When you find out your water softener is bad and as a result, all the calcium in your water is impacting your faucets the silver lining, actually stainless, is that you get to pick a new kitchen faucet. The one that I currently have is pretty nice and frankly, it was not on my list of things I was looking to update but my husband took it apart in his attempt to clean it out and like Humpty Dumpty, we can’t put all the pieces back together again.
My faucet is currently functioning in that water comes out of it but it splashes everywhere because the pull-down section is no longer there and there is no way to easily rinse the sink and boy that pull-down functionality is not something you really appreciate until it is gone. Not only is a pull-down faucet helpful for rinsing the sink, but its’ height also makes it easier to fill tall pots. However, if you have a shallow sink or limited clearance above the sink you may want to consider a pull-out (resisting the urge to make an off-color joke here) faucet which will get the job but just not look as pretty.
Style. Many pull-down faucets have a spring-like-looking coil on the faucet. This is purely decorative and to me, it takes away from the beauty of the faucet and makes it look more like a restaurant dishwashing station. Maybe makes sense if you have a very industrial kitchen but not my favorite so none of these are on my recommended list below. I prefer a more modern faucet, even in a more traditional home, as I am a less is more kind of gal. This means my selection is primarily the more streamlined faucets avoiding those with a flare on the pull-down part or too much curve on the handle which I think looks dated.
Price Range. Pull-down kitchen faucets come in all price ranges but since you will likely be needing to hire a plumber to install and it is something that you are going to be using every day, I recommend you splurge a bit. I am going with the Brizio faucet in the middle of the gallery below which is about $650 in stainless finish. In general, the brands that I like are Kohler, Delta, Moen, and Delta’s premium line Brizio which is the brand that I am going with for my new faucet. The faucet line-up below is organized from least to most expensive based on stainless steel finish (tends to be higher priced finish) with a range of ~$300-$650 and the double faucets at ~$900 and $1150.
Faucet Tech. One cool technology is single hand touch which allows you to touch anywhere on the faucet if you have messy hands to start and stop the water. While I love this, and the Delta Essa faucet has this tech for under $250 – it was a $200 adder on the already too expensive faucet I am getting so I am making a small sacrifice here.
Single or Double? Most kitchens have a single handle set up which means there is just one hole in the center of the countertop. These are great because temperature and flow can easily be adjusted with one hand. If you have a kitchen with a two-handle set up I have included a couple of options below that you may want to consider but I would not recommend going this route unless you are absolutely committed to the form over function here – plus they cost significantly more and you will need a separate sprayer which means more clutter and holes in the countertop.
Finish. You will need to select a finish and while you know I love mixing metals, I generally recommend your faucet match your cabinet hardware. In my case, I have brushed nickel hardware and the faucet will be stainless steel to coordinate with the appliances. I recently broke this rule in our new office bathroom where we have matte black faucets and gold drawer pulls. This was possible because the lighting has both brass and black so it ties everything together. If you have a prep sink (I NEVER used mine in my previous house), I recommend you replace that so that your faucets match. Most companies make a smaller bar sink faucet that coordinates with their larger pull-down faucets which would be too large for most small bar sinks.
Here are some of my favorites if you are shopping for kitchen faucets or maybe even if you are not which was my case until recently.