A review of the IKEA Farmhouse Sink with cleaning tips, installation answers, and some alternative sinks now that it’s been discontinued.
Years ago this post contained a review of the Ikea Farmhouse Sink (DOMSJÖ) with cleaning tips, installation questions answered, and how it held up. I left that information in place, since it’s true of many farmhouse sinks. Now that IKEA discontinued the DOMSJÖ, I’ve found you some alternatives that will give you a similar look and will apply to a lot of the information in this post.
Originally posted March 23, 2015. Updated February 19, 2022.
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In this post, I’m sharing my thoughts on our white IKEA farmhouse sink — the DOMSJÖ double bowl. This is the second one I’ve owned. I loved it so much in our first home that we chopped our granite countertop to make one fit during our DIY kitchen makeover (more on cutting the granite in a few, I promise!).
First off, the maintenance aspect, since I probably get those questions the most.
We had this sink in place for five years, so that’s the scope of my experience. Our next sink was a white fireclay sink, and the same cleaning tips I recommend below apply.
I used the IKEA farmhouse sink fearlessly and left spaghetti sauce sitting on its pristine surface for longer than I should. There were no permanent scratches, and it didn’t stain permanently, although things like spaghetti sauce and red wine will temporarily discolor it.
A few years in, we experienced the dreaded “gray marks” we were warned about in the comments of this post. True to the discussion in the comments, Barkeeper’s Friend works great to get the scratches out and made the sink look like new. I also loved the suggestion to use a Magic Eraser!
We occasionally had rust rings left behind from some of my soaking pots and pans, and my trick was using Iron Out spray. I simply sprayed it on and let it sit a few minutes and then scrubbed with a utility brush. Then I rinsed the sink out really well and scrubbed with dish soap to eliminate the chance of the chemical getting on my clean dishes. Obviously, this is something I would use sparingly and only as needed.
No more than any other sink. I’ve also puzzled over this question/comment about the painted white cabinets and my white sofas — I’ve received quite a few social media comments like “Have fun keeping THAT clean…”.
The truth about white in our homes: It doesn’t get dirtier than other finishes, it simply shows the dirt sooner… which allows me to see it and clean it up. That’s a bonus in my mind!
I scrub the sink out with a dish brush and soap daily after emptying it, and I “deep clean”, including the grooves, weekly.
The one thing I will say is that the grooves at the back of the sink are not as easy to keep clean. I use a sponge or scrub brush to get the junk out, but the grooves pose a slight challenge. With that being said, the grooves are useful for draining wet sponges and brushes.
We decided on this one. It had the general feeling of the antique-style faucets I liked but met the requirement of being an all-in-one unit, since the IKEA farmhouse sink only has one hole. It works nicely and was a fairly good value for faucets of that style.
Nope. It was my least favorite sink out of the 8 we’ve had in various dwellings. In our kidney-shaped undermount sink, one side was smaller than the other. In the small side you couldn’t lay down a normal-sized dinner plate. You certainly couldn’t put a pot in it to soak. Maybe they installed it incorrectly, because it also grew slime under the rim. The stainless steel was scratched and stained after only being installed by the previous homeowners a year before.
I have nothing against undermount sinks in general. In fact, when we later fully renovated our kitchen, I opted for the Shaws undermount farmhouse sink (In case you’re wondering, I packed up the DOMSJÖ and moved it with us for future use — but no, I’m not selling it!).
I originally chose the DOMSJÖ because we were trying to save the granite countertops for budget reasons, but we hated the kidney-shaped sink. We knew we’d have to cut our granite countertops in order to replace the sink, but didn’t know how clean the cuts would be. The lip of the DOMSJÖ (and some of the other alternatives I found for you) would be the most forgiving.
Yes. We added a thick piece of wood to the back wall and attached it to the studs to provide extra support for the substantial weight of the sink. We attached the metal support bar that came with the sink to the front of the cabinet. Despite our modifications, we completed the installation of the sink in one evening. This tutorial is a great resource for adding an IKEA Sink (or really any apron front sink!) to an existing kitchen cabinet.
I know it’s somewhat frowned upon from septic companies, but we have a garbage disposal. I know little about garbage disposals, but this is the one we have, and it was a straightforward installation. We have had no issues!
Okay, here we go. I always cringe at this question, because I want to help. However, here’s my disclaimer: I really really want you to realize you can wreck your counters by DIYing this. So we consciously decided not to make a full tutorial back when we did it. Here’s why:
I called around to about a dozen local stone fabricators. I was scoffed at, ignored, warned, given outrageous estimates to make me go away, and warned some more. The message was pretty clear: after a countertop is already installed , no one wants to accept the liability of cutting it in place. Your countertop WILL chip, and it WILL crack.
Well, YouTube said it could be done. I will give you the link to the video we used in a moment, but I want to say first: Our countertop DID chip. It DID crack. But it chipped and cracked in a way so that the lip of the DOMSJÖ still covered it up. This project would have resulted in needing to purchase new counters if we were trying to install a different style of farmhouse sink. The resulting edge was jagged and by no means clean.
This sink style is forgiving because of the lip and ability to caulk. I was also willing to take the risk because I half-hoped the purple-brown granite would be wrecked (because I’m not a big fan of it). So I can’t recommend this method, because I can’t be responsible if thousands of dollars in counters get wrecked. So here is the video we watched, but my recommendation is to try to find a fabricator who will do it for you.
If you’ve found this post, chances are that you already know that the DOMSJÖ IKEA farmhouse sink was discontinued. I know, it totally sucks. Please remember though — I’m not IKEA and I don’t sell the sink, so there’s no point in emailing or commenting with customer service issues!
What I can do is try to offer you some alternative options that have a similar look and feel. Offering you a direct replacement is unfortunately not as simple.
I’m guessing from the volume of comments I received over the years about cracking that there may have been quality issues that eventually led to the IKEA farmhouse sink being discontinued, although I didn’t experience any problems myself.
If you’re facing an crack in your sink, a suggestion I found reading reviews and forums is asking a bathtub refinishing and repair service to assess the damage and see if they can repair it. Miracle Method is a popular chain, and there are often more local mom-and-pop companies that you can choose to support.
If you find yourself in that situation and without anyone able to repair the sink, unfortunately the best bet will probably be a new and different farmhouse sink. I’ve sourced some below with similar dimensions.
My only recommendation for getting a direct replacement for the IKEA DOMSJÖ is to continue to check Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Craigslist. You may luck out on finding an exact replacement.
This sink is the most similar I’ve found. Like the DOMSJÖ, it’s a drop-in sink that requires a 36″ base cabinet. Also similarly to the DOMSJÖ, it’s full counter depth. While it doesn’t have two bowls or the grooves in the back of the sink for drying items, it has three faucet holes, which opens up your faucet options! This sink from the same company has very similar specs.
This sink is another similar option that resembles the DOMSJÖ in both looks and dimensions. Of course, it isn’t identical, but it has the double bowls, an apron front, and it’s drop-in style. Again, there’s more flexibility with your faucet because of the three holes.
If you’re able to replace the surrounding countertop, your options open up and you may be able to go in an entirely different direction. Although it’s an investment, I love my Shaws sink, and when a company has been around for over a hundred years, it’s much less likely that you’ll be left high and dry. One forum commenter I came across had luck with her countertop fabricator having a matching remnant, so she could replace a section of her countertop for an entirely new sink.
Although it isn’t ideal, I hope these suggestions were helpful and that this post helped you out on your farmhouse sink journey. Let us know in the comments if you come across a similar sink or a solution I didn’t mention!
