This is so weird (but good) that you post this right now. I was just looking at the Wilsonart integrated sinks. I'm also probably doing the Wilsonart HD in post formed rounded edge.
I doubt if there are many responses. Wilsonart just started selling these last month, and not too many here do laminate.
I had heard of undermounting sinks with laminate, but I would feel a lot more confident with a Wilsoart sink. Supposedly they also have the kits and adhesive which ensure a quality install. Do post if you gather any other info - I'd love to know.

LOL, southernstitcher, I think you posted on my other thread about coutertop choices. You are doing Bella Venito with your oak cabs, right? I've got a sample of it here and I really like it and the Bella Noche, but dh isn't sold.

I'll let you know if I find anything out about the sinks. I didn't realize they were so new. I'm not going down the path of undermounting with laminate since it's not *that* important to me, but if the integrated sink performs well, it might be nice.

No, it wasn't me with oak and Bella Venito, but I remember reading it. I am still deciding on mine. I got a bunch of 8x11 samples in last night which are beautiful. One is a high gloss called Girona Beach. Very intriguing, that high gloss. WA also has many of their newer laminates in this Aeon finish which is supposed to be really tough.

It's just hard for me trying to decide to go ligher or darker. I got the Oiled Soapstone sample in too, which was highly recommended. While that one would be really nice in many kitchens, it just looked too dull to me. I guess I'm leaning more toward the blingy HD finishes. I'm worried that dark will be pretty and elegant, but might be hard on my eyes!

I'm the one doing Bella Venito with oak. :) We picked up our countertop last week and I LOVE it. Friday we start working on the kitchen, so no pics yet.

Our Home Depot has a Wilsonart counter on display with an integrated sink. I think if you are seriously considering it you should find one on display to look at. I was really unimpressed. The sink (I'm assuming it's a Wilsonart sink, but possibly it's not?) seemed very plasticky in appearance and feel.

The way it was mounted there was an exposed edge of the laminate product...a very fine line. Picture taking a sheet of laminate, cutting a sink-sized hole in it, and gluing it flat onto something. Now, maybe there is some adhesive there that prevents any water from seeping into that exposed edge, but unless I knew that for sure I would feel very uncomfortable having that edge right next to the water.

I guess if having an undermounted sink is of great importance this would be a way to have it with laminate. I think it would require a lot of caution in use.

sapphirestich, what type sink are you getting? This is disappointing to hear because they look so nice on the WA webpage. Hopefully what you saw isn't the same thing - WA is an acrylic sink though.

"Integral" sinks are acrylic sinks bonded to an acrylic solid surface to create a seamless unit. I think you are referring to the Karran acrylic sinks and their process for undermounting to laminate. I would not term that process "integral". It leaves the thin seam edge of the laminate exposed around the sink, and anyone with a laminate countertop with water damage knows that the seams are what are problematic in allowing water infiltration to the partical board substrate. One single chip, and you've got an incurable defect in the countertop.

I have yet to see a long term trustworthy method of undermounting sinks in laminate. The Counter Seal method is about as good as they come, and it's not cheap or easy to find a trained fabricator for that method and some folks have reported issues with it as well. All in all, for laminate, the best choice remains to have a drop in sink. If having an undermount sink is a priority, then you need to move to a solid countertop like Corian or granite.

""Integral" sinks are acrylic sinks bonded to an acrylic solid surface to create a seamless unit. I think you are referring to the Karran acrylic sinks and their process for undermounting to laminate. I would not term that process "integral"."

I was referring to the sinks that Wilsonart advertises on their own website. Integrated was their term, not mine. See the link on the left of the page below. I don't know if those are Karran sinks or not.

As I mentioned above, it's not that important to me to have an undermount sink and we don't have the budget to do granite. I just like to research all the options and I assumed what Wilsonart was advertising on their site must be something that worked differently than the other methods of undermounting to a laminate counter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wilsonart HD sinks for Laminate Countertop

There was a thread about this several months ago, the link is below. Might want to consider a micoredge sink.

And yes, I should not be on at 0200, as I posted a responce to your thread on the thread I've linked. Duh. Silly middle woman, the internet at 0200 is for kids!

Here is a link that might be useful: laminate and undermounts

rjr220 - Thank you for that link! I know what you mean about being on late at night. I often do things like that! Those MicroEdge sinks look really neat, but I think they'd be out of our budget.

sapphirestitch - oops, your name was similar and I mixed them up in my head! I think we've narrowed it down now to Bella Venito and Alpine Passage. I have our fabricator cutting larger samples of each one for me today. I am SO scared to commit, though!! I'm afraid of making a choice I might regret - and I have made several of those throughout our recent home projects. Our kitchen tends to be dark because the patio cover is right behind the big window in there. I don't want the counters to be too close in value to the floor, which is a reddish brown tile that I did not choose and dh won't let me replace right now.

The one I saw at HD was very like what they show on the WA webpage, although I can't be 100% sure based on the picture.

If you really want undermount and really want laminate, I'd recommend you find one to look at in person before making the decision. An exposed laminate edge is trouble waiting to happen, IMO. If they have a way to seal it up so it's not exposed, it might be worth considering.

Scoutfinch, I understand the confusion about the names. And Southernstitcher and I have been posting on some of the same threads so we're not helping matters. :)

My new sink is a Kohler Staccato single bowl, it will be topmounted. Here's how I feel about top vs. under: There's going to be "gunk" to clean up around a sink. If you have a topmount, the gunk will be around the edges up on the counter. If you have an undermount, the gunk will be on the little ridge that's either exposed or hidden under the counter. (I really don't know the correct undermount terminology!)

