Restoring A Salvaged Farmhouse Sink (Video)

Equipment

Restoring A Salvaged Farmhouse Sink (Video)

by Russell Graves - March 4, 2022

One of the nice things about living in the country is having kind country neighbors. One of our neighbors was set to tear down a farmhouse down the road from us and let us salvage an old farm sink from the property first.

Granted, the sink is in rough shape. But I knew where I had need for a sink in one of our outbuildings. I also know how I can restore the farm sink.

In fact, restoring a porcelain-covered cast iron sink is pretty simple and requires just four steps.

1. Give It a Good Wash

First, you need to get all the collected grime off of the sink. I used a pressure washer to blast our sink with a stream of water, removing as much grit and dirt as possible.

Make sure you get both sides, too—the porcelain finished side and the bottom. We’ll be refinishing both sides.

2. Scrub It Good

It’s not enough to just blast an old, neglected sink with water. You need to really wash it.

For this step, you can use an industrial cleaner. You can also stick to a household cleaner such as TSP or, as we use in the video, good old Comet.

Give the farmhouse sink a good scrub to remove as much dirt as possible. Then dry it off for the next step.

3. Porcelain Paint

Next, you’ll brush on some porcelain paint. A number of manufacturers provide this product, but you can pick up whatever’s at your hardware store. A can usually costs between $30 to $40.

Quickly apply the porcelain paint over the old porcelain finish, as it dries fast. Then you wait three hours and (quickly, again) give it another coat. Give this coat a couple of days to dry and cure.

4. Clean & Paint the Bottom

Flip the sink over and give it a good scrape with a wire brush. Apply some lacquer thinner to clean up the metal even more.

Next, tape off the drain, as well as the sides or any other surface yu don’t want to hit with paint. The back isn’t a big deal—it will be against a wall—but be sure to tape off the newly finished porcelain areas.

Finally, just spray a few paints of coat on the bottom of the farmhouse sink. We used black to contrast with the white porcelain, but you can use whatever color you like.

Check out the video to see the amazing before and after!

Russell Graves is a hobby farmer from Dodd City, Texas. Russell spent 16 years as an agriculture science instructor in Childress, Texas, where he was named Texas Agriscience Teacher of the Year on three occasions. Since leaving the classroom in 2009, he’s made his living by writing and photographing topics in the fields of agriculture, conservation and the outdoors.