farmhouse sink: the ikea edition

one of the things i wanted most in my kitchen was an apron style farmhouse sink like the one pictured above. for sink novices (don’t worry, i was one as of 6 months ago), apron style refers to that overhang you see at the front of the sink. unlike undermount sinks, which are essentially dropped into the countertop/cabinet, apron sinks show a little “apron” around the front, which gives them a cozy antique farmhouse feel.

before you say it, yes, i know that i bought an apartment in new york city and not a cozy barn in the woods of vermont, but i grew up in the woods (ish) of massachusetts, and i love me some cozy farmhouse feel. my apartment isn’t big enough for the real markers of country house chic (giant wood beams, brick fireplace, wide planked hardwoods, oversized industrial pendant lights, etc.), but a farmhouse sink: that i could do.

as you may recall, my design plan for the kitchen involved white cabinets, stainless steel appliances, a badass encaustic tile, and wood accents (again, adding a touch of farmhouse to the space!). i figured that a farmhouse sink couldn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars, and once i settled on my design plan, i started hunting around.

GUYS, i could NOT have been more wrong. sadly, this happened to me many times during the renovation process. things ALWAYS cost more than you think they will. such is life, i suppose. as it turns out, farmhouse sinks (nice ones, at least) start at around 700 and go up to 2k. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR A PLACE WHERE YOU WASH YOUR POTS AND PANS! i’m sorry, am i washing 24k gold in this shit? that price is ridiculous.

what’s a girl to do when she has her heart set on a design element that she can’t afford? she turns to the internet, of course! i started pinteresting my little heart out, and came across this blog post from one of my favorite design blogger, jenny komenda of little green notebook. jenny, too, wanted a farm sink, but she wasn’t willing to toss two thousand bones down the drain to get one.

lucky for me, jenny had a solution! it started with I and ended with KEA. god bless the scandinavians, amiright? the fine folks at ikea had a DOUBLE farmhouse sink, and it cost a (relatively, comparably) minuscule $312.

NOW we were talking.

once i figured out that ikea had what i wanted, i researched some more. how did people style the ikea sink? (very nicely, as exhibit A above proves) did they like it? (most did!) did it scratch easily? (so long as you had barkeeper’s friend, you were fine) was it too big (my contractor said yes, i couldn’t really see it without actually seeing it in person)? was the double bowl annoying? were the grates in the back annoying? (for some, yes)

here’s what my research revealed: the ikea sink was not perfect. some felt the back grates were annoying, that water and soap scum pooled in them. some felt the single bowl was too small, the double bowl, too big. some thought it was too hard to keep clean (i mean, it IS white). but for the price, most people loved it. like, really loved it.

i was sold. so a few months ago, i dragged my ass to ikea on a wednesday night (more about that solo excursion here) and i ordered the double domsjo, which was indeed REALLY f*cking big (37″ long!), but was also really pretty. there it is below, styled in one of those faux ikea kitchens that i love so much.

that was approximately 4 months ago. i’ve been living in the grand apartment for almost 2 months now, and i’ve had my sink connected for about 6 weeks of that time. and so far, i am VERY happy with it. it’s enormous, yes, but that doesn’t bother me. i do the actual washing in the left bowl, and stack the “to be washed” stuff in the right bowl. i keep my dish and hand soap on the grated area, and i just wipe it down every day or so. it doesn’t really seem to get that dirty (though i am somewhat of a neat freak). i’ve only had to clean it with barkeeper’s friend once, and that was only because it got a little greasy after my candle-making adventure.

here it is looking beautiful with a gigantic bunch of fresh eucalyptus in it. ain’t she purty?!

here’s a full, totally unstyled shot of the sink from the entrance to the kitchen. it takes up quite a bit of space, but as someone who cooks a lot and therefore makes a lot of dishes, that doesn’t bother me. i haven’t had any trouble with scratches, and i’ve washed that insanely heavy dutch oven you see there atop the stove in it multiple times. all in all, i am very happy. mostly because it’s bright white and beautiful and if i close my eyes real tight and then open them again, i can almost kid myself into thinking i’m in a cozy farmhouse where a fire crackles in the room next to me and the beds are layered with down comforters and the floors creak with every step.

so: who wants to go in on a farmhouse?!