Vessel sink vanities:
height and size.

Add the bowl’s height to the vanity’s. Most vessel bowls stand about 5–6″ above the counter, and a low, wide one as little as 3″, so measure yours. On our 27″ vanity, a typical bowl puts the rim at about 32–33″.

Fig. 1Front · rim height

The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA), the kitchen and bath designers’ trade group, puts a sink anywhere from 32″ to 43″ high, to fit the people who use it, so ours sits at the low end of that range. Sink makers’ guides put a comfortable rim for most adults at about 34–36″.

So it comes down to who uses it. Ours puts the rim at standard vanity height. For a household of taller adults, aim for a rim at about 34–36″: under a typical 5–6″ bowl, that’s a 28–31″ vanity (the rim height less the bowl’s). A taller bowl raises the rim too. Any other height is built to order, and the quote is free: ask us for a taller vanity.

For an accessible bath, the standard (ICC A117.1) puts the sink’s rim no higher than 34″ and generally asks for knee space under it, which a cabinet vanity doesn’t leave. Check that standard, or your local code, before planning one.

One built for it, which differs from a vanity made for a sink top in two ways:

• —A lower cabinet: ours is 27″ tall, where our Rustic Bathroom Vanity Base, made for a sink top, is 32″.
• —A solid top to set the bowl on and drill through: ours is planked pine and comes undrilled.

Like our Rustic Bathroom Vanity Base, its back is open between two rails, so the supply lines and the drain come up through it.

And because the bowl sits on the wood, the top needs a water-resistant finish. Our build guide has you seal every face of it, the underside and the cutouts included. More on that in how a pine vanity is sealed.

The top sets the bowl’s size. Ours is as wide as the vanity and 18″ deep at every width, flush at the wall. Leave about 1½″ of top in front of the bowl and at each side, and about 4″ behind it for a deck-mount faucet. That gives the largest bowl each size takes:

In plain terms, the bowl can be up to 3 inches narrower than the vanity: on a 24-inch vessel sink vanity, 21″ × 12½″.

The 4″ is the faucet’s: a deck-mount faucet behind the bowl needs its base and room on both sides of it. Kohler’s sink instructions recommend at least 1″ between the wall, the faucet and the bowl, and a single-hole vessel faucet’s base is about 2″ across: 1″ to the wall, 2″ of faucet, 1″ to the bowl. With 1½″ in front, that leaves about 12½″ for the bowl, front to back, on our 18″ top.

Fig. 2Top · 24″ × 18″

A 12½″ bowl is on the shallow side: rectangular vessels commonly run about 13–16″ front to back. With a deck-mount faucet, choose one from the shallow end (a 13″ bowl leaves only about 1″ in front, tighter than the 1½″ we suggest). For a deeper bowl, use a wall-mount faucet: its 4″ comes free, so the bowl can go back to about 1″ from the wall, up to about 15½″ front to back.

Width is no problem: even the 20″ top takes a bowl up to 17″ wide.

A typical round vessel bowl is about 16″ across, so with a deck-mount faucet behind it, the top needs to be about 21½″ deep. On our 18″ top a round that size can’t have the faucet behind it. It takes a wall-mount faucet, or, on the 24″, 30″ and 36″ tops, a deck-mount faucet beside it (1½″ + 16″ + 4″ = 21½″ across, more than the 20″ top has). Either way it leaves only about 1″ of top in front, tighter than we’d like, so for a round bowl we’d rather build you a deeper top: ask us for a quote.

Whichever you choose, check your faucet’s base and the clearances in its instructions and the sink’s template (some ask for more), and check that the spout reaches over the bowl toward the drain.

Not sure they’ll fit? Send us the sink and faucet you have in mind, and we’ll tell you.

A standard bathroom faucet is usually too short to reach over a vessel bowl’s rim, so a vessel sink generally takes one of two kinds:

• —A tall deck-mount faucet, often sold as a vessel faucet: it goes through the top, beside or behind the bowl.
• —A wall-mount faucet: its plumbing goes in the wall behind the vanity, so plan it before the wall is closed.

To us, a tall faucet standing on the planked top looks great, and it goes in through one hole in the top, with no work in the wall. A wall-mount faucet is less common, so it makes the vanity stand out; it also leaves the top clear, so there’s nothing to clean around and the bowl can sit closer to the wall. But it needs a valve set inside the wall, on a wood crosspiece between the studs at the right height for your rim, so it’s a job for a plumber, best done during a remodel or while the wall is open.

Height: tall vessel faucets stand about 11½–14½″ overall. The spout has to sit at least 1″ above the rim: that’s the air gap the sink makers’ instructions ask for, from the plumbing standard (ASME A112.1.2). About 3–4″ above the rim is a comfortable aim; a spout set much higher splashes more.

Reach: the sink and faucet makers say to choose a spout that sends the water to the middle of the bowl, near the drain. The faucet’s spec sheet gives its reach; check it against where the bowl will sit.

Drilling: have the sink and faucet in hand before you drill the top, or at least their templates and instructions, since the holes go where they say. Our top is ¾″ thick, well within what vessel faucets and drains are made for (one common vessel faucet takes a counter up to 2½″ thick), but check your own faucet’s and drain’s instructions. Each hole’s cut edge is end grain, the open ends of the wood’s fibers, which soak up water fastest, so seal it: the USDA’s Wood Handbook notes that a finish slows moisture change only if the end grain is sealed too. Then set the bowl and its drain on a bead of silicone, as the sink maker’s instructions say.