Your sink can be beautiful but practical

When choosing a bathroom suite, you don’t have to take the sink that comes with the other elements of the loo and bath.

Just stick to a stylistic type — squared out, traditional, organic and see how something more eclectic and unusual might work.

I hate to batter you with that ‘p’ word yet again, but take a deep breath and be practical first and foremost. The price of taps and traps generally exceeds the expense of a sink.

Floor or float?

Consider the space you have to work with and go over the bald role of the sink. It might seem luxurious to integrate an enormous hovering basin, but set alone it’s really a water-scoop under the tap in a busy wider functional area.

If you want a traditional single pedestal, stick closely to the architecture of the other sanitary ware. Explore contemporary models with pedestals that sit flush to the wall to eliminate that maddening spider trap.

If you have no surrounding counters or base storage on a dedicated single sink, it’s worth going up onto the wall in a smaller bathroom. Planting a pedestal not only interferes with cleaning the floor in a single swoop, but causes a visual stutter than makes the space feel tighter. There are two looks to go for:

* A simple wall mounted style with just enough vertical depth to hide the plumbing. There will be a short length of pedestal, or the bowl design itself will hide the ghastlies. Tulip shaped semi-pedestals such as B&Qs Rosalind can reach boldly down to conceal pipes, tapering to a soft point. €331.

* A console/stand style with a lightly engineered metal cradle supporting the bowl to the wall with the mechanics of the chrome-plated bottle-trap below the waste deliberately on show. Slender metal legs can reach right to the floor if you like a commercial/industrial flavour. You will need to polish up all visible chrome from time to time.

* Best Buys:

Janssen floor standing basin (gorgeous modern piece) €289; bathrooms.com. Tarifa 63cm semi-pedestal sink, wall-mounted sink from Vogue Bathrooms, Ireland, €108. www.voguebathrooms.com

Sheer vanity?

With the exception of a quick hand wash, most of us stagger up to the bathroom or en-suite sink with a wobbling arsenal of hair-taming tools, make-up and tooth-brushing materials — a fresh towel clamped under an elbow.

Have a generous place to stage your toiletries other than a window sill. While we pick our bits n’ bobs out of overhead cabinets, the Americans have remained fond of their vanity mounted sinks since the 20s.

With discreet blind cupboards and slender shelving and presses overhead, they make such spatial good sense. Everything you can do with a kitchen can be applied to the bathroom too.

If you don’t like the integrated storage in a complete sink/press unit, go semi-bespoke tailoring the vanity to the room with a 40-60cm under-mounted, counter-mounted or semi-recessed sink.

Ask the in-store CAD designer to run up a plan using standard doors and carcass sizes. Two sinks can sit on a single run of counter, and with a plate mirror deliver crisp, hotelier class in even a cramped bathroom. If you’re cutting out for a sink be careful to follow the supplied template for a perfect fit.

Freestanding industrial styled kitchens are going to be everywhere in 2015. Take those leggy storage looks in angular metal frames to the bathroom too.

* Best Buy:

The Godmorgen Odenswik floating wash stand (sink included) from €200. IKEA. Alexa (square) semi-recessed basins for counters, €158, B&Q.

Vessels, recessed and semis

Once you have decided to connect a sink with a counter-top, it’s a matter of styling one to the other.How low or high do you want it to sit? Clearly, right up on the surface, vessel styles in sculptural pans and organic swoops will grab the eye.

They tend to be space hungry fashionistas and setting up a high-sided design will force the counter down to a comfortable reach. Squared out and rectangular shallow bowls have over-taken earlier dish shapes.

Subsuming the sink into the counter, it becomes a quieter element, often semi-recessed with a break-front to accommodate a slender counter rather than the full 40cm we’re used to in the kitchen.

Any gap between the counter and sink can grab soap scum, so be practical and imagine cleaning the whole lot down. Whether sitting out in the room on a pedestal, wall supported or sitting proud from a shelf or furnishings, look for a soft rolled edge that won’t bruise a hip if you connect with it.

If the sink is not drilled for a tap position, there’s a choice to bring taps to the counter or take them wall mounted. It’s crucial to get advice on the pressure and action of the tap at this point, especially given the dished, water swilling shape of a conical or shallow vessel or basin.

Consider how far any swan necked variety will reach over the edges of the sink, including a ‘limiter’ to foil infant flood play.

* Best Buys:

Phoenix Susan counter-top bowl (straight sides circular) €99 on sale from €229, www.waterloo.ie  Louis Mulcahy ceramic vessels available from the Dingle studio, from €435, www.louismulcahy.com