Custom is the most expensive way to buy a kitchen and occasionally the only sensible one. The honest version is a range and the reasons behind it, so you can see whether your room is one that justifies the gap over stock.
Installed and per linear foot, stock runs roughly $100 to $400, semi-custom $150 to $700 and custom $500 to $1,200. Solid hardwood with premium hardware goes above that again. Example ranges, not quotes, and the overlap between the tiers is real: a good semi-custom kitchen can cost more than a plain custom one.
What separates them is not quality so much as freedom. Stock comes in fixed widths and you work around them. Semi-custom gives more sizes and finishes within set increments. Custom starts from your wall measurements, which is why it suits rooms that are not close to standard.
Time follows the same order. Stock ships in one to three weeks, semi-custom in four to eight, custom takes six to twelve to fabricate. If the wait is the problem rather than the money, that is worth knowing early. See custom cabinets, refacing costs and the custom hub.
Recent work
How we quote
How a Custom Quote Is Built
Survey and plan
The room is measured for what it actually is, then planned. Only once the layout is settled does anything get priced, because a plan change after pricing changes the price.
Price by the linear foot
Cabinetry is measured along the wall, uppers and lowers separately. Islands and tall units are priced on their own because they are not comparable to a run of base cabinets.
Itemise the extras
Internal fittings, the hood surround, any built-ins and the worktop appear as separate lines. A single total is impossible to compare against another company's single total.
Say when stock would do
If the room is close to standard and the plan works, we will tell you that custom is not worth the gap. It is a smaller job for us and the right answer for you.
Where money goes
What Actually Moves a Quote
Material comes first. Solid hardwood doors over a veneered board carcass is the normal upgrade path, and it moves the number more than adding two extra cabinets would. Species matters within that: oak and maple sit below walnut, and the gap is not small across a whole kitchen.
Internal fittings come second and surprise people. Pull-outs, corner units and deep drawer dividers are individually modest and collectively significant, because every one is a mechanism as well as a piece of joinery.
Complexity is third: sloping ceilings, curved runs, and anything that has to be scribed to a bowed wall all take shop time. Countertops, appliances, sinks and flooring are all quoted separately rather than folded into the cabinetry line, so ask what a number actually includes before setting it beside another company's. Scope, not price, is where two quotes usually differ. See islands and quartz.
Cost detail
What it buys
Where the Money Goes
Each of these moves the number. Read them before deciding what is in scope.
The three tiers, lead times, and what a quote does and does not include.
Installed, roughly $500 to $1,200. Stock sits at $100 to $400 and semi-custom at $150 to $700. Solid hardwood with premium hardware goes higher again. Example ranges, not quotes.
Because nothing is made until your measurements exist. Every box is cut to a dimension off your wall, which is shop time rather than warehouse stock. You are buying fit, not better wood.
Often, yes. It gives more sizes and finishes than stock within set increments, at $150 to $700 a foot. If your room is close to standard it does most of what custom does for noticeably less.
Six to twelve weeks to fabricate custom, against four to eight for semi-custom and one to three for stock. If the timeline matters more than the fit, that changes the recommendation.
Countertops, appliances, sinks, taps, flooring, tiling and electrical work are all separate. Ask what any quote includes before comparing it, because scope is where two numbers usually differ.
Material, then internal fittings. Veneered board instead of solid hardwood on the doors, and choosing which cabinets really need pull-outs, will move a quote more than dropping a cabinet.
Far cheaper, and it is the right answer whenever the layout already works. Refacing is $125 to $300 a foot against $500 plus for custom, so we ask what you dislike before quoting either.
Surveyed, planned, then priced by the linear foot with the fittings and extras on their own lines. If stock or semi-custom would serve you better, you hear that first.
