This Spanish Kitchen Has the Most Epic Sink
There’s something about centuries-old European homes that makes you want to purge everything you own and give up the only life you’ve ever known to move to a small village in the French countryside. You’d be able to rent that adorable abode with the plentiful profits of the jam-making trade you recently took up, and while it’s lacking comfortable modern amenities, it doesn’t matter, because #character and #architecturaldetails.
Okay, so this is no one’s real life, but this kitchen here is definitely in someone’s real home, and doesn’t it make you long for a “simpler” existence?
Featured in a house tour from Apartment Therapy, the Valencia, Spain, home of art historian Beatriz Traver is the type of thing that not everyone will “get,” but so worth gazing at and appreciating. The lot of you that don’t yearn for pared-down living might be looking at this and thinking But where does she keep everything? Where’s the cabinetry? What’s the water pressure like? Sure, sure, logistics and whatnot, but excuse me … DID YOU SEE THAT SINK? It’s worthy of all the heart-eye emojis your smart phone can produce.
Made of red marble, the antique sink is from the 19th century, and while we don’t know whether it’s original to the home or something that was brought in by the property owner (or maybe even Beatriz, who’s been renting this flat for two years), what is obvious is that it’s absolutely the star here.
The rest of the kitchen, which Beatriz notes is “old and rare,” is incredibly simple — as is the rest of the apartment, likely because it’s hard to compete with that dramatically veined red marble. “This splendid space was once owned by a Peruvian consul in the 1900s, and it features tall ceilings, gorgeous architectural details, and one-of-a-kind elements,” she says about the unit as a whole.
Looking at the photos of the space, it’s not clear if there are any cabinets at all with the exception of the curtained-off nook to the right of the cooktop and oven. I’d love to know more about where things like dry goods and pots and pans are kept, although she does seem to make smart use of vertical space by adding a utility rail to hold cooking tools and a few shelves with hooks for dinnerware and mugs.
Some of the only color in the Spanish home comes from the red marble sink and original details like the tiled floor, although that is intentional. Beatriz wanted to respect the structure’s rich past, and chose to go with a nearly all-white palette for the walls, furnishings, and decor to not detract from the unique character.
While this home is more charm than practicality, its kitchen — with that swoon-worthy 200-year-old red marble sink — proves that sometimes you don’t need all of the fancy amenities (you know, like pull-down faucets and ice makers) to have a space worth luring someone across the Atlantic for.
Where do you stand on sacrificing function for form? Show of hands if you’d swap out your modern-day sink for an ancient jewel like this one?
See the rest of this space: An All-White “Renewed Classic” Spanish Home at Apartment Therapy