My kitchen is going to be considered outdated from the get-go because I'm deliberately choosing things that aren't popular right now: oak cabinets with arches, black appliances, ceiling fan. These are things I love, that go with my house, and...well, what can I say, I'm 46 years old and rebellious and cantankerous and I'm going to have the kind of kitchen I LIKE even if nobody else likes it. LOL!!

(I'll add that we have NO intention of selling our house any time soon...I have aging parents living next door and am committed to staying near them. If something unthinkable happened and we had to sell, my kitchen will still be very comparable to others in my neighborhood.)

Ooops...suddenly my Kitchen Manifesto is part of your sink discussion. :) I think getting big samples of your laminate is the best way to make a good decision. I liked Alpine Passage, too, it looked sort of like pressed leaves in some places. What sold me on Bella Venito was the little flecks of blue in it; blue's my favorite color (hence the board name)and while I'm sick and tired of my light blue counters, I didn't want to give up all blue in my kitchen.

saphhirestitch - I think you need to choose what you love and that's what you are doing! My kitchen with it's 25 year old (though custom built oak) cabinets is actually a step up from many of the houses in my neighborhood that still have the original 1955 cabs that have been painted, lol! Just for grins I spent an hour or two bulding my kitchen with Ikea cabs and gave up when I got over $3500 because we just don't have that much to spend. I will not feel guilty if we rip out these counters to redo the whole kitchen in 5 years because the total is going to be less than $1000 with a new sink.

Dh called me a little while ago to tell me that he's been staring at samples all morning and now it's between Bella Venito and Raven Gemstone. If I give him a few more hours at home he'll change his mind again, lol! I think that Alpine Passage may end up being a little too green, given we are planning to paint the walls BM Prescott Green.

That Kohler is a really nice sink. I only see a 25" single bowl on their site. Is yours larger than that?

>I spent an hour or two bulding my kitchen with Ikea cabs and gave up when I got over $3500 because we just don't have that much to spend.

You do know the door style makes a huge difference in the cost there?

LOL! I've been staring for way too long too. I line them up in my kitchen, on the counter, balanced on the drawer fronts..... and I just can't decide. One might be trying too hard to be something it's not, one is too shiny, one too matchy with the floor, one too pink, one too green......I am absolutely pulling my hair out!

sapphirestitch, there are few of us in the black appliance camp. I too am a rebel child. An indecisive rebel...

Back to sinks: I too am probably going to do an overmount. I thought the ones on the WA site looked really nice, but after thinking about it, I want SS or the black siligranit. The latter is lots more $$. But, honestly, in my area I wouldn't trust anyone to know how to do this right. And, if I'm doing laminate, I just as soon do laminate the normal way. My current overmount sink NEVER gets crumbs wedged under the lip, seriously. It's very tight to the laminate - good install I guess. And for all these years I've been cupping my hand under the laminate to catch the crumbs, and then drop them in the sink. So, I think it won't kill me to keep doing that.

">I spent an hour or two bulding my kitchen with Ikea cabs and gave up when I got over $3500 because we just don't have that much to spend.
You do know the door style makes a huge difference in the cost there?"

I do, but there's no point in going to all the trouble to replace the cabinets if I'm not going to get exactly what I want in doing so, YKWIM? The ones I *want* total over $3600 before I even think about tearing apart the laundry closet to reconfigure it and add pantry cabs!
southernstitcher - I'm glad it's not just me who is losing hair over this decision. I've only ever had laminate counters with overmount sinks, so I really won't be missing anything! I think SS is going to be much easier to keep clean than anything acrylic would be anyway.

Scoutfinch: Raven Gemstone was one we pondered, too. Bella Venito went a little better with the paint color we liked, and also went with some colors we have in the living room. We've got an open floorplan which makes it harder to pick everything.

My sink is the 25x22 size. That's actually more total area than I have in my current double bowl sink, but if we had more room available I would have gone for something bigger. I get some needed counter space this way.

Southernstitcher: I don't get crumbs under the lip of my current sink, either. I do get black mold in every possible crevice if I don't keep after it constantly, but that's just the price of living in humid NC! Do you have the big 8x10 WA samples? They sell them for $1 each on their website, and you get a much more accurate picture of the colors and patterns.

Southernstitcher == have you checked out Overstock.com? They have black Blanco Silgranite sinks . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Overstock silgranite

rjr220 thanks for the link. No, I didn't know they had them there.
sapphirestitch, yes I got th 8x10's, and the sad part is I'd gotten a whole bunch a couple of months ago, then DH decided he didn't want the post form because of the particle board. So we decided on quartz and I threw them out. Dumb.
But I finally convinced him with the wrap around edge that the PB won't get wet. Now, the seam I am a little worried about.
Here is what I'd really really love in a SS sink. This is at my Mom's house which we are selling right now. I wish I could have afforded to rip this puppy out and re-laminate her counters and put my old one back in the hole.

It's a divine old Elkay, that has never taken any deep scratches at all - no dings or dents whatsoever. Just a beautiful patina. I'd take it in a heartbeat! You can't find these anymore at all. :(

southernstitcher - That's quite a sink! So are you guys doing the 180 degree wrap edge? My original quote was for waterfall, but it's only about $60 to upgrade the edge so we probably will. It seems like I hear a lot of people on here worried about seams in laminate counters allowing water in. My mom's kitchen in my childhood apartment was installed in 1973 with laminate counters. Ugly white with avocado green fleck counters. When my parents moved out of that apartment into another one more than 25 years later they looked as new as the day they went in. Ugly as sin still, but still in great shape. There was absolutely no water damage and she had plain square edges like the ones in your mom's kitchen. Every place I've lived since has had laminate counters and I've never seen any water seep through any seams.

Yes, we're doing the wrap. It's called E2000 edge by Hartson Kennedy. That's who my countertop people are ordering it from. Link below.
As much as I'd love their Amore or Vida edges, well -- they cost too much more!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}