What is a farmhouse sink?
Farmhouse Sinks are traditionally made as fine fireclay kitchen sinks or ceramic kitchen sinks and have the front of the sink exposed. They can come in a large single bowl sink or double bowl sink variations and have several different names. People get mixed up between the names Belfast sinks, butler sinks, apron sinks, farmhouse kitchen sinks. The reason why it gets confusing is that some of these are not mutually exclusive sinks. For example, you could have a Belfast farmhouse fireclay sink.
The simple explanation is that a farmhouse sink has the front of the sink exposed and not hidden away behind a kitchen cabinet.
What is the Boden Farmhouse Sink?
Buildmat's Boden Farmhouse sink is a modern twist on traditional farmhouse sinks which are made in white fireclay or white ceramic. The reason why we have designed it as a stainless steel kitchen sink is that it eliminates some of the disadvantages of choosing a traditional farmhouse sink.
Why have we made a Stainless Steel Farmhouse Sink?
Most people love the idea of having a farmhouse sink but are then deterred away because with a traditional farmhouse sink the porcelain bowl is generally a lot more sturdy, which means that it cannot absorb any knocks from glassware, which means as soon as you drop something like a glass or a plate there's a lot higher chance that it will break.
Stainless Steel doesn't chip or stain like porcelain or fireclay might, which is one of the advantages of using stainless steel but still keeping it as a farmhouse style sink. At Buildmat we also make our sinks with 1.5mm thick stainless steel all around the sink for increased strength and durability.
What is an Apron Front Sink?
An Apron front sink when you're able to expose the sink and bring the sink forward so that it can be exposed alongside the kitchen cabinetry rather than being hidden behind the cabinetry. An Apron sink or Apron front sink is another name for a farmhouse sink.
The Boden Farmhouse sink is a large sink bowl stainless steel sink, it does not come in a double bowl variation.
Is the farmhouse sink suitable for the laundry?
We have designed our Boden farmhouse sink in high quality 304 grade stainless steel so it is still able to be installed in a Laundry. We have seen so many beautiful designs with our Boden farmhouse sinks in the laundry lately, people are being more artistic and playful with the colours of the benchtops and cabinetry.
Laundry sinks are often and sometimes builders choose to put a cheaper quality sink in the laundry to save costs, but we recommend that you choose one that is similar to your kitchen sink to make sure that you don't allow the laundry sink to bring down the design of your house
What planning is required for a farmhouse sink?
If you're planning your kitchen design whether it's a kitchen reno or a new build a farmhouse sink is different to the standard so extra planning is involved. The kitchen cabinets are a must, if you're going to choose for a farmhouse sink or apron sink you're going to need to plan with your cabinet maker and we recommend you purchase your sink nice and early and provide this to your cabinet maker so they know what they're working with.
As well as you can then put the colours against the stainless steel and see how it contrasts together. There isn't a taphole on the sink so you just need to focus on matching the tapware colour with the counter top. Since Stainless Steel will usually match with all tapware colours and styles.
Does the front need to be flush with the cabinet?
The sink has 3 sides fully covered in stainless steel so you could also have the front slightly overhang from the cabinet and will still be fine, it would be a brushed finished stainless steel panel on both sides of the sink.
What are the Installation methods of a farmhouse sink?
farmhouse sinks are slightly different from a standard kitchen sink, but you will still need to decide whether it is an undermount sink installation or flushmount sink installation.
You wouldn't be able to do it as a drop in sink or topmount sink because there is no lip to hold the sink up. Instead, the cabinet maker would have to build cabinets or a substrate to hold the sink up.
Some additional Product Information:
Buildmat is a 100% Australian owned and operated online retailer of building materials.
We specialise in kitchen sinks, tapware and bathroom basins
We are based in Melbourne and ship nationally, our team live by the motto that if it's not a product we will have in our own home, then we won't be selling it and this is a principle we stand by when designing products.