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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Steps To Take Before Ordering A New Kitchen Sink




Sink Decision! Sounds easy doesn’t it, but trust me there are so many details to think of when choosing your sink.

Today I will be discussing Farmhouse sinks since that is what I am putting into my kitchen plans.

First you need to measure
 the space you have.

We have enough room for a 36 in. wide sink. Most cupboards are a standard depth of 24 in, but you need to make sure you will have enough room behind the sink for your faucet, spray nozzle, soap dispenser, etc..

Second measure the face of your cabinet above cabinet doors.

With a farmhouse sink one of the measurements you need to know is how much room you have on the face of your cabinet to fit the apron.

The aprons and styles vary from sink to sink. Your contractor will advise you on which sinks will best suit your space.

I had two options that could work…..

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Rohl 36 in Farmhouse sink.

Beautiful simple clean lines, but there turned out to be one problem. 

The Rohl apron is 10 in. and I have just over 9 inches of space  on the face of my cabinet before it hits the cupboard doors, so there would have to be a modification to my cupboard doors.

The doors would  have to be remade much shorter to accomodate the apron on this sink.

All of this IS possible, but not without some risk that I am not willing to take, if I don’t absolutely have to.

I looked around online to see examples of the shorter cupboard doors, and decided I did not like that look for my kitchen, nor did I want to take the risk of something going wrong with my cupboard.


This is an absolutely gorgeous kitchen, but for me personally, I did not like the shorter profile on the cupboard doors beneath the apron of the farmhouse sink. 

You will find this is a very common look and it has to be done this way because of the larger front of the apron on the farmhouse sink.

What WILL work in my kitchen is……..

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The Kohler Whitehaven under mount self trimming farmhouse sink.

It has a 9 in. apron front, and it is also 36 in wide, but it has more depth, it is 20 in. from front to back, the Rohl is 18 in. from front to back.

The front is self trimming so it sits seamlessly against the cabinet front. I like that option as well, no gaps that can sometime occur when cutting an existing cabinet to make a farmhouse sink fit.

Make a template 
to help you visualize.

I made a template and hung it on my cupboard to see which apron front would look the best.

apron front of sink 008 (800x600)
You can see in this image how low it will hang and also that is looks a bit too large in proportion for my kitchen.

apron front of sink 004 (600x800)
This looks just right to me, and feels more in proportion to my kitchen.

So the decision has been made, and the sink will be ordered this week.

Next big decision is how to do the sink surround, so many details to think about and they all are important.
to-be-continued