Kitchen sink not centered under window

DD is replacing the kitchen in her house to make it functional and attractive for herself, but she needs to keep in mind that she will probably be moving in about 2 years. The kitchen is smallish and she doesn't have the money to do any structural changes or to move utilities. She believes that the only way to make the kitchen layout work effectively for her is to not center the sink on the 52" wide kitchen window but rather to center the basin on the right half of the window. This means that her faucet would be 13" from the right edge of the window and 29" from the left edge.

I'm very much a symmetry person and have difficulty visualizing whether this would look just fine or "off" to a potential future buyer. A while back there was a thread on sinks and/or faucets not centered on the kitchen window but I can't find it. Do any of you have the link? I'd also very much like to hear your advice and see your pictures. Thanks.

With my kitchen plan I can either have a 24" sink cabinet that is approximately centered under the window, or a 30" sink cabinet that is off center. The 30" sink cabinet would end in the middle of the window.

I would rather have a bigger sink, but I don't want to do something that will ruin the look of my kitchen.

What do you think?

Thanks!

Amy

jillalamedat

Mamadadapaige:

My contractor squeezed a HUGE Kindred undermounted single-bowl sink into a 30" cabinet. Like you, I was shocked about the lack of sink options for the 30" base cabinet.

AmyeB:

I'm a function-over-form person, and I would hate to have my only sink be one that fits into a 24" base. In terms of the aesthetics, I think the type of window you have might make a difference. If it's a big window it will probably look fine if it's not centered, but if the window is about as wide as the sink, that might not look so good uncentered. In that case, I'd go back to the drawing board in terms of your base cabinet layout and try to get a larger sink that's centered under the window. That's what I did to center my prep sink under the window, and I'm glad I did. It's somewhat off-center (less than an inch), but that is completely unnoticeable.

That's my two cents' worth.

Jill

Comments (14)

• 

  Cloud Swift

  Ours isn't centered and I think it looks fine. In our case, the window is a pass through and it makes sense to have the pass through part be over counter. It allows putting dishes on the counter then going outside and reaching through the pass through to get them and set the table - and a place to put dishes when cleaning up outside.
  

  
  

• 

  mamadadapaige

  I just went through the same dilemna, although my sink base is 31". To be honest, I think you should stick with the sink centered on the window. It will look better. Also, for another reason... the good size sinks are mostly requiring 33 - 36" sink bases. For my 31" cabinet, the best I could do was a Elkay Avado sink that was just a smidge bigger than what I saw elsewhere.

  I did extensive research online looking at the following sink manufacturers: Elkay, Blanco, Am. Standard, Kohler, Franke, Kindred, Julien (they had a 27" but the price was sky high) and probably others I have forgotten.

  Make sure you will be able to find a sink for the 30" sink base before you go that route... I was surprised about the lack of sinks between 21" and 33".

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• 

  pcjs

  We had the same issue - our faucet is centered as it is on the left of the sink, but the sink is not due to wanting the dishwasher.

• 

  amyb_1977

  Original Author

  Here are the two plans..

  Sink off center
  

  

  Smaller sink centered
  

  

  We have a tiny kitchen and we have to add a dishwasher, so these are really our only options.

  Thanks,

  Amy

• 

  lightlystarched

  Since your kitchen is smaller, the smaller sink actually seems more to scale for the room. A 21 inch single bowl sink is still a nice size and perfectly adequate since you will have a dishwasher.

• 

  pcjs

  We'll never finish our kitchen, but here is our sink side:

  

  Our sink is a Blanco. When you look at it in the kitchen, it looks fine. It bugged me a little the first few weeks, but a year later, I don't think about it at all and love it.

• 

  jscozz

  Mine was supposed to be centered on the drawings... then the cabinet guys were off by about 1/2" when they installed it. THEN, the counter guys, who could have solved the problem by fudging the center faucet hole back by about 1/4", INSTEAD were off by about 1/2" in the WRONG direction... so, now my faucet is 1" off of the window (double casement with center mullion). So, I think a few inches looks like a mistake... a foot or so looks planned and fine.

  Just another one of those things that if you really cared about what you were doing and knew the tricks of the trade, the two wrongs could have hidden each other and made a right... but I got double wrongs now! :)

• 

  chipshot

  Not at all if the sink is in an island or peninsula.

  I agree that a foot or so (versus a scant few inches) looks intentional.

• 

  sherilynn

  Amy, I've had many homes of various sizes and many, many sinks. I've tried just about everything. I would much rather have a large single basin sink Vs a double sink. You can always make a single basin 'double' by using a dishpan. Your kitchen will feel twice as large having the larger sink. I would also make sure that it is at least 9~10" deep if possible. You can fit grill parts, huge pots, small kiddos and animals in a single basin sink. Try doing that with a double basin.

  I love the single basin so much I put a large stainless one in our retirement home. A ton of people choose to go for single basin farm sinks for good reasons! When it comes to sinks one wide deep one is better than two small ones.

  I would choose your second option.

• 

  Buehl

  Normally, I would prefer a double bowl sink--but with one large bowl and one small bowl (like the Ticor S405D we have). However, in your case I agree with others that (1) the size of the second sink fits your small kitchen better and (2) if your double-bowl sink has bowls almost the same size, then neither bowl can be very big.

  Additionally, with the second layout

  (1) you can utilize your corner much better with a super lazy susan rather than a blind corner cabinet

  (2) you have a little more room b/w your range and sink

  (3) you have extra work space as well. In the first layout access to the counter is blocked by the sink, while the second provides better access to that corner.

  So, convinced yet? :-)

  HTH!

• 

  kelly_2000

  Another vote for the second layout--I think it'll just look a bit off without the sink centered under the window.

  I went thru the same dilemma in my tiny kitchen remodel...maybe my solution will work for you.....have you considered an 18" wide dishwasher? Those extra couple of inches saved on the dishwasher side of your sink might give you room for a larger sink base still centered under the window. I downsized from a 24" to 18" Miele dishwasher, and really prefer the smaller dishwasher for my usage, plus it made the whole layout just work better.

  One other idea which might work if it fits with the look you are going for----there are quite a few options (Franke and Porcher for sure, and probably others) for 24" wide apron front farm house sinks with squared off bottoms (as opposed to the curves of the Shaw sink) that can be installed right on top of shorter 24" base cabinets, so you can maximize the size of the sink in the sink base.
  Here is an example of the kind of sink I'm talking about(Porcher):
  {{!gwi}}

  Hope this helps!

• 

  chris_5

  I think the smaller sink will give you a handy landing area to the left of the sink. However, having an old 30" sink, I'm not willing to go smaller with the new one.

  I don't know your window situation, but as part of our kitchen project, we're adding 8" to two windows. It's less than $300 per window for the enlarged opening and resulting larger window. If you really want the larger sink and you're replacing the window now or in the forseeable future, how many inches would you need to center the sink?.

• 

  kren_pa

  i like option 1 but with a single sink. i think that it doesn't matter if it is centered. especially in a small kitchen there is so much you can see at one glance, that your eyes don't focus so much on symmetry. if you had a bank of 6 base cabinets, well then maybe it would matter. i see wall cabinets on one plan...if the wall cabs are placed so that the window is in the center between them, then that would matter much more to me than where the sink is... kren

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