVATI, comes with multiple add-ons like a bottom grate, a cutting board and a drain basket. The sleek 32-inch undermount “Ortega,” right, from SIGNATURE HARDWARE, comes with a low divider so it works as a two-bowl sink separating dirty tasks from cleaner ones, but leaving enough width above the divider to wash big items.
One Bowl or Two?
For decades two-bowl kitchen sinks were the norm. They provided one bowl for washing dishes and another for rinsing them in clean water, an arrangement made obsolete by dishwashers. The trend for the past several years has been toward single-bowl sinks in general, and in a small kitchen this configuration usually makes the most sense. First of all, the smallest sinks offering two bowls are 32-inches long, which is more sink than most people need in a small space. Secondly, single-bowl sinks provide you with one, wide-open space that will accommodate most kitchenware you need to clean. And finally, two bowl sinks require more plumbing which consumes a lot of potential storage space in the sink cabinet.
Conquering the Corner
Putting a sink of any kind in an inside corner is always tricky and should usually be avoided. But there are some kitchens where that location makes most sense, as in front of a corner window or when, because of the placement of appliances or other fixtures, you’ve run out of other options. Using a diagonal cabinet with the sink set at 45-degrees is almost never a good solution. That arrangement consumes too much cabinet and floor space and looks ungainly. Instead you can opt for a two- or three-bowl sink that wraps around the corner, gives you more sink and cabinet space and creates a cleaner look. There are also situations, though, especially in small kitchens, where you need to put a sink on an outside corner, which can present an even tougher problem. Fortunately the design world has come up with a few new good-looking options for each that not only fulfill that need but look good doing it.
Materials
As with styles and shapes, the variety of materials you have to choose from when picking a sink has expanded greatly, even among smaller size sinks. The days of having to choose between either stainless steel or white porcelain sinks are quickly giving way to a wide world of multiple choices. For those who like metal you can choose copper as well as stainless. With either, make sure to buy a sink made with 18- or 16-gauge metal, and note that thickness decreases as gauge numbers go up, so any sink with 19-, 20- or 21-gauge metal is thinner and generally inferior. Many sink manufacturers are creating sinks from composite/stone materials and offering them in a range of colors from black to gray and sand and even red. You can also find sinks made of actual stone, such as marble or soapstone, although these tend to be pricey and high-maintenance. A couple of vendors are even offering cast-concrete sinks for a raw, industrial look. For those who like the idea of an integrated sink, which is seamlessly fused to the bottom of the countertop, the choices are no longer limited to a few colors of acrylic, solid-surface material, similar to DuPont Corian. You can now find integrated sinks made of the same quartz color and pattern as your quartz countertop. Although the selection right now is limited to a few dozen quartz colors, this is a vast improvement over the handful of blah monochromatic acrylic, solid-surface options previously available for creating integrated sinks.
Among the latest innovations are integrated quartz sinks, like this 20-inch “Integrity Q” from SILESTONE, left, which lets you seamlessly marry a sink to a countertop to create single piece using matching quartz colors and patterns. New, high-style copper sinks are also available, like this 18-inch square model from CAPLE, right, shown with optional bottom grid.
For those who want to give their kitchen a bit of a visual pop, ELKAY, left, offers this 24⅝-inch quartz/composite model in an eye-catching “Maraschino.” Many sinks, like the 33-inch “Chef Center,” right, by FRANKE, are adding extras like a composting bin and a tool caddy, that can transform the once-simple sink into a multi-tasking marvel.
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You will find that sinks of all styles come in a wide range of exotic materials and to suit almost any decor. If your kitchen budget allows, you can splurge on a marble sink, carved from a solid piece of stone, like this
31-inch model from DEVOL, left. Or for a far less traditional look, try the 30-inch concrete sink from NATIVE TRAILS, right, made in a range of colors.
The farm sink, which typically communicates a more traditional style, is finding new more modern form with sleeker colors and materials, like this 24-inch “Prato” stainless-steel model from ZUHNE, left, that includes several function-enhancing add-ons. The 27-inch “Ikon” composite sink from BLANCO, right, is designed with sharper lines and comes in a wide range of more modern colors.
In a small kitchen you are often confronted with unusual situations that require novel solutions. For a hard-to-fit inside corner the sink on the left and others from DAX are ideal options. For an outside corner on an island or peninsula the new 24-inch stainless “Social Corner Sink” from HOME REFINEMENTS, right, provides a stunningly good-looking solution.
STYLE AND FUNCTION
As one of the more visible fixtures in your kitchen, your sink should match the style of the rest of the kitchen and look great doing it. Many people love the idea of a farm sink, for example, which mostly communicates an old-time, hand-crafted, cottage-y feel, as the term “farm” might imply. Generally, this has meant you avoid using a farm sink in a contemporary kitchen that is more about smooth surfaces and machine-made minimalism. The good news is that you can get farm sinks in stainless steel and in sleek, fashion colors that better suit a more minimalist kitchen. When it comes to standard undermounted or drop-in sinks, details like the shape of the corners come into focus. In a contemporary kitchen a sink with sharply squared corners will create a more compatibly modern look, as opposed to the softly rounded corners of more traditional sinks. And if you need more from your sink than simply holding water and dirty dishes, many models of all types come with several add-on options, like cutting boards, fitted baskets, drain boards and bottom grids that will turn them into multifaceted prep-stations and turn you into a culinary aficionado — or at least it will make make you look like one.