Shady Grove Farm: Our Little Piece of New England

Every farmhouse needs a really great sink. I spent lots of hours looking at photos online of farmhouse kitchens and fell in love with the real vintage, cast iron, apron front sinks that I saw. In all of our adventures to my favorite local antiques dealers and other junking locales, I would never see the kind of sink I was dreaming of finding.

Then one day, I stumbled across This Old Tub and Sink through an internet search. The sites "About Us" brought up an exciting description "We specialize in salvaging vintage bathtubs and sinks from the New England states. Since we focus only on tubs and sinks we have a vast inventory of beautiful fixtures from which to choose."

Would they have my sink?

Their vast inventory, and it is vast - plus if they don't have it, they'll try to find it for you - did in fact include the sink that I had dreamed up. A gorgeous 1948 Vintage Double Basin Porcelain Over Cast Iron Farm House Sink. The description read "The sink dimensions are 42"LX26"D. The shallow basin reaches a depth of 6" and the deeper basin a depth of 13". It has a 6" backsplash and a 7" apron."

I got out a ruler and laid out the dimensions...it was perfect - I wanted a BIG sink to be the centerpiece of the kitchen. I loved the detail on the apron and it was in really good condition. We ended up calling and purchasing the sink. Kevin, from This Old Tub and Sink was great to work with. I had never made a purchase of something so large before and the sink had to be shipped from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. There were absolutely no problems!

This is how the sink arrived.

We had to unload it off of a semi into the back of my Dad's truck.

The sink, in the crate, weighed about 300 pounds.

Of course, I couldn't wait to open the crate. My dad making his way around taking out a few dozen screws.

It's crazy know to think this was already a year ago!

It was so exciting to see it in person. I loved being able to run my hands over it and feel the smooth porcelain with all the little wear spots that left little bumps and valleys.

It's imperfectly perfect.

I was even able to find out that the sink had been taken out of an old farmhouse in Southern New Hampshire. I love knowing that - having a little piece of history from New England, a place that we would love to travel to, adds so much to our story that is unfolding here at Shady Grove Farm. We'll probably never know exactly where the farm is that the sink came from or who used it on a daily basis to care for their family, but just wondering about what their life was like and who the people were is fun to imagine while I clean up after supper, arrange a vase of flowers, or for a long time, when we first moved in - gave Charlie baths in the deep basin side of the sink.

Charlie taking a bath in the sink. This was before we had even moved in.

The installed sink.

I love how the apron has the bands around the bottom that bump out and that the front corners are angled.

The basin on the left is about 6 inches deep and the one on the right is 13 inches.

The windows behind the sink open into our greenhouse.

I can look through those windows and the large greenhouse glass to see our barn and the fields behind our house.

This picture shows the reflection of the pendant lights over the island.

You also get a sneak peek at the cabinets that we made ourselves.

The sink cabinet has different knobs than the rest of the cabinets.

A closeup of one of the two vintage soap holders I got for my last birthday. My mom got them for me at one of the barn sales we've been to at Meadowview Farm. Normally, they are seen on a clawfoot tub (that's where the other one is being used) but I liked how it looked on the sink, holding some locally made goat's milk soap. It leaves your hands feeling so soft and smells great.