Laura made a skirt for her Sandford sink

Reader Laura gets major snaps for finding the 42″ Sandford farmhouse kitchen sink, above, which she used in her adorable retro kitchen renovation. If you are doing a bungalow kitchen, or a Victorian kitchen, or a charming Farmhouse kitchen with any degree of retro / vintage twist — this sink would be great. You gotta LOVE the drainboard on the left — so useful.  Other great details: It’s 42″ — a great size to pair with a 42″ vintage stove (repetition of sizes is good in design)…. It’s porcelain-enamel on cast iron — just like the originals… You’re going to use a wall-mount faucet, 8″ spread, like the ones here. Note, 7″ deep bowl is going to get splashy, a good excuse to wear a spiffy vintage apron. Where to buy: $827 with free shipping — Buy it exclusively at Signature Hardware, it’s made just for them, their website says.

There’s only one more sink like this available today (that I know of) — read on –>

There is also a second, bigger choice for a classic, wall-hung, drainboard kitchen farmhouse sink: The Clarion sink, manufactured by Strom Plumbing. This design is a full 5′ wide, and because of its size and those legs, I would say that this goes in a Victorian kitchen or a vintage-retro kitchen that’s not trying to be “authentic” to any particular era. Bungalow? Maybe, but I think it would be pretty big for most bungalow kitchens – and I don’t *see* the legs in a bungalow, although the sink top design in general, yes. The Clarion includes two drainboards — one to the right, one to the left… a much higher backsplash… comes with two legs… and the sink is deeper, just over 9″. Like the Sandford, it also is “real deal” porcelain enamel over cast iron. It weighs almost 500 lbs, and is about $1550, with free shipping.

Where to buy the Clarion: There seems to be one major supplier, Vintage Tub & Bath, and if you go to them via this link on Amazon –> Strom Plumbing Clarion Farmhouse Drainboard Sink P0812 White – I get a spiff. Hey, every little bit for the blog helps.

Do you want to see some vintage kitchen sink inspiration? See this story with 16 photos of vintage Kohler kitchen sinks — awesome images provided direct to me from the great folks at Kohler.

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I hate to mention this after-the-fact, but it could be something that Pam can investigate for us, and report on. There is a company in Illinois — Custom Ceramic Coatings — that does actual REAL porcelain enameling (the baked-on kind). I’ve seen them mentioned on a couple of different websites. I don’t know how much the cost is, but I think it would be worth checking out and having the information handy just in case someone here wants to save their current sink. It is my understanding that they are the only company in the country to do real old fashioned authentic fired on porcelain enamel work.

Tami

Well, I followed up on Tami’s tip, made a phone call, and yes — Custom Ceramic’s owner John Ballantyne says that, indeed, he does true, old-fashioned re-porcelaining of sinks, tubs, stove parts and even vintage motorcycle parts. And, as far as he knows, he is the only small businessperson in the U.S. offering this service. He does lots of (all the?) reporcelaining work for companies that take apart and re-manufacture vintage stoves piece by piece, for example.

John says can strip and then re-porcelain onto steel substrates, and usually, onto cast iron, although he tells me there is an issue with cast iron right now:

As I told you on the phone, I have been having some trouble with the thick heavy cast iron pieces since I had to change my porcelain supplier.  My old supplier went out of business and we had things matched up pretty good. The stamped steel sinks are no problem.  We are working with the porcelain for the cast and it has recently worked out on some pieces that had failed badly for outgassing. Once I try a couple of sinks that have failed and if they work out now,  then I will return to doing the heavy cast iron again.

