Giving My Kitchen A Facelift With The Karbon Single Lever Tap By Kohler
Sometimes it is the simplest changes that can transform a room: a new cushion to refresh a living space or a new vase as a great focal point on an old table. Our kitchen at home is looking a bit tired, but we are years away from replacing it. Yet our kitchen tap was chipped, leaking and covered in ‘you’ll never be able to remove it in a million years’ limescale, so I decided I wanted to swap it out for something special and new to try and reinvigorate the area. Our old tap was a basic chrome bridge tap - so standard, so simple. If I was going to make an impact with a new tap then I wanted something really exceptional and individual, something that would draw attention as the ‘hero’ piece in the kitchen. Instantly, I thought I would want an instagramable polished brass tap, but as I have been working closely with bathroom & kitchen suppliers Kohler this year I was introduced to their very modern, very sexy Karbon single lever tap.
Now, there are taps, then there are taps. I was instantly drawn to the Karbon as it looked more like a robot arm than a tap! I’d never seen anything like it before. What also appealed to me was the fact that it bended, folded and twisted in a multitude of ways (it has five pivot points) so I could spray water in even the most difficult-to-reach areas of the large butlers sink we own (in fact it allows up to 460mm clearance). The deck-mount tap and the lever also only required two holes, which meant I could replace my bridge tap easily without having a new hole drilled in my worktop.
The Karbon tap is brass-bodied with a unique metal and carbon fibre construction for reliability and strength and comes in a range of colourways. My colour seen here is the bronze colourway, but you can also purchase it in black and silver. The single lever is pulled right for hot water and left for cold, or balance it in the middle for the perfect warm temperature. It also offers a full-flow or a ‘shower-head’ spray (you just press a little hidden button near the spout to switch between the two) which I love this as the full flow is perfect for filling up the kettle, while the shower head is better for rinsing off soapy plates.
The Karbon tap has taken my kitchen from ‘nice and basic’ to ‘contemporary and chic’ without ripping out any units or doing any major work! It just looks so achingly cool. This tap may not be for you if you have arthritis or any issues with your wrists as you need a decent grip to manoeuvre it (I asked Kohler about this and they said it is purposefully stiff so ensure that the articulated joints hold and therefore the shape is held), yet if like me you do a multitude of things in your kitchen sink (washing vegetables / cleaning an abundance of random items / bathing the dog / floristry work) then this tap is a very functional, stylish choice.
The Karbon tap is available from Kohler, priced at £2,379 for the deck mount single lever seen here in broze.
Please note that I was gifted this Karbon kitchen tap as part of my ongoing partnership with Kohler. However, I chose this model from Kohler’s wide range and this is a fully independent, honest review.
