KITCHEN SINKS
23 July 2008
“Sink Sense”
OK, I’m going to be honest about this. I really just clicked onto this site with copper sinks to do something a little different for our website. But the more I read about their product, the more sense it made to me. But, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. So, let’s start at the beginning of the thought process that led me to this site.
One of the main features of kitchen design these days is simply doing something different, but the problem with that sort of thing, of course, is that the different kitchen design can be the unwieldy kitchen design can be the white elephant kitchen design. The best of different, for those who yearn for it, is to make different better.
Copper sinks are definitely different, and that’s what led me to Rachiele Kitchen and Bath Products, but my initial feeling was that I would find it to be the bad kind of different, simply because of the problems tarnish must bring to copper sinks.
Well, sir!
The first thing I learned from their site was that the natural finish (it does oxidize if left natural) is actually better because studies have found that copper can kill bacteria in as little as four minutes. There is still the aesthetics of it, of course, and that turns out to be the least of it. What you end up with in an unprotected sink is one with patina—and character.
Rachiele bills themselves as makers of “Sinks That Make Sense,” and they more than live up to their name. Let’s begin with their dissertation on the utility of single basin sinks, as it is something I very much want for our own kitchen, and never so much as when I scrub the BBQ grill. The problem with double sinks, really, is that they’ve had their day, but only a few of us seem to have noticed.
I can remember washing dishes as a kid in our Helena, Montana home in a single basin sink. No one had dishwashers in those days, and we always had to use a pot of some sort for the dish pan. Well, time marched on, and when we moved to a house with a double sink, we all thought a kitchen could get no better. A sink for soapy water; a sink for rinsing. What could be better than that? Actually, there was something better, namely the dishwasher, and it came so quickly, that double sinks remained in place, long after their main function (washing dishes) had been supplanted.
And what are sinks used for now? Filling pots, washing pots, washing anything too big and cumbersome for the dishwasher—and these are the very items that are also much too cumbersome for the double basin sinks most of us still have. But Rachiele, as they assert, makes sinks that make sense, so the most of their output is single basin sinks.
The other thing that really caught my attention with this particular manufacturer is the fact that they have gotten rid of the center drain for the sink. In one of my very early blogs for this site, I waxed ecstatic about a design concept for kitchen sink cabinets I came across that enabled them to be utilized for drawers by rearranging the plumbing.
The standard kitchen has a standard sink with a standard arrangement on the plumbing that tends to take up most of the space under the sink. All one can really do with the little space that is left is cram in some cleaning supplies and, perhaps, a few bags for the trash.
In the solution I wrote about, they simply arrange the sink plumbing so the pipes occupy only the top drawer space and come down just a few inches before running to the back of the cabinet, where it turns sideways, makes its usual “U” assembly for the drain trap, and escapes out the back of the cabinet. The rest of the plumbing is situated at the back of the cabinet, and the result is a cabinet that will now accommodate drawers that are twenty-two inches deep.
It’s a terrific idea, but I now find that Rachiele has made this simple concept work even better. They simply put the sink hole at either the left rear or right rear of the sink. Now there is ample room for a double trash bin under the sink cabinet, which puts it closer to where most of the trash originates, especially the drippy, messy stuff!
Finally, I just wanted to give the dimensions for the sink at the top of this blog. It’s 39″ wide, 22″ from to back, and 12″ deep. Our wretched kitchen (I’ve described it at length on Thinking About It) is only going to accommodate a 31″ sink, but I’ve shorted out my keyboard twice this morning from drooling over their picture of what they rightly describe as a monster sink. Man, I could wash the car in that sink!
Joseph
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