Kitchen Details- Sinks

Today I am going to talk about sinks.

But first, let me show you Eme's favorite new shoes.

I buy the girl gold gladiator sandals-- but she chooses her pink crocs and now Caleb's old hand-me-down's as her favorites.  But with the pretty pink socks... they are kinda cute :)

Back to sinks.

When we first started planning out our kitchen renovation, Doug and I decided to keep all of the base cabinets intact-- we were just going to reface them with new doors.  Because of this, I was planning to go with an under mount stainless steel sink since the size would work with the existing sink cabinet.  And, I really do love the way they look.

House & Home

But, we soon realized that once the fridge gable was going to be added in, the cabinet between the fridge and stove was going to be really narrow.  To fix that we would have to move the stove over a few inches.  Once you start moving appliances around-- even just a few inches-- it means you have to re-do everything.  In the end, we think redoing the base cabinets will be a good thing.  Building new cabinets is the most inexpensive part of our kitchen renovation-- it will just add a bit more work.  But, it will also allow us to build the cabinets exactly the way we want-- we can add in more drawers, spice racks, a lazy susan... all that good stuff.

Anyways, then I got to thinking-- I also like the look of farmhouse apron sinks.  My kitchen is small-- I don't have room for a huge island, barstools, and beautiful pendant lighting-- so the elements I do pull in need to make an impact.  A farmhouse sink could be a great option.

Now, farmhouse apron sinks can be insanely expensive.  I want a sink with 2 bowls-- and those can cost about $1500... seriously... I do not have that kind of $$ to invest into a sink.  But, thankfully Ikea makes an affordable option-- at $399.  

via pinterest

I've heard that these sinks can be a bit of a pain to install alongside cabinetry that's not ikea-- but Doug assures me that he could build the sink cabinet to fit the sink.  The ikea option is not an under mount... but I'm okay with that.  What I really like about the ikea sinks is that the sides fit tight against the cabinetry.

decorpad

This sink (the one below)-- would drive me crazy.  Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful kitchen.  But I'm not a fan of the rounded apron sinks that have open space between the side of the sink and the cabinetry.  My kids would find those open cracks in about 5 seconds and start shoving lego, cheerios, and whatever little treasures they can find into the open spaces.

via pinterest

Doug's installed several amazing (and expensive) kitchens where the customer has selected an expensive apron sink.  He says that often the customer is disappointed with the way it looks-- even though the installers try to customize the sink cabinet to fit the sink on site-- unless the cabinet is build around the sink-- it can look a little unfortunate.

So I couldn't decide-- ikea's farmhouse apron sink... or the clean look of the under mount stainless?  Well, then the other day I went onto ikea's site to get the dimensions for Doug and to check stock at our local ikea.  But... it disappeared.  Gone.  The single bowl farmhouse is still there... but the double bowl is not on the site.  I tried searching for the page via google but when I clicked on the link ikea told me the page no longer exists.  So, it looks like that particular sink is not available at the moment in Canada.

So consider sink decision made.  We're going with the under mount stainless and will be purchasing it through the company suppling our countertops since we can get a good deal through them.  I'm actually not disappointed that we won't be able to use the farmhouse apron sink, this means I'll still get to use the faucet I sourced.  And, it's not going to take us as much precious counter space-- definitely a bonus.

Molly Frey Design

So,  undermount stainless it is!  I'm excited about it... it's going to look great.  Bet you didn't know I could talk so much about sinks, hey?