Just a few days ago, I had my sink and faucet installed off center of our window. The window is 35" wide and the faucet/sink center is at about 12" from the left of the window. I'm sure some would consider this a terrible mistake, but I'm ok with it so far. Of course it's only been 2 days at this point, so take that for what you will! Off-center is not my ideal, but it allowed us to have a straightforward layout that worked with Ikea cabinets, and gave us the kind of counter space and distance between sink and oven that we wanted. I think the fact that we do not have uppers on that wall makes the asymmetry less stark than it would be if uppers surrounded that window symmetrically. The angle from which you will most often view that area may be worth considering, too. In my kitchen, the most frequent viewing angle minimizes the appearance of asymmetry a bit.

Yes, you can put it there (or anywhere else that you might want it). We bought our single-lever faucet to be center installed. We had a bit of a scare when it came time to install. We have Italian cabinets that are a bit less than 23" deep and we bought the biggest sink that would fit in the cabinets. When it came time to install the faucet, we noticed that we didn't have enough room for the lever to swing backward for hot water. (Rookie mistake!) We decided to turn the faucet 90 degrees so that the controls face forward and the lever swings left and right rather than front and back for temperature control. We've never had anyone visiting be confused by the setup and we actually prefer it this way because of the symmetry. One nice side-effect of this is that when turning the faucet off with wet hands, your hands are held over the sink to press the lever rather than over the countertop -- no drips! Note that if you do the 90-degree turn technique, you need to connect the hot and cold hoses in the opposite way so that moving the lever to the left gives hot water (as one would expect) even though the leftward direction would be frontward if the faucet were installed in the "usual" way and frontward is normally cold. The only lasting "impact" of this is that any painted-on temperature indicators will be the opposite of how your faucet actually works. Our faucet has small blue/red markings that can be seen only when the water is on. However, in several years of use by us, family and friends cooking with us, no one has ever been confused about how the faucet works and I don't think that any of them have even noticed the blue/red markings, either. Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of our single-lever faucet, centered

Thanks, sabjimata, akchicago, cilantro, and pinch me. I think I am going to stick with the right-side installation and center my faucet, even though it means the stream will never reach my drain. Anyone who wants to scream "Nooooooo!" at this point, please feel free... (notwithstanding pinch me's great point about marching to my own drummer, which can never be said enough... thank you, pinch me!) akchicago, your points about pull-out/pull-down sprayers vs. side sprayers are all right on the money. I was actually aware of the disadvantages of side sprayers -- thanks to this site -- and bought one anyway. Why? Because when the end of the faucet's nozzle is a spray head, and its spout is harboring a spray hose, the whole thing becomes quite beefy and contemporary-looking, and my husband didn't think it would look right in our 125-year-old kitchen. So form won over function this round, and I am okay with that... though I'm sure to have the occasional pull-out envy when my thumb gets sore from pushing down on that little button... Still trying to decide if it's okay to cheat the faucet an inch or two left of center (to align with center of window pair), now that I will have the drain on the right. I mean, if the stream's not going to hit the drain anyway, does it matter where it hits? Or is there a reason to keep it as close to the drain as possible, even if it's no cigar? Thoughts?

Davidrol Excellent question...what are we doing with all this money? New appliances, a better kitchen eating/hanging out area, and we really need more counter space...right now there is no place to land food from the stove and oven. Resell appeal is important - we will probably be moving within 5 years. I agree added counter/cabs it will make it look smaller - and I am continually balancing aesthetics vs. function. (If it were up to me I would have no upper cabinets only open shelves but DH would never go for that.) My KD is all about cabinets - I have already taken out a wall and added a peninsula where he wanted to add wall and cabinets leaving me without any in kitchen sitting/eating area. The KD insists this will look OK and you won't notice the off center...but I am not sure I will like it. I keep going back to decreasing depth of new counter to 20 inches. I know we lose the magic corner but honestly, those don't seem like they pack too much of a punch as far as storage - especially for pans which is what I need to store in that part of the kitchen. With counter cut back to 20 I can still put in two deep drawers under the new cab and get most of my pans in...also with a 20 inch counter (instead of 24) I think we could hang pans to the left of window #2 (faces street - not garden window) which I think would be out of reach with a 24 inch counter. Chana Goanna I love the idea of the soapstone sink but does soapstone come in a white color? Someone told me it is always dark.