If you’ve started pricing out a kitchen remodel, you already know the range is wide. Custom cabinets can run anywhere from $5,000 to well over $30,000 depending on materials, size, and what the word “custom” actually means in the quote you’re looking at.
This guide breaks down what drives cabinet pricing so you can compare quotes honestly and understand what you’re getting at each price point.
Stock, Semi-Custom, and Fully Custom: The Three Tiers
Most cabinet pricing falls into one of three categories, and they’re not interchangeable.
Stock cabinets are manufactured in standard sizes and shipped to distributors, home improvement stores, and contractors. You pick from what’s available. They’re fast and inexpensive, usually $1,500 to $5,000 for a kitchen, but you’re fitting your kitchen around the cabinets rather than the other way around. If your space has an unusual layout, angled walls, or you want anything beyond the most common configurations, stock runs out of options quickly.
Semi-custom cabinets allow some modifications. You can often adjust dimensions in small increments, choose from a wider range of door styles and finishes, and add certain features. The price reflects that flexibility, typically $3,000 to $12,000. You’re still choosing from a manufacturer’s menu rather than specifying from scratch.
Fully custom means a cabinet shop builds everything to your exact space. The wall is 93 inches wide? The cabinet is 93 inches wide. The drawer is exactly as deep as your pots require. No filler strips, no gap at the corner, no “close enough.” You’re also choosing the wood, the door profile, the finish, and the hardware from scratch rather than selecting from a manufacturer’s lineup. Price range: $5,000 to $30,000 or more for a full kitchen, with the higher end reflecting premium wood species, larger kitchens, and specialty features like pull-out systems and custom drawer inserts.
Most homeowners doing a real kitchen renovation end up somewhere between $7,000 and $25,000 for the cabinets alone.
Per Linear Foot: How Contractors Measure It
Cabinet pricing is often quoted per linear foot, meaning the total run of cabinetry measured in a straight line. This includes both upper and lower cabinets, so a 10-foot wall of uppers and lowers counts as 20 linear feet.
For fully custom cabinets built by a local shop, expect $500 to $1,200 per linear foot. That includes materials, labor, and hardware. The spread comes down to what the boxes are made from and what’s on the doors.
At the lower end of that range, you’re typically looking at plywood boxes with painted MDF or maple doors, standard hardware, and simpler door profiles. At the upper end, you’re getting solid hardwood face frames and doors, complex molding profiles, premium hardware like Blum soft-close systems, and finishes that require multiple spray coats.
The per-linear-foot number is useful for ballparking, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. A small galley kitchen might only have 20 linear feet of cabinets, while a large open-plan kitchen can run 40 to 50 linear feet easily. The total project cost reflects both.
What Moves the Price Up
A few factors drive the number more than others:
Wood species sets the floor price before anything else gets added. Maple and birch are the workhorses at roughly $300 to $400 per linear foot for the cabinet boxes. White oak runs $400 to $600 because of current demand and the way it machines and finishes. Cherry is $500 to $700 per linear foot.
Kitchen size is where budgets actually break. A medium galley kitchen typically runs $12,000 to $18,000 for custom cabinetry. A large kitchen with an island can push $20,000 to $30,000. People think in per-linear-foot terms and forget how fast the total climbs. Adding six more feet of cabinetry isn’t a $600 line item.
Finish type adds both time and cost. Painted cabinets require more prep coats, more spray passes, and more cure time than a stained natural wood finish. A catalyzed finish baked on in a shop holds up for decades. A brush-and-roll paint job is cheaper and shows it over time.
Hardware and special features price out separately: pull-out trays, spice drawers, trash inserts, deep drawer systems, and custom organizers each add to the quote. Worth knowing the per-item numbers before the contract, not after.
Labor, if it’s not built in, runs $70 to $175 per hour for a cabinet installer. Most local shops that build and install quote it as a single per-linear-foot number. If you’re sourcing cabinets and installation separately, budget both.
What You Get for Spending More
The price difference between stock and custom isn’t just aesthetics. It’s what happens over time.
Stock cabinets are built to volume-production tolerances with particle board boxes that swell when exposed to kitchen moisture. The joints are stapled. Hardware is functional at best.
Custom cabinets built by a local shop use plywood boxes that hold their shape, dovetail or dado joinery in the drawer boxes, and hardware from brands like Blum or Grass that are engineered to open and close tens of thousands of times without fail. A custom cabinet built well will still be structurally sound when the house changes hands. A budget stock cabinet won’t.
There’s also fit. A custom cabinet fills your exact wall, which means no filler strips, no awkward gaps, and no compromises in corner storage. This matters more in a real kitchen than it sounds in a brochure.
What to Expect for a Free Estimate
No two kitchens quote the same. A 10×10 kitchen with stock-size walls is a different project from a 20-foot run with a custom island and a corner pantry, and the estimate should reflect that. If someone gives you a number without seeing the space, treat it as a rough direction, not a price.
We build custom cabinetry in solid wood at our shop in Lebanon and work directly with homeowners across Southwest Missouri, the Lake of the Ozarks, and Northwest Arkansas. If you’re at the planning stage, we’re happy to talk through what’s realistic for your kitchen and your budget.
PT Signature Cabinetry
Lebanon, MO
Serving Southwest Missouri, Lake of the Ozarks, and Northwest Arkansas
(417) 718-2400
