My Sink Has Arrived!

A big shout out to Berloni Appliances. Amazing, thoughtful customer service and great prices. I must admit, I did have reservations about purchasing a sink from Victoria and having it 'shipped' to Western Australia, I am so glad I went ahead with it. My sink arrived on time and was packaged perfectly.

I would not hesitate to do the same again, perhaps a new dishwasher or coffee machine?

Selection - Kitchen Appliances

Omega rangehood with blue feature lighting

Electrolux EHGC97BS glass gas cooktop

Electrolux ERCG9030AS glass rangehood

I must have changed my mind three or four times trying to decide whether to keep the “European styled stainless steel hotplate, oven & canopy rangehood” supplied by the builder or purchase our own.

For those who are curious, the supplied oven and cook top were Blanco BOSE902X and BCG95X respectively. The rangehood was a Blanco BWCE9X.


One thing was clear - I did not like the supplied Blanco rangehood. There is something about triangular shaped range hoods that strike me as clunky. Perhaps this style of rangehood would look ok if it was sandwiched between two overhead cupboards, but our kitchen does not have any cabinetry on the rangehood wall. This means that the rangehood itself becomes a feature and this is why it is definitely going to be replaced.

There are some absolutely stunning rangehoods available, for example Omega has a model with blue LED feature lighting.


I was torn when it came to the question of whether or not to keep the supplied oven and gas cooktop. Whilst these items are not terrible they just do not grab me. Is it worth spending an extra couple of thousand to buy a better looking oven and gas cooktop?

Our apartment has a black glass electric cooktop, which despite the extra cleaning required, looks lovely (especially on a black granite bench top). I really do love the look of black glass cooktops. Not only are they modern, but timeless. I do not think black glass is going to be going out of fashion anytime soon!

One of the main factors I considered when making my decision was how much time, effort and money it would cost to replace it a few years down the track. Because we have stone bench tops, replacing a cooktop requires not only an electrician/plumber, but also a stone mason to cut a hole for the new cooktop. There would also be the problem of finding a cooktop that is larger than the existing one, so that there would be no visible gaps.

The above argument also rings true for replacing the oven. A friend of mine recently replaced her oven. In doing so, she also needed to replace some of her cabinetry, because her new oven was larger than her old one.

I spent a lot of time asking myself whether I was being too greedy. I weighed up the pros and cons of replacing the appliances versus keeping the ones supplied. In the end, it was a 25% off closing down sale that sealed the deal. We purchased an Omega oven (OO912XN) and an Electrolux rangehood (ERCG9030AS) and gas cooktop (EHGC97BS).

Plans - Kitchen

Aerial view.

Rear view of kitchen island.

Front view of kitchen island.

Rear view of kitchen.

Right view of kitchen.

Left view of kitchen.

Selection - Kitchen Sink

When building a house, one does not usually spend a lot of time choosing a kitchen sink. Builders will generally provide you with two options: inset or bottom-mount. If you are building a house of the appropriate style, they may provide the option of a butler/farmhouse sink.

If you want something other than what is included in your builder’s standard range, an entire world of sink options awaits you.

Even when deviating from the standard range, most people I know will still choose a stainless-steel sink. There are numerous brands and styles (square, round, one drainer, two drainer, etc.) and configurations (1 bowl, 1 + ¾ bowl, etc.) which range in price from only a few hundred dollars to well over one thousand.

When you start looking at the upper bracket of stainless steel sinks, it may be worth looking past the brand name, such as Oliveri and Franke, and considering the materials used to construct the sink.



Geo black composite sink from Sink Warehouse

Sinks come in a wide variety of materials including copper, ceramic, granite, as well as granite/quartz composites. There are various pros and cons for each material. I do recommend that you do your research, and if possible talk to people, in person or online, who have the same style of sink that you are considering.

For example, a friend of mine has a stone butler/farmhouse sink. Whilst she loves the look of it, she hates the fact that her washing up water is always cold, because the cold stone has taken the heat out of it.

Our current kitchen has a stainless steel sink. I have no doubt that it is a cheap sink, but for such a young sink (approx. 2 years old), I would not have expected it have more scratches than mum’s twenty year old sink!

This experience has put us off buying a stainless steel sinks, especially when the options that suited our décor were in the upper price bracket. It was purely by accident that I discovered the world of composite kitchen sinks.

Whilst searching for a freestanding bath, I wandered into the Sink Warehouse in Osborne Park. Their bath selections were on the small side; however, I was pleased to see that they had some non-standard kitchen sink options on display, namely ceramic and composite.



White and Beige Korona composite sinks
from Sink Warehouse 

 For those of us who like something a little bit different, composite sinks provide a refreshing change, because they come in a wide variety of colours including white, beige, chocolate, grey, and black.

There are number of companies who sell composite sinks. These include, but are not limited to, Franke (Mythos, Kubus), Astracast (Geo, Korona), Abey (Schock). If you look around boutique stores such as The Stone Super Store, you may find that they import a range of composite sinks that would not otherwise be available through the larger chains.

Although composite sinks are becoming more popular, you may have trouble viewing them, so it pays to do your research online and contact retailers in your area to see if they have one on display.

As discussed in a previous post, you will not always be able to find a retailer who has the item you are looking for on display. We chose a !black Schock sink by Abey. Even though we are able to purchase this sink through a number of large retail chains, none of the outlets in our area had one on display, or were able to tell us who would.

Thankfully, the Abey showroom is in our area and we were able to see the sink. It is stunning. I think this is going to look absolutely smashing with our colour scheme!


Those who have a composite sink, please leave a comment and let me know what you think of it