Having grown up on a dairy farm, I am very familiar with a "farm sink." We had them in the milk house of the barn to wash the milking equipment in. I'm not sure how they progressed into people's houses! Good luck with your decision. Perhaps there are different, better models that people will steer you toward.

I do a lot of hand-washing of dishes and I'm also a sloppy washer! I am forever soaking the front of my blouse, but I haven't noticed water dripping off the front of my farmhouse sink. My sink does have a lip on it, so the water would probably drip onto the floor instead of the cabinet.

I'm linking you to a thread that shows a picture of a granite drip rail that someone had installed below their farmhouse sink.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drip rail on farmhouse sink ... scroll down

I have both a Shaw's sink and an Ikea farm house sink (in different kitchens). I've never had a problem of water dripping down the front of either one! Sure, farm house sinks are more difficult to install. But, unless your cabinet maker is also installing the sink, I guess I don't understand what he thinks is the big deal -- to the point of an extra $1k -- in making the base cabinet for one.

Erika, I love your sink, and I love that lip - it's pretty and functional! What kind is it?

Flseadog, so when you drape the towel over, how do you keep it from getting soaked on the side that's inside the bowl? I am trying to get a visual for how this works.

My cabinetmaket also does countertop fabrication (but only for his cabinet clients), so I think it's just a lot more work for him no matter which way you dice it, and he is mindful that keeping my costs down is critical (and you can buy a SS drop in for way cheaper, but depending on how the rest of the budget plays out, I may just be willing to pay the extra for the sink and the labor), but more than anything, I think he just had that really bad experience with someone ruining the cabinet and having to then build a whole new one for free. That's the pits for anyone in business, especially because it's kindof impossible to ascertain what % was user error. I currently DO NOT have an apron front and I've ruined our sink cabinet with water to the point where it looks like there is no finish left on the doors in places, so I would likely just have to be more careful in the new kitchen regardless of the sink I get. Plus I could volunteer to sign something saying I accept all liability for potential cabinet ruin in doing the apron sink.

There are just two of us & we do a lot of handwashing too. Like needsonetipso8, I am always slopping water onto the front of our cabinets from our regular top-mount sink in the kitchen we're planning to remodel. But, it doesn't seem to be a big deal. We simply wipe it away. It hasn't ruined the cabinets. They're just ugly. ~:o)

I've had my Shaw's sink for 5+ years and never had any water drip down the front. I do remember, with my old regular mount stainless sink, I was always wet down my front when I was standing at the sink, but never with my new sink. I love it.

I must say, if water ran down the front and ruined the cabinet, it would be my fault, not the cabinet maker's fault, so I'm puzzled by his reaction, and the staggeringly high extra cost he's imposing. Maybe you should get another cabinet maker/countertop fabricator - you might save a lot of money that way.

Oh please. This sounds like the typical contractor hogwash when they don't want or don't know how to do something so they make up some excuse as to why "you don't want that."

I've had my farm sink (the Whitehaus Quatro) installed for 3 years - and it's been primarily used by my DH and DD, both of whom are notorious big-time slobs and splashers and who never clean up after themselves. (I'm away for months at a time so no one else is cleaning up either.) We've never had a problem with water dripping down the front. In fact, probably less so than at my MN house with its drop in sink where water does splash onto the cabinet fronts when DH is there, likely because the farm sink front is slightly angled so that the lip is further out than the sink bottom.

Get your farm sink if that's what you really want - and don't pay $1000 extra just because the cabinet maker doesn't like it. That's a crazy upcharge, IMHO.

Take the dish towel---terry cloth works better than linen for me but my sister prefers the linen---and stretch it out lengthwise across the top of the rolled front rim of the sink leaving about an inch or two inside the sink. I like to wet the inner edge of the towel as soon as I put it in place b/c this keeps it from slipping. Unless you fill up the sink completely with water the towel won't get sopping wet as you wash but it will catch all of the stray splashes and drips as you move back and forth rinsing dishes and putting them in the d/w or on the counter to drain and dry. When the water is really flying around or dripping it's easy to pick up the towel and run it along the length of the sink edge of counter to keep anything from flowing down the cabinets. HTH.

Hmm...I've only had my sink for a couple of weeks, but I've used it more for big cleaning jobs (emptying mop buckets, washing paint brushes, etc.) and i find that since it's so deep, it contains the splashes. And I haven't been careful at all - pouring a full bucket in one big SWOOSH, for example. I'll watch for drips - but I honestly can't believe that would be the case with mine anyway.

In fact, I always found the front of my shirt got wet with my OLD sink while I was washing - but come to think of it, that hasn't happened once since I got this farm sink.

needsometips, it's made by Herbeau, model number 4603.