There are hundreds of options to consider when choosing a kitchen sink for your glass countertop. For the contemporary or modern kitchen, we have almost exclusively recommended one sink: the Kohler Apron Front sink. The Kohler Vault and Strive are very similar. We love them for several reasons, several of which may not immediately concern you…but could down the road. Facts: I have owned the Vault since 2013. I have recommended them to hundreds of home owners. I also get zero money from Kohler to write this article.
For the contemporary kitchen, whether you are using new cabinets or remodeling old ones, the Kohler Vault and Strive under mount sinks are great choices. Foremost, they are beautiful, well-made of thick stainless steel, with a terrific brushed finish. Theyhave clean lines which complement our contemporary countertops perfectly. They feature a self-trimming design which makes sink installation a breeze in a new kitchen or a remodel. Their documentation and videos are terrific as well, something sorely missing from other major brands. The self-rimming feature means that in a remodel, the cabinet top rail must be cut. The Kohler apron front design overlaps these cuts with a wide flange. This is very smart. Many other apron-front sinks do not have this overlay flange design, and require the cabinet to be cut perfectly and then trim or caulk the cut line…nearly impossible in a remodel without chipping the wood and/or laminate.
See the video below to see this simple installation.
As a custom glass countertop manufacturer, our view is that the design of the Vault sink eliminates the risk of cracking and chipping of the slim countertop piece in front of under mount sinks. This is smart because if you crack this non-structurally supported piece, you will need to replace that entire section of countertop. Ouch! The Vault design removes an expensive potential failure point. Further, glass countertops are usually LED illuminated from the rear edge. However, if you have an under mounted sink, the light will not hit the front of the sink and create an unsightly dark spot. This front countertop piece is also the place where pots, pans, etc must fly over when placing inside the sink for cleaning. This is a high traffic area much more suited to a resilient stainless steel apron front sink material vs a fragile countertop such as glass or granite. We have observed that many countertops, in many materials, suffer damage in this area. This is due to the narrow width of the countertop, as well as the usually thin, flexible rail that is underneath the front of the cabinet. These wood rails usually are subject to wetting from water splashing and this weakens them over time. Getting rid of this risk is smart.
When choosing sinks for your glass countertops, we recommend you go with a top-mounted sinks vs undermounted sinks. This is because the glass will show the silicone seam…not pretty!
Top-mounted and Apron-front sinks solve a tricky issue with glass countertops and under-mount sinks i.e. glass is a transparent surface unlike stone.
Undermounting sinks on glass counters leads to a very time-consuming installation process…which is why we do not recomend undermounted sinks EVER.
A simple, elegant solution involves the use of Kohler’s Vault Apron-Front Sink
Kohler Vault Apron-Front Sink
Installation of these sinks is easy and creates very clean lines. Kohler has great “how-to” videos on their site that walks you through the process. It takes less than 30 minutes to install, and can be done by anyone.
Apron-front sinks also solve a much more critical issue: The front edge of most sinks is a thin countertop piece. Do the math…if a typical cabinet box is 24” deep, the countertop is normally 25.5” deep. If the sink is 20” deep, this leaves only 5″ of countertop…divided by two for front/rear leaves only a fragile 2.5” wide countertop piece in the front and rear of the sink. And the rear piece will be drilled for a 1.375″ faucet hole, and maybe air-switches, soap dispensers, ect. Not good. Cabinet fronts are usually nothing more than a non-structural decorative trim element. Disaster looms if you should press down too hard on the front countertop piece. The counter will crack and need to be replaced with a matching color/pattern.
When using LED’s along the backside of the glass, any sink is going to prevent the light from illuminating the front glass piece…creating a dark piece of glass. By using an apron-front sink we eliminate that imperfect situation. We can also place an LED around the perimeter of these sinks to cast lighting outward, eliminating dark spots. In some island pieces, this may be the ONLY lighting option available, and is a simple, elegant solution.
Apron sinks are also much better at taking the impact from pots/pans reducing the risk of chipping an exposed glass surface on the front.
We like these sinks so much I installed them in my own home, and suggest that they be given your highest consideration when shopping for your kitchen countertop sink.
Contact: Jeff Downing 800-486-3650 email: Jeff@DowningDesigns.com
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