Multifunctional yet minimal: the best kitchen sinks for modern living

There are many functional aspects of a kitchen – the food preparation space and storage, the appliances and their proximity to one another, and how the overall design works to suit our lifestyles. 

Despite the constant change in trends, the kitchen has always been one of the most important spaces in a home. Particularly in modern, open-plan designs where the kitchen flows into the surrounding living areas, there has been a shift towards creating kitchens that remain functional areas to prepare meals, while integrating products that make it easy to achieve a streamlined, clutter-free appearance.

This is something seen daily by Scott Pendlebury, managing director at Renovator Store. 

Based in Melbourne, Renovator Store stocks thousands of products for the residential projects and conveniently ships these anywhere in Australia and New Zealand – the most popular items making their way to home renovators being kitchen sinks, bins and storage solutions that help to create this streamlined look. 

“People are gravitating towards what’s called a workstation sink,” says Pendlebury. 

“Available in different sizes and styles, it has an integrated lip on the inside of the bowl where your accessories hang inside the sink. This means you can use the included chopping board in the sink for your food preparation over the wet area, for instance, and you can hang a second item like a colander and scrape everything into that to wash it all in the same place.

“Workstation sinks are making this part of the kitchen a lot more than just a wash up area – it’s becoming a food preparation area and that’s useful if you have a smaller kitchen or if you’re living in an apartment. It really frees up the bench for more preparation because you can do a lot of work over the sink.”

Another solution in Renovator Store’s repertoire for a minimalist yet functional kitchen design is its range of kitchen storage and organisers. 

“The objective of someone that’s designing their kitchen is finding a spot to put everything. If you want to be working on a clean kitchen bench, it means everything needs to be in cupboards – you need a space for everything that’s still accessible. That's the dream kitchen,” says Pendlebury. 

“A good example is the corner cabinet. If a standard kitchen is installed, it might only have a shelf in there and you really do need to get down on your hands and knees to reach all the way back to the pots and pans. You’re just not going to use that space because it’s not accessible without pulling everything else out.”

By installing Renovator Store’s functional storage units, everything is stored away neatly and can effortlessly be pulled out – or pulled down for overhead cabinets – for full access and visibility.

“Everything is made accessible and you can finally achieve that organised kitchen where you can reach everything, even if it’s at the back of the cupboard.”

Whether the project is a new build or a retrofit, these systems can be installed in all kitchens that have standard Australian-sized cabinetry. They can also be customised to suit the kitchen’s aesthetic – from matte black interior fittings, to glass or stainless steel shelves. 

“The functional hardware is designed to easily install inside so you can transform that pantry with fixed shelves to a pull out pantry, for example. It’s an inexpensive solution to achieve that minimalist kitchen that everyone wants,” says Pendlebury.

This approach to integrating functional kitchen products that don’t interfere with the aesthetic also applies to kitchen bins – an often overlooked, yet must-have in a kitchen. 

“We consider kitchen bins to be part of the storage category because you’re storing your waste away; it’s hidden in a cupboard and that’s an important part to consider.

“A lot of the bin designs today really use cupboard space well – many allow you to triple-sort your waste with organics, recycling and general waste with three bins in a pullout system – and again, they’re easy to install.”

Designs such as the Slim Triple Kitchen Waste Bin feature high-quality ball bearing runners with a soft-close mechanism to allow it to effortlessly slide back into place like any other soft-close drawer in the kitchen. 

“We can now have a lot more functionality with the same aesthetics.”

Discover more products from the Renovator Store for your next kitchen project.