Kitchen cabinet cost

Kitchen cabinets cost $100 to $300 per linear foot installed for stock, $150 to $650 for semi-custom, and $500 to $1,500 for custom. On a typical 10 by 10 kitchen, that is $2,000 to $8,000 stock, $5,000 to $15,000 semi-custom, and $12,000 to $50,000 custom.

Cabinets are 25% to 35% of a kitchen remodel budget, the largest single line by some distance. They are also where the price differences between quotes usually hide, because the three tiers look similar in a photograph and cost three times apart.

What the tiers actually mean

Stock cabinets come in fixed widths, normally three-inch increments, off a warehouse shelf. Where the sizes do not add up to your wall, a filler strip covers the gap. Available immediately or in a couple of weeks. Boxes are usually particleboard or plywood with a laminate or thermofoil finish.

Semi-custom uses the same standard box sizes but lets you choose the door style, the finish, some interior fittings, and often modified depths and heights. Lead time four to ten weeks. This is what most midrange kitchens use and it is usually the right answer.

Custom is built in a shop to your room's actual dimensions. No fillers, any size, any finish, any interior configuration. Lead time eight to sixteen weeks, and that lead time belongs in your schedule from the start rather than being discovered in week six.

What to look at instead of the price tag

Two cabinets at the same price per foot can be very different things. The parts that matter:

The box material. Plywood boxes resist moisture and hold screws better than particleboard. It is the difference that shows up in ten years under a sink.

Drawer boxes. Solid wood with dovetail joints against stapled particleboard. Look at the corner of an open drawer.

Drawer slides and hinges. Full-extension undermount slides with soft close are the current standard and are worth insisting on. Side-mount slides that stop three inches short leave you reaching into the dark.

Face frame or frameless. Frameless, sometimes called European, gives more usable interior width. Face frame is more traditional in appearance and slightly stronger.

The finish. A catalysed conversion varnish sprayed in a shop is far more durable than a brushed finish, and it is the main reason a custom door survives a decade of splashes at the sink.

Refacing and painting, the cheaper routes

If the boxes are sound and the layout works, you do not have to replace them.

Refacing puts new doors, drawer fronts and veneer on the existing carcasses. $4,000 to $12,000 for a typical kitchen, roughly half of replacing. It makes sense when the boxes are plywood and solid, and no sense when they are swollen particleboard.

Painting existing cabinets is $2,000 to $6,000 professionally, and it lives or dies on preparation. A properly sprayed job with the doors removed, degreased, sanded and primed lasts years. A brushed job over kitchen grease peels within months. If you are hiring for this, ask whether the doors leave the site.

New doors on existing boxes sits between the two, $2,500 to $8,000, and gives a new door style without the veneer work.

Neither refacing nor painting changes the layout, and neither fixes drawers that do not extend or a corner cabinet you cannot reach. If the problem with your kitchen is how it works rather than how it looks, they will not solve it.

Measuring your own kitchen

Cabinets are priced by the linear foot of run, measured along the wall at the cabinet face. Measure your base runs and your wall runs separately and add them; a typical 10 by 10 kitchen has about 20 linear feet of base and 20 of wall, which is where the industry's "10 by 10" shorthand comes from.

Tall units, pantries and islands are priced separately and add faster than people expect. An island alone is often $2,000 to $8,000 before the countertop.

Frequently asked questions

How much do cabinets add to a kitchen remodel?

Roughly a third of the budget, and more if you go custom. Cabinets plus their installation frequently exceed half the total on a midrange kitchen.

Are cabinet prices rising?

Tariffs on imported cabinetry have pushed prices up recently, which affects stock and lower-tier semi-custom lines most, since more of them are imported. Ask a supplier where a line is made before assuming last year's pricing holds.

Should I buy cabinets online?

Ready-to-assemble cabinets online are genuinely cheaper and the quality range is wide. The catch is that you own every problem: a damaged door, a missing part, or a box that does not fit is yours to sort out, and the installer will charge to wait. It works well for a confident buyer with time and badly for someone on a schedule.

How long do kitchen cabinets last?

Twenty to fifty years for the boxes. Doors and hardware wear faster, which is exactly why refacing exists.

What is the cheapest way to change how a kitchen looks?

Paint the doors and change the handles. Done properly it is $2,000 to $6,000 and it is the highest-impact money in this article. Done badly it costs less and looks it within a year.