We put a charcoal gray (anthracite) Blanco Silgranit sink into our last home (about 12 years ago) and after a few years of use, we were less than pleased with its performance, especially for the price tag. At first, it was amazing and we loved how it looked! Over the years, we used it for everything - normal kitchen/dish washing use but also occasionally to wash out paint brushes, soaking clothes, even washing show chickens in it. (No utility room sink, so the kitchen sink was the go to spot.) We kept it clean and well cared for. We believed all the hype back then that Blanco sinks were impervious to just about everything and I guess we should have been more careful. It basically started looking blotchy and losing its color on the bottom. It then started pitting on the bottom and was no longer a smooth surface, especially around the drain. And the blotchiness wasn't really stains but rather "burns", according to what we had read online. By the time we were ready to sell the house, it was pretty unsightly and we had to replace it. (Due to the less than helpful Blanco customer service folks who refused to honor any sort of warranty, we went with a Kraus sink.) But we only had the Kraus sink for a few months before moving, so not sure how that one will hold up. So now I'm trying to decide what to do with our new (but 15 year old home). I like how durable stainless sinks are and how cost effective they are but since spots and smudges on the stainless steel appliances drive me crazy and I'm CONTSTANTLY wiping them off, adding one more stainless item to care for in this kitchen doesn't seem like a wise decision. Anyway, thought I would add my 2 cents. I still can't decide if I want to do another composite sink (but do a more reasonably priced manufacturer like Kraus) or go with something else. If I do composite again, I will definitely go with a darker color and be super diligent about ONLY soap and water going into the sink.

Based on my experience with 3 different farm sinks (one copper, one pewter and one Kohler enameled cast iron), I find them to be exceptionally functional in terms of the size and shape: Mine have all been single sinks 30-33" by 20" and 10" deep. There is no pan, rack, utensil or other implement in my kitchen that will not fit in the sink! As for the 10"depth, I am on the short end of the height spectrum, so the depth is not an issue for me. While I do not find the Kohler enameled cast iron to be unforgiving in terms of glassware or other fragile items, I do find the Kohler to be difficult to maintain. Between black marks from pots and stains (tea, blueberries, etc), I was spending far too much time and too my elbo grease on maintaining the sink. By contrast, both the copper and the pewter sinks are exceptionally easy to maintain. With the handhammered finish, I don't even have to worry about potential water spots which was a constant problem with stainless steel sinks.

As a full-time house flipper of higher end homes, I've seen all types of design challenges. Often, my job is to remove or mitigate bad design decisions, where possible. Personally, I believe that a main sink in an island is a really bad idea in most instances, however, there are times when it's the best fit. Doing dishes is a necessary and sometimes mundane task. Having good sight lines to either look out the window, see a TV or being able to interact with others may be an important consideration. Reversing this we're really saying: Try not to put your main sink against a boring flat wall if it can be helped. Pick a more tolerable spot. Designers love the look of a sink in the island, but one must ask are you building a "show kitchen" or a "working kitchen"? Look at all of the empty show kitchen pictures in this thread. We only seen one instance of a kitchen in use. If you search for the pros and cons of a main island sink, you'll never see the designers mention the word "clutter". Let's address clutter around a working main sink. Dirty dishes need to go somewhere. Drying dishes need to go somewhere. Either you care about clutter or you don't. If you don't, you have many more options available. All main sinks have a clutter issue, so your next question is what are my clutter sight lines? If your island opens to your main living room, do you want these dishes always prominently displayed for you and your guests? A common configuration for adjoining living areas is to reduce the visibility to the working areas, while still keeping the openness. This is often done by using a 2 tiered configuration - an upper bar top and a lower working surface. The upper tier's job is to hide the clutter from the living area and then bar stools make that counter top usable. If you have a galley kitchen, or an otherwise isolated kitchen space, then the omnipresent clutter is not as much an issue. There is some expectation that there will be dishes in the kitchen and if you are outside the kitchen, it's not visible. Clutter in working kitchen is expected and frankly not the issue being discussed. Most of the time, the kitchen is idle (not working) and yet there may still be dirty dishes or drying dishes out. What are your sight lines and do you care? A technical note for any potential home builders. All sinks need a viable air supply, which is typically a vertical vent stack in the wall that protrudes thru your roof. When putting in an island sink, a vent stack is not possible. Search for "kitchen island plumbing loop" to see pictures.

IMO there are no pros unless you have a farmhouse which IMO is the only place they belong. Eh, I grew up in a rural agriculture community, and I grew up visiting friends and relatives in LOTS of old-old farmhouses. Kitchens that hadn't been remodeled contained sinks like these: People who had that first sink always had a curtain under it. Note that the water faucets usually came out of the wall, which is no longer common, especially in kitchens. My brother lives in our old family farm house, and -- yes -- he has an old-old sink similar to these above. His isn't original to our family's house, but it is appropriate to the house. What we call a "farmhouse sink" today -- what you can find on Amazon -- does not harken back to an earlier society. It's a modern twist on those old farmhouses.