buying a sink ....

Awhile back you may have read my post about my debate as to how many sink basins to get. Riveting stuff. I know. Anyways I decided that a single basin was what we would go for. We made the decision because we rarely use that 1/2 sink that we currently have, and that 1/2 sink just takes up valuable room from the "big" side. Design wise, I really like the look of 1 sink. It's clean, uncluttered. It feels right.

With that decision of the way I decided to head to a few kitchen and bath places in Toronto, my favourite being TAPS. (That's where I got the most help, I highly recommend you see Daniel, he was really, really helpful).

The two things that I needed to figure out in order to narrow down the sink choice was 1. Sink Depth 2. Sink Radius and 3. Sink Width. The thing that I was most focused on is what is called the radius. The term "Radius" refers to the edge, or curve of the sink.

The most modern sinks have a zero radius  - a zero radius sink is one that has edges that are absolutely straight. You can see some examples of zero radius sinks here. The downside to the zero radius sink is that they aren't great for cleaning (as a number of sales staff have told me, as well as my Mother) Food gets stuck, it's just a pain to maintain. It's also ultra modern. That isn't a downside - I just wanted to point out that it has a very distinct style.

At the opposite end of the spectrum of a zero radius sink is that you can go with a sink that has a large radius, which appears a lot in homes. Although nothing is wrong with the look, I knew it wasn't what I wanted for our house.

Lastly, I discovered that there an "in between" style of radius. A corner that is in between a zero radius and the curvy look of the everyday look. In the photo above you can see two sinks that have small radius, the one at the top, has a higher radius than that on the bottom. This shows you that radius size can vary between manufacturers but it's a happy ground between having a zero radius and the curve of the every day sink. I knew I wanted one with as close to zero as possible. On this trip to TAPS, I found a manufacturer called Julien that had a 18 mm radius edge which was absolutely lovely.

The one by Julien was perfect for our house as it had the right width for our cabinet - giving us the most sink that we could use, for the cabinet that we were buying, and it was the right depth at 8" deep.

Anyhow, I hope this helps if you're searching for a sink!Although lots of people encourage online buying of sinks, trying to find the best price and such - I'm such a details person that I really like seeing things in person - you get a great feel for how it will look in your house. So, this is checked off our list, we'll be buying this one from TAPS. Yay!