Well, its been over a month and Alice has not posted her pictures, tee hee! Personally, I have fallen in love with the vessel sinks. I saw them for the first time a few years ago in an upscale restaurant (in red). Then, I saw them offered in clear glass which I thought would be hard to keep clean and shiny with no waterspots. But since then I've discovered them in granite and have fallen in love with different colors and veining. My daughter and I have a plan to get one in the bathroom on her level. We are replacing a 4 foot vanity that has some water damage and in other ways is past its prime. I have access to a brand new 4 foot vanity with no top. I'd like to get a piece of granite (and if not granite I'll settle for 6" ceramic tiles) and cut a hole in to partially recess a granite vessel sink. I have found several on eBay that are very affordable.

@marcolo asked: "Is there a place online that shows a CC range top can be inset into cabinets?" Not that I am aware of. The CC instructions show that it can be installed in either a 24" deep cabinet or a 27" deep base cabinet (and, by inference, any depth in between). The CC instructions don't explicitly say that it cannot be installed inset with zero clearance to adjacent base cabinets; getting that through inspection without a letter from Capital might be a challenge, though. Throw 3" of flush filler either side before the deeper cabinets and I'd expect to pass inspection (ditto the BS). The filler would also allow blending the counter edge cleanly. Of course, one can simply pull the rangetop forward so it is still flush, as discussed above. Doing that also permits deeper upper cabinets (the limiting distance is the back of the rangetop to the front of the upper cabinet including door). Back on the original topic, my impression is that the BS rangetop might not actually be inset if installed in a 27" deep cabinet (meaning that the alleged exposed flammable surfaces on adjacent base cabinets would not exist), but I haven't measured that to make sure.

a slab of stone seems to be quite common, and it looks nice. Concrete, in some places. Glass is used--sometimes backpainted, sometimes tinted. Some photos show wood--though there are risks w/ that, of course. You could use a very modern tile, I suppose--I'm thinking 1x1-inch, in porcelain or glass. Either clinical white, or perhaps beautiful aquas and metallics. Or a bigger tile, just one that's very sleek. Any of the solid countertops: stones (granite, marble), Silestone, quartz, soapstone, solid-surfacing (Corian, etc.). Stainless is used sometimes, but I see it w/ white sink, not clear glass. Some vessel sinks just sort of float out there on brackets, but that could be hard in a guest bathroom, if your guests will need to set their toothbrushes down on something. (for a powder room, it would be OK) For a modern spa, you want both luxury and clinical cleanliness. Maybe marble? How much storage do you want? For a spa look, you don't want anything very bulky. But if you go with a vanity of some sort, and can stash cleaning supplies and extra toilet paper in it. Maybe a skinny vanity, w/ modern lines? that will also hide the plumbing. And you can put the TP on the inside of the doors. And you can put a slab on top that's much wider than the pedestal, for more contrast? (and to emphasize the skinniness of the vanity?) You don't want your counter surface to distract from the sink. (I did a search on images.google.com for "vessel sink") Here is a link that might be useful: some helpful thoughts about dimensions, faucets, etc.

My contractor explained that a customer of his had problems with a vessel sink but mainly because it didn't have an overflow valve, you know the thing that means there is a whole in the sink where water runs before it will run over the top of the sink. There was some problem with something like a vacuum being formed in the vessel sink preventing water from going down the sink until the customer reached in every time and "jiggled" the water in the bottom of the sink (I think). Then water would flow out. I had no reason to double what my contractor was saying. Since my discussion, I've noticed that there are definitely some vessel sinks with an overflow that includes Kohler and Toto. I haven't decided for sure which way I go but if I go with a vessel sink, I definitely plan to pick one that has an overflow.