Where Should the Sink Go in a Kitchen? Lessons From 22 Years of Design

https://youtu.be/tBeD3Qtl9-0

Four kitchen layout decisions worth getting right, from 22 years of design work. Full transcript below.

Most sink companies sell sinks. I spent 22 years designing the rooms they go in.

That was my work before I built a single sink, and it is where most of what I know about kitchens actually came from. If you are asking where the sink should go in a kitchen, here are four things I learned in that time that are worth knowing before your plans are finalized.

Where Should the Sink Go in a Kitchen? Start With the Island

If your layout allows for an island, that is where your main sink should go.

Here is why. It does not matter whose house we are in. If there is an island, everyone gathers around it. That is simply what happens.

So think about where you will be standing. If you are doing last minute prep, putting together hors d'oeuvres, or cleaning up before and after dinner, do you want to be part of what is happening at the island, or facing a wall with your back to the room?

The sink is where a surprising amount of your time in the kitchen gets spent. Placing it decides whether that time is spent with people or away from them.

Put the dishwasher on the correct side

I see this done wrong constantly.

If you are right handed, you pick up a dish with your left hand and scrape or scrub with your right. The dish ends up in your left hand. So the dishwasher belongs on your left. If it sits on your right, you are switching hands or turning your body every single time, thousands of times a year.

If you are left handed, the reverse is true.

This is also the thinking behind where I place a drain. Our sinks use a rear corner drain positioned for the hand you actually use, which follows the same motion and keeps the drain clear when a platter or large pot goes in. The same reasoning drives every decision in a wheelchair accessible kitchen sink, where reach and clearance decide whether the kitchen works at all.

But traffic beats handedness

There is something that overrides the rule above, and it matters more.

Look at your floor plan. Open the dishwasher door and draw it to scale. Now look at the path people take from the kitchen to wherever you eat.

If that open door lands in the middle of that path, put the dishwasher on the other side, even if it means working against your handedness. It is far more inconvenient to walk around an open dishwasher door or catch your leg on the corner of it than it is to switch hands while loading.

The same exercise is worth doing for the oven and the refrigerator. Open every door on paper before anything gets built.

Check your island clearance properly

This one catches architects and designers alike.

When they dimension the gap between an island and the cabinet run behind it, they frequently measure to the cabinet face rather than accounting for the countertop overhang. They also forget how much further into the room a range or a refrigerator can project.

You want at least 48 inches of clear space in that walkway and more than that if two people will be working in the kitchen at the same time.

Measure to the actual obstruction, not to the cabinet box.

A challenge worth taking

Go to Google Images and search for luxury kitchens.

Now try to find a photograph that showcases the kitchen sink.

I have looked at a great many of these images, and it is remarkably difficult. There is a reason for that. Most of those kitchens have a box store sink dropped into an extraordinary room because the sink was the last decision and the smallest line item. There is nothing there worth photographing.

The sink is the hardest working fixture in the room. It is where meals begin and where cleanup ends. It is worth more consideration than it usually gets, and when it gets that consideration, it ends up in the photograph.

If you are working through these decisions now, I am happy to talk them through with you. I handle every private design consultation personally by Zoom, seven days a week, and they are complimentary and educational rather than a sales call. You can also see our custom workstation sinks to understand how these ideas play out in a finished sink.