The porcelain re-enameling process is not cheap, because it is time-consuming and requires craftsmanship, materials and the tools and equipment. John explains that porcelain = glass. To re-porcelain a piece, he says, he first must blast away all the old porcelain down to the bare metal. He then applies a “ground coat” — a special primer, more or less — usually two coats, each fired separately. Then, he creates a special chemical mixture of ground glass and other materials — this is called “slip” — and applies thin coats in a wet spray, drying and firing in between. The firing all occurs at up to 1500 degrees F. The “outgassing” he refers to, is when there are problems getting the porcelain coats to adhere to the ground coats during the firing process. Expansion, contraction, chemical formulations — all must be just right or you get bubbles and pocks and flaking or worse.

John can create white porcelain, or color-match to about any color you want. Vibrant reds and yellows are more expensive, he warns, because the formula for these colors use cadmium, an EPA-controlled substance requiring special procedures.

Costs vary according to the piece. John read to me from his rate card: A 42″ sink runs $750-$800, plus shipping. As you can imagine, shipping can be a substantial part of the expense, too. For example, John is in Illinois, just across the border from St. Louis, and one-way shipping to California for a piece sitting in his shop while we talked was looking like $230. He says he works with a special shipper to help get the best cost possible.
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That said, remember that it’s probably at least $1,500 for an Elkay Lustertone stainless steel drainboard sink. And I bet if anyone ever started making porcelain drainboard sinks new, they would be in that price range or higher. As I’ve said before, if you want or need to aim for cheap and cheerful: Take your measurements for a drainboard sink with you everywhere you go. Stalk your Re-Store, even renovation sites, and look for a sink top that is as perfect as possible. Or not-so-perfect, and use one of the porcelain repair products from deabath.com and don’t sweat perfection.

A 40″ stovetop, in white, with four burner holes, would be about $335, John said.

He can also do stove grates, with simple single grates starting at $50.50.

Currently, lead times are three-to-four weeks.

John says that he started his business in 1997, after running a large porcelain plant in St. Louis. He got his start when he reporcelained the exhaust pipes on his Harleys.

Link: Custom Ceramic Coatings — tell John you heard about him on Retro Renovation!

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When I wrote about Joe and his project to replace his timeworn porcelain drainboard sink with a similar, new Elkay stainless steel model, I had the darnedest time finding the Elkay examples on their website. As in: I could not find them at all. Elkay’s communications team was very helpful, though. So, here for your reference — shown above — are the eight models and model-numbers of Elkay Lustertone stainless steel drainboard sinks you may want to consider for your retro kitchen renovation. They start at 48″ wide, one drainboard, one bowl… and go all the way up to 84″ wide, two drainboards, two bowls.

I love these drainboard sinks, because (1) they are original vintage authentic — the same as they ever was… And, because a stainless steel drainboard is about as durable as you can get. I have Never heard of a stainless steel sink wearing out. DH really wanted one for our kitchen, but our salvaged Geneva cabinets came with four porcelain drainboard sinks, so I used one of those.

Joe's new Elkay drainboard sink -- installed on his vintage Beauty Queen steel sink base

As you can see from my screen shots of the eight Lustertone drainboard sinks from Elkay’s website, these puppies are not inexpensive. Note, however: The prices shown are Manufacturer Suggested Retail Prices (MSRPs). I typed one model number — S5419 (circled in the lead photo, above) — into google and, but quick, pulled up all kinds of online retailers discounting the MSRP by 1/3 or so. Maybe you can do even better with some deeper dive research once it’s clear what you need. Also, you should check if you can get similar discounts locally, through a brick-and-mortar store. For example, I checked online, and Lowes, Home Depot and Menards all carry Elkay (although these drainboards are not shown). It’s always nice to order something expensive like this from a “real” store — so that if there is a problem you may have better recourse. That said: Check the return policies on special orders wherever you buy.

Finally, if you want to aim for a super-deal, stalk your Re-Store and craigslist. These sinks are out there…. and like I said, they never drr, wear out. So with time and patience, you may be able to score a used sink at a phenomenal price compared to new-.

Link –> To find the Elkay stainless steel drainboard sink of your choice - type the model number — these are circled in my lead photo above — into the search box on Elkay’s homepage here.

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