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sweet100s

Does the sink I want exist?

17 years ago

I'm contemplating re-doing my kitchen island if I can find the right replacement sink (and cooktop.)

Finding the right sink will be more difficult than the right cooktop, so I'm focusing on that for now.

Current Island Problems:

1) Not enough prep space

2) A standard bar sink that is incredibly annoying to use. It's too shallow to be good for anything! Even washing hands causes splashes everywhere. I wouldn't dream of trying to rinse chicken pieces there because I'd contaminate all the surrounding area.

Looking for:

- A BIG sink that can magically change function from a sink to a BIG flat-surface prep area

- Having a front-to-back width where I could use standard restaurant supply cutting boards to form the flat-surface prep area. Like the colored ones here:

http://www.bakedeco.com/static/list/cutting-boards.htm

It seems like either 18", 20", or 24" wide (front to back) would work, and at least 36" wide.

Ideally the cutting board(s) would rest just inside the sink on some type of a ledge, but would be high enough to use for choppng vegetables. prepping meats, etc.

The closest I've seen is the Houzer Novus series. The dual sliding platforms looks excellent. But I'd really prefer it to be both wider and longer.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/NVS5100.html

Has anyone done anything custom like this in Stainless or Granite?

(though with Granite sinks, how do the corners stay sealed, and how reliable is that seal?)

Comments (14)

  • 17 years ago

    Cutting Boards

    Houzer Novus

    Why couldn't you use just about any zero radius sink, undermounted, with a positive reveal and cut the cutting board to fit on the exposed rim of the sink? (Router or table saw to trim the cutting board to size.) That's assuming that you don't get lucky and find a board that will fit without having to be cut down.

    The sink would have to be "dropped in", like into a piece of plywood and the solid surface--granite, quartz, etc. then placed over the plywood 'counter' under the granite.

  • 17 years ago

    I have a SS farmhouse sink. Mine is 33" but they make 36" and 42". I'm going to have a huge reveal which would make the kind of flat edge you are referring to. I have a pic of my unfinished kitchen with the sink in a current post and they have pics of installed sinks in the gallery of the website I'm including.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Lavello sinks

  • 17 years ago

    Check some of the European designs. I can't remember which (Blanco?). Also, I personally like Sonoma Stone's setup (from what I've seen on the web and talked about with a company rep).

    Here is a link that might be useful: Sonoma Stone

  • 17 years ago

    I don't know if you can get this easily in the U.S.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Blanco

  • 17 years ago

    you can very easily have this made by a good stainless fabricator, or go with the franke professional line. my 30x18x12deep sink is gorgeous :) and if it were undermounted in a granite top...you could have a cutting board made to fit the space very simply as noted above.

  • 17 years ago

    Thanks so much for you replies!

    Is a "positive reveal" the horizontal or vertical surface where the undermount sink meets the counter surface?

    The Sonoma Stone design would work and is beautiful, though I'm not sure about introducing a 3'rd material to my existing stainless and granite.

    If I go the custom sink route, I definitely am going to be precise about the width measurement so that I could easily purchase a standard cutting board that could sit on top of the sink and function as a cutting board -- from a nice John Boos board to the cheap color-coded plastic boards that are easily replaceable (or sandable) when the cutting grooves get too deep.

    After surfing various cutting board sites for 1 hour, that critical dimension is either 18" (most) or 24" (many) or 20" (some).

    From what Ci_lantro described above, it sounds like that dimension is what I'd need to make the 'positive reveal'?

  • 17 years ago

    The biggest obstacle to your idea is the width of your sink base cabinet. If you have a bar sink there, you probably have a 18" or 20" sink base cabinet. A large sink will not fit in that small a cabinet. YOu need to measure your cabinet to decid on your limitations.

    Most any of the special order sinks from Blanco, Kohler or Elkay will have available a custom cutting board that will fit the sink. It's not a big deal at all. Even American Standard has some cutting boards that fit certain sinks. You just need to spend time at a showroom looking at their catalogs.

