Custom kitchen cabinets in Lynn, MA are drawn to the openings in your house rather than picked from catalog widths, and Custom Cabinets Lynn builds them at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot installed. A standard 10x10 comparison kitchen lands at $10,000 to $26,500. Inset doors in a specialty wood with a hand-applied finish run $1,200 to $2,500 a foot. Where you want the fast version instead, refacing your existing boxes is $5,000 to $13,000 and finishes in a week. All of those numbers sit together on our cabinet price guide with sources under each one.
You are in one of two situations where custom is worth paying for, and neither of them is about how a kitchen looks.
The first is a room that catalog sizes cannot serve. Stock cabinets come in three-inch steps, which means your 41-inch bay gets a 39-inch box and a 2-inch filler. A Lynn kitchen is full of bays that were never built to a standard size. The second is a run where your wall, floor or ceiling has moved, since the cabinets then have to be drawn around that movement rather than fought against it.
We would rather tell you when you are in neither situation. Where your openings are close to standard and your walls are fairly true, semi-custom cabinets at $150 to $700 a foot put the money somewhere it does more for you.
What we build for a kitchen
Fully custom, drawn to your room
We build your boxes to the widths, heights and depths your kitchen actually has, which means no filler strips and no dead corner nobody can reach. Any wood, any door style and any interior fitting is available at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot installed. The number moves on the door style and the drawer count far more than on the wood. That is the version where your 41-inch bay gets a 41-inch cabinet.
Inset doors and period work, the top of the range
We price inset doors at $1,200 to $2,500 a foot. Inset means the door sits inside the face frame rather than over it, so every gap in your kitchen shows from across the room and every one has to be even. That is the style for a Shaker, Arts and Crafts or Victorian kitchen in a house that deserves it. We tell you honestly that an overlay door forgives about twice as much.
Boxes, drawers and the parts you never see
Your boxes are 3/4-inch hardwood plywood rather than particleboard, with no added formaldehyde in the glue, because the cut edges sit inside the air of a kitchen you cook in. Your drawer boxes come in solid maple, white oak or walnut with dovetailed corners that will not pull apart when the drawer is full. A Blum soft-close slide is rated for a drawer full of pots, and your pan drawer gets a heavier side-mounted slide rather than a promise.
The one thing custom does not buy you
Custom cabinets do not make a kitchen work better if the layout is wrong, and we have talked people out of expensive boxes in the same positions more than once. Your sink, range and fridge, your walking room and your counter runs decide whether a kitchen is pleasant to cook in. We draw that before we draw a cabinet. If the answer is that you need a wall moved, that is a conversation to have first rather than last.
How a custom kitchen runs
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We measure your room before we draw anything
We measure every run at three heights, find the high point of your floor, and record where the walls lean and by how much. Those numbers become the drawing, which is why a custom kitchen fits and a catalog one gets packed out with shims.
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We put a layout in front