What Faucet Goes with a Copper Sink?

It was The Weekend of the Kitchen Faucet. By Sunday night, we had to have The Chosen One.

A major deciding factor for faucet finish is that the farmhouse sink is hammered copper. I was leaning toward dark oil rubbed bronze or other very dark finish. We’ve never boarded the ORB Bandwagon before. But it seemed right for this. My instincts for using a darker faucet finish with a copper sink were confirmed with research. I giggle writing that because in my day job, research is scientific, not finding  pictures via Google Images, Pinterest and Houzz!

Here are results of my “research” …

From this collection, the darkest faucet is most successful with a copper sink, and the slightly darker faucet is fine. The antique gold faucet, not so much. Faucets with copper sinks from bathtubsandmore.com:

Clearly I prefer high contrast. This next photo I’ve seen all over. I don’t know where it’s originally from but the faucet is cute as all heck  (uh-huh, that’s a technical term of endearment):

Here’s a vanity, oil rubbed bronze faucet and copper sink assembled at Canton Antiques:

ORB faucet with hammered copper sink posted in a Gardenweb That Home Site discussion forum:

The bar sink above is from a gorgeous kitchen. Here’s another photo from this kitchen. They say they got their copper items at Copper Sinks Online.

Copper Sinks Online also sells many faucets that they say look good with copper sinks.

From FaucetDepot:

Shown at Home Renovation Guide:

Shown at Rachiele, a copper sink with a Waterstone Towson faucet. I saw this faucet during our shopping this past weekend and really liked it:

Shown at 4 Kitchen Sinks, a Kembla copper farmhouse sink with ORB faucet:

… and they show another combo:

This combo from Signature Hardware is really fun for a bar area:

From House Beautiful, a French Country kitchen copper prep sink and oil rubbed bronze faucet:

Posted by a reviewer at Buzzillions. Is that the ceramic rooster sold at Sur La Tabla?? Should I be concerned that I would recognize something like that?

Shown at Original Copper Sinks, very different and very cool. I love this:

Shown at Lyring, another very different and very cool goodie of a combo:

Pretty combo shown at HomeThangs.com (yes that’s “thangs” as in “twangs” I’m obsessive about correct spelling) — this site also shows some unusual designs for copper sinks:

From Diamond Spas, here’s a double bathroom sink with copper faucets:

Here we make a return trip to Canton Antiques — an assembled (one of a kind, I assume?) vanity, copper sinks and ORB faucets with country style:

Here’s a few examples from Tubz — they carry quite an inventory of copper sinks from Native Trails:

Several more Native Trails products from Sinks Faucets and More:

From Design in the Woods, this is a pretty combo of copper faucet and copper sink. Sometimes I don’t like this combo so much, but here I like it better. I’m not sure why. Maybe because the granite adds a nice break between the sink and faucet:

From Picasa album Christine Decker, here’s another nice copper sink and copper faucet combo:

From Copper Sinks Direct:

Shown at House Beautiful, this copper sink is paired with a brushed nickel faucet. It is a beautiful kitchen, but I just can’t “get into” this sink/faucet combo as much:

Nor am I into the matchy-matchy. This pic from FaucetDepot:

Another factor is the countertop color. I prefer a lighter counter than this because it’s so hard to see the faucet. Pic from Sesshu Design:

So after assembling what may be the largest bibliography of copper sinks and oil rubbed bronze faucet finishes on the Internet, what is the conclusion of such exhaustive research? The research confirms my hypothesis that copper sinks and dark finish faucets are the most pleasing combination. Although certainly “image selection bias” may be a major limitation of this study.  :)

In the next post, I’ll reveal our Chosen One — our oil rubbed bronze finish kitchen faucet to go with our hammered copper farmhouse sink. C’mon you don’t think I’ve learned anything from all these years of watching HGTV and the big reveal formula on so many shows?!? You’ll also hear why we chose to buy the faucet in the U.S. and not in India. Gotta get some heavy stuff off my chest …