I have a single bowl sink (Kraus KHU100-32 32 inch Undermount Single Bowl 16 gauge Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink) adore it for the ease of cleaning all the large cooking pots/pans I use, but NO you can't hide the clean, waiting to dry dishes in it. I use one of my stainless bowls filled with wash water to wash the dishes and there is no way to both wash and dry the dishes at the same time..no separation as in a double sink. However, I suppose if you wash all the dishes then spray them down with water, you could leave them overnight to dry. My sink came with a wonderful grid that covers the bottom of the sink, so dishes are help above the sink bottom.

I just purchased one of those microfiber dish drying mats and leave the dishes overnight then put them away the next morning.

What you can hide in it tho are all the dirty dishes in that 10" depth. I also had a large cutting board cut to fit over my sink, I don't need the counter space, but just wanted to hid the sink contents if necessary when having parties.

I'll take some pics tomorrow for you.

My sink is in the island which is open to the living room. Here is what's in the sink after DH did dishes tonight.

Here is the same view of the sink from the living room

I'd say the pots and pans are pretty well hidden in my single bowl 45" sink. I don't leave them overnight though; my personal preference.

I have my sink in a peninsula overlooking another room. To hide the dishes, I raised one side of the counter to bar height since there were bar stools on the other side. You can't see a thing now!

nancy

A single bowl does a great job of hiding things IMO. There isn't a divider to make the handle on pots and pans stick up.

The simplest question I would have is "why are you leaving your dishes, pots or pans in the sink, especially overnight?" You just got a new kitchen. Keep it beautiful. Invest in a good quality dish towel or three, dry your pots and pans and out them away after washing! Then your kitchen and your sink are beautiful from any view.

Suzi, I was thinking the same thing. To me, the satisfying part of washing pots and pans is to dry them and put them away - THEN the kitchen looks clean.

But then, I find cleaning the kitchen in general a lot more fun since my remodel. Before, even clean, my kitchen was cluttered and unattractive. Now, when it's clean and uncluttered (one of my remodel goals) and sparkling, it looks wonderful!

I don't know about the pots and pans, but it does a great job of hiding 2 days worth of cups, glasses and plates when life gets busy ;)

Yes, it will hide things better because you have more width for all the sizes. I sometimes wash and rinse things and leave them to dry on one side and keep working on the other. A grid at the bottom keeps the water underneath.

I don't mind handwashing dishes, but I hate drying them. I can get away with having lots of stuff drying in the sink and then I just put them away later.

We put them in a dish drainer, which could be then placed in the single bowl sink, but we leave it out overnight to dry. There's no one here but us two and we don't care. I don't know if a new DW is in your plan, but when we got a better DW, we found we put more things in it, including pots and pans we handwashed previously.

I don't understand designing a kitchen around the ability to hide dishes in the sink when it compromises function. Like making a raised bar on a peninsula when that is your only deep prep area. Or using a bigger sink base than necessary to hide dishes when it takes away from your limited storage space.

I don't leave much out to dry. I like to put everything away and admire the view. This is about the extent of my air drying in the sink. But I think the wire basket that ships with this Blanco sink would be too small for multiple pots and pans. Picture was taken before BS installed so ignore the background nastiness.

Yes, yes, yes!
I love mine and I wanted the biggest sink. You can easily wash big pots etc.
I have Blanco Silgranit Diamond Single bowl

http://www.blancoamerica.com/c3/blanco_usa/_www/en/pub/products/product_portfolio/portfolio_catalog_sinks.cfm?fuseaction=c.productdetail&startRow=1&endRow=60&strukturID=1269500751135

PhoneLady, I really like the stone on your countertops. Would you mind sharing what kind and the name, please.

re: I don't understand designing a kitchen around the ability to hide dishes in the sink when it compromises function.

I know you're right, may_flowers. I do. And, I almost never even use the sink on the drying side of my double-bowl, because it's always full of clean stuff.

I think the dish rack+ single bowl is the way to go for me. It's not like I need to impress anyone, and looking at clean pots isn't so bad. Then I'd gain quite a lot of cab space. That would be really good. Maybe I could invest in a nice dish rack, if such a thing exists.

I don't think I want to do the bar-height thing for the reason may_flowers indicated: i give up too much counterspace, and I don't have that much.

bbtrix: I love your sink! wow, is that ever a great setup! Your dishes are so tidily placed!

Walnutcreek - thank you. It's Typhoon Bordeaux 3cm granite. That picture doesn't really do it justice. We love it.

We went to a single bowl Franke Orca and love it! It holds an embarrassingly large amount of stuff out of site, especially if you get some grids (we use bottom and right grids).

We just put the handwashed items on a towel to air dry overnight. It just feels more sanitary to me than drying with a towel. I remember in school doing an experiment with seeing how many germs could be grown from hands that were freshly washed and air dried (naturally evaporated, not with an air drying machine) vs dried with clean towels. The clean towels actually put germs back on the hands.

Deep sinks hide dishes - clean or dirty.

If you're worried about handles, as long as one of the bowls is at least 20" or so wide, you'll be fine. Our 2-bowl sink has a 21" wide bowl that holds all our pots & pans, including handles.

But, that's only if you're laying the pots/pans flat. If you're drying them, you'll probably be putting them on their sides so they dry better/faster - and that's where depth again comes into play, not width. Front-to-back depth may also be useful. With our 2-bowl sink, we were able to have a deeper (front-to-back) sink than a single-bowl - the smaller bowl isn't as deep front-to-back, so we put the faucet "above" the smaller bowl and next to the larger bowl.

If you decide on a raised counter behind the sink, then make that counter deeper than normal so you have plenty of room behind the sink for the faucet and for getting your hand back there to clean. Raised counters usually have a bit of overhang - but even if it's flush, you may still be short on space behind the sink. Make the lower counter where the sink is a few inches deeper and you'll be fine.

Oh, and if you have seating behind the sink make the raised counter deeper to avoid splashing your visitors as well as to have a deep enough surface (front-to-back) to fit a plate + glass without worrying about knocking them off the counter. I recommend an 18" surface and at least 12", preferably 15", clear knee/leg overhang.