8 things you need to know before putting a FARMHOUSE SINK in your kitchen

We just had a farmhouse sink put into our kitchen and I am absolutely obsessed!!!!

It is the prettiest, deepest, hugest thing ever and I couldn’t be happier with it!

I researched a ton of farm sinks and this particular one got great reviews and wasn’t ridiculously priced.  You can find my affiliate link for this sink HERE:
KOHLER Kitchen Whitehaven Sink This particular one is sold online and not in stores.  It has completely changed the entire vibe of our kitchen!!!

So I decided I wanted it but I didn’t really think about all of the other details that go along with installing a farm sink in an existing kitchen.  It was much more work than we anticipated, but we would do it all again because it seriously is so functional and so pretty!

I thought I would write a blog post with my farmhouse sink tips so that you would be well informed before buying your own farm sink.  And you know me. This is NOT a technical post. I tell you how to do zero, zilch of the plumbing, installing, etc because we hired it all out.   I just want you to know what to expect before you are farmhousesinking !!!!

So here we go on my farmhouse sink tips. I hope these help you!

8 things you need to know before putting a farmhouse sink in your kitchen:

Farmhouse Sink Tip #1) Farm sinks are huge and HEAVY.

This may be an obvious farmhouse sink tips. Like realllllllllllllly heavy. The FedEx truck delivered this thing to my garage on a dolley. That should have been my first clue.  And I consider myself a relatively strong gal, but I could BARELY move this thing with another adult. They are that heavvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvy.  So you need to seriously consider the weight on your cabinets when it’s installed.  Many of the sinks will need support under them and your cabinets may need to be reinforced a bit to handle the weight. Ours turned out to be fine. Winner, winner.  Just prepare your cabinets and your backs.

Farmhouse Sink Tip #2) Most farmsink installations will require your countertops be removed.

This is what our cabinets and countertop  looked like before we installed the farmsink. Our stainless steel sink went over our countertops and we wanted the farmsink to be under-mounted.   I’ve seen a few over-mount, but the majority go UNDER your countertops. This meant our countertop had to be removed and gotten rid of.   And since we were removing it, it was a great time to replace the countertops as well.

We had Silestone installed by Profile Granite in Kansas City. (Read about our new Silestone kitchen countertops.) Just know that if you want undermount, your countertops will have to come off and that means other fun things like taking out your existing cooktop stove and finding someone to get rid of your old countertops.

Farmhouse Sink Tip #3) You could be sinkless for a few days.

I know these are first world problems, but you need to understand that you may not be able to have your countertops removed, your old sink un-installed and your new sink re-installed, plus the plumbing all hooked back up all in the same day.  We went 4 days with no sink . And when you don’t have a sink, you get resourceful and rinse dishes in your bathtub. Hey, it worked.  But I just want you to have a heads up!  I’ve never been sinkless  before and things like making coffee aren’t quite so easy when you have no sink. 😉

Farmhouse Sink Tip #4) More than likely the front of your cabinets will need reworked and repainted.

Farmhouse sinks are super deep and the apron front needs a lot of depth. This will require someone reworking of your cabinet fronts.

In the photo above, you can see that a new piece of trim had to be added to our cabinets. There was caulking and siliconing going on.   This was not a job Mr Magic and I wanted to do at all. We had a professional do it and I’m so glad we did.

Farmhouse Sink Tip #5) You will probably have to get your doors cut down or replaced

I knew that we would lose the sink drawer we had, but I really didn’t want to have to purchase 2 new cabinet doors and then paint them. So I just had someone trim down the cabinet doors under the sink.  I had to paint the new lip that resulted from being cut, but that was a lot less work than replacing the doors.  And I think it looks just fine!!!  See the pic below to see what the cut doors look like.

Farmhouse Sink Tip #6)  Apparently having the sink level really matters??

Since the sink sits under the countertops and the countertops are one long piece, the sink has to be perfectly level or there will be a gap on one side.  The carpenter working on this project had to mess with this for a while. There were shims and cuts and a lot of adjusting going on. Again, leave that stuff to the professionals.  It was way more detailed that I had ever anticipated.  Having only had ABOVE counter sinks in the past, I was used to just seeing them dropped in. UNDER counter sinks are a whole new ballgame.

Farmhouse Sink Tip #7 )  You may lose a drain and your plumbing will need changed

Our old sink was the typical 2-sided stainless steel sink with the divider in the middle and one hole for disposal, one hole for rinsing. Well, our new farmsink only has one hole, so the plumbing had to be changed around a bit. The side the disposal was on had to be changed also.  So if you go from a 2-holed sink to a 1-holed sink like we did…. plumbing will need changed.  Who woulda thunk it???  I certainly had no idea!

Farmhouse Sink Tip #8) You will have to do some sanding and painting.

And here is how it looks after I fixed all of the cut cabinets and the painted the new trim pieces. In retrospect, we should have done this before we recently repainted our cabinets gray.  You can read about that project HERE.  It was minimal fixing, but fixing nonetheless.  And in all honestly, you cannot even tell that the 2 doors were whacked off unless I point them out.

I’m having a total transparent moment and showing you how stinkin’ huge this farm sink is.  Look at all the dirty dishes it holds. Spectacular.  I should also mention that this photo makes Mr Magic break out in hives. He has serious problems with dishes in the sink.  Bless it.

And the best farmhouse sink tip involved pets. This sink has proved to be the perfect bathtub for our new puppy Cooper as well.

So even though there was some work, time and money involved, I am thrillllllllllllllllllllllled with how it looks. And how it functions.  This is the Kohler Whitehaven tall apron sink which I am so, so happy with.

And there you have it.  All the things you need to consider when putting in a new farmhouse sink aka farm sink tips! We are decent diy’ers, but we hired this entire project out because it was just a bigger deal than we wanted to fight with.  And let’s be honest, we are much better hirers than plumbers in our house!

So I’d love to know…. do YOU have a farm sink?  Any Farm Sink Tips  I should have added to this article?  Please feel free to pin any of these pictures so you can refer back to it later.

Wishing you and yours happy remodeling!

Jennifer

PS…. be sure to sign up for my emails at the top of my blog so that you get the rest of our kitchen remodeling updates sent directly to your inbox. xoxo

You will want to read more about my kitchen renovations, especially its transformation from browns & golds to grays, how I chose my new arabesque and subway backsplash tile and why I lowered my kitchen countertops. All great kitchen makeover inspiration!