  • 17 years ago

    You can get farmhouse sinks in 19, 21 and 24 inches -- mostly 24 inch. i have seen at least one of those that comes with a cutting board that fits on top. I'm looking at one for my laundry room and wasn't focussing on the cutting board aspect, so I don't remember which one it was. If I find it again, I'll post.

  • 17 years ago

    live wire oak,

    My island is 124" x 45". (10.3" x 3.75")

    despite the length and width I have so little prep space because the side where I am all the time is :

    : 20" space ---- bar sink --- 24" space --- 52" cooktop + griddle -- small landing zone :

    I constantly am putting larger cutting boards over 1/2 the bar sink.

    What I need is for the bar sink + some area left and right of it to function as chopping prep space part of the time, and veggie or meat cleaning sink the other part of the time.

    I'd like to be able to get a commonly available 18" or 24" cutting board rather than be dependent on always being able to buy a cutting board of a specific custom size from the sink manufacturer, or taking the time to cut one down to size.

    What is the probability they would still sell the same size cutting board when I need to replace it? Would they make one diswasher safe, as well as wood, etc..

  • 17 years ago

    Liveoak is still right though.

    You need to measure the sink base cabinet width so that you'll know what size sink you can get width-wise. In other words, we definitely see WHY you need the change, know we just need to know how much space we have to work with to help you with the change b/c the cabinet size will dictate the maximum sink size. Unless you want to replace cabinetry, but I didn't get the impression that you wanted to open that can of worms.

  • 17 years ago

    I measured the space from front to back under the sink and it's 24". According to Yahoo! Answers that is standard depth for a base cabinet.
    http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061016195518AAVAB32

    I will lose one drawer to the right of my current bar sink to get the length that I want (36" - 42")

    The most fitting one so far seemed to be the Houser Novus, as the dual ledge / sliding system would be just perfect for certain types of prep I do often. However when I looked at the spec PDF, even though it said the sink was 18" wide, the cutting board that fit on top of it was only 15 3/4".

    I called 3 custom stainless places, and they all said that I would be shocked at how expensive a custom stainless sink is.

    If I have to go the custom route, maybe granite would be the way to go.

    Here is the concept of what I'm looking for, on steroids. It was featured on HGTV a couple months ago. I'm surprised scaled down versions of this are not common in small kitchens in order to turn part of the sink into a prep space. Maybe the concept doesn't really work well in practice.
    http://www.degiulio.org/work_signature_collection04.html

    Here is a link that might be useful: Mick de Giulio kitchen design

  • 17 years ago

    A $2000 stainless steel sink. Wow. If you're not shocked by that you probably won't be shocked at how expensive a stainless steel sink will be. Tell them to humor you and give you a price.

  • 17 years ago

    Sweet100's--'Reveal' refers to the exposure of the perimeter sink rim (flange). Negative reveal would mean that none of the sink rim is exposed. Positive reveal would mean that the counter top is cut back to 'reveal' some of the rim of the sink.

    I measured the space from front to back under the sink and it's 24".

    What we need to know is the side to side measurement of the cabinet that the prep sink is dropped into. Islands are usually composed of individual cabinets--drawer stack, sink base... The size of the 'sink base' (side wall to side wall) will determine how large a sink you can place in that cabinet. Cuz you just can't go cutting out the sidewalls of the cabs, much as we'd like to sometimes!

    Of course, there's the chance that your situ is different & maybe you have a site built island, as opposed to pre-fab cabs. On second thought, considering your equipment, there's a good chance that you have a site built island. Pictures would help a ton!

  • 17 years ago

    Ci_lantro (my favorite herb!),

    I'll have 38" of length to work with for the sink, doing what I described above (eliminating the drawer between the sink and the cooktop.) This will require changing one interior vertical 'wall' inside the island - the one supporting the left side of the drawer that will be deleted. I have a really good carpenter who has done big projects for me before at much less cost than other quotes and very high quality. The only catch is his timeframes are very unpredictable. In any event, with 38 x 24 to work with, if the right sink exists it would work.