Why are farmhouse sinks so popular?

A week or so ago I decided I would check out some of the open houses in the neighborhood. I only went to the most expensive houses. Each of the four had a recently redone kitchen. Each had a single large farmhouse sink (aka front apron sink).

Why are these so in these days? It isn't for looks. The continuity of the cabinets is broken with the large white wart. Do people now find that fireclay is better than stainless steel? (Though some of them are stainless and other materials.) If the kitchen only has one sink, I see such a large one a negative. It takes more water to fill, if you want to do something like wash spinach. If you have large pots, depth is more important than sink size. (The farmhouse sinks are deep, but they don't have an exclusive on that.) Do people find larger better as they want to be able to wash a child or large dog?

One advantage I could see is I think the sink is closer to you. There is no counter between you and the sink, and the front is pretty much straight down. Is this why?

I decided I should do some searching. If stone, stainless, copper or bamboo, your belt buckle could scratch it. They are very hard to design around. If you install a large disposer it is near the front and makes it harder to get to the space behind. The rounded edges are a perfect conduit for water to flow over the edge, down the face, and under to the cabinet doors. And apparently such sinks never actually existed in farm houses. They always had free standing sinks, often with drain boards on the side, like this:

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The only positive I could find is nostalgia. But how many people around today grew up in a farmhouse?

Don.

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Reply to
Don Wiss
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My guess it is more a trend thing than anything else. Gotta have the "in" thing.

It is of some advantage to have it closer to you. While you think it is too big, I'd love to get rid of my double sink and get one big one. We never fill the sink so that is not an issue. I do want to be able to fit pots, pans, grates, griddles, etc.

Style wise, I'm with you. I don't care for them.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

On 10/13/2012 1:44 PM, Don Wiss wrote: ...

Fads come and go...who knows necessarily how any of them start?

+1 here. (But old enamel cabinets/sink...)

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Reply to
dpb

Herd instinct and brag rights. Same with granite counters and diamond jewelry.

Reply to
Vic Smith

You got it.... fuknYuppies -- who will pay 10x what it's worth just to have it. Plus a lot of the blame goes to HGTV.... and the Antique Road Show....

Reply to
Existential Angst

Same here, but only the summers. A washtub and a wash pan filled with buckets of water hoisted up from the well. No sinks.

Reply to
Vic Smith

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