Well, there must be a reason why Kohler says a 3 inch minimum. In case of replacing your faucet once you don't want to take off the cabinet from the wall first? Contact Kohler for sure.

I'm assuming it's for some liability reason, like someone getting their fingers stuck or something... contacting Kohler about something like this doesn't seem easy. Didn't think about removing the faucet, will make sure there's enough clearance for that.

I've gotten really useful info from Kohler reps when I've called customer service with questions. I was pleasantly surprised that the reps knew their products so well.

Get a different faucet. That can't be the last on planet earth : ) And you are too close, and the darn thing will be a royal paint to clean and wipe off. It looks too close, it is too close.

Gosh - just move the cabinet up 2 inches.

If you used

Your side lever controls the water, so no frequent need to touch the top of the faucet unit. Move the cabinet up another inch so you can wipe the unit occasionally. Install the faucet before you install the medicine cabinet. The extra inches Kohler suggests are probably the space needed to get the faucet itself into the hole if you install it after the cabinet is already in...space for hands and all the hidden parts of the faucet.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><md>Would love to hear how it went. I'm in the same predicament the hole to fit our recessed Vedera cabinet is only 2 inches above the top of the tap I picked. I really like the tap and it matches the shower control so I'm really hoping it works out

If the medicine cabinet is recessed and faucet does not have a top handle that gets in the way, I don’t see a problem (I hope!). We are doing something similar and I’m putting the recessed mc very close to the faucet,

Myrica4 I'll let you know tomorrow!

I just measured, our faucet is about 1.5" from the bottom of the glass door and there's about half an inch of space under the cavity of the medicine cabinet (the door and bottom of the cabinet extend down about .5" from where it's attached to the wall). The back of our faucet is just .5" in from the front of the medicine cabinet when the medicine cabinet is closed. The door for the medicine cabinet is about 1" thick, so there's significantly more room when the door is open.

Since our faucet has a side lever, the 1.5" space is perfect, not too much and not too little. If the lever was on the top, I think 2" of space would be sufficient. Keep in mind this is with the faucet slightly in front of the cabinet. However, I realized that I went a bit overkill with our setup and could have comfortably placed the faucet about a 0.5" further back (so it was directly under the cabinet door, but not the cabinet frame. That way, the faucet could still be easily replaced and it wouldn't stick out as much as it does. I've attached some photos of our setup too.

Hope that helps!

Two more pictures that might add better perspective. Both from the right side and looking slightly up. One with door closed and other with door open.

Vessels & high rise faucets are trial & error, hopefully the spec sheet exactly matches the fixtures and faucets. They do make subtle changes to stuff, especially new models and of course, some vessels are fired from a raw casting .... so exact is a guess. "Please note dimensions may vary"

Make the framing oversized for adjustments. Have you accounted for the floor thickness, the real cabinet height, the thickness of the slab (2vs3cm) the substrate under the slab if required?

Have you made all those selections?

We are having the same problem. Please tell me the make and model faucet that worked out for you.

We went with the Graff G-6905: https://www.graff-designs.com/en/catalog/bathroom/dett/3007/camden-vessel-lavatory-faucet-/

Not the cheapest faucet, but it has a nice design and functions extremely well. Plus it fit perfectly into the space we had. It functions great and has held up real well! We also got the Graff Brushed Nickel grid drain... extremely disappointed... the brushed nickel finish wore off within a few months of use!! The faucet has help up much better, so am guessing it has a more durable finish. Regardless, I can recommend the faucet, but I'd be very careful with other Graff products in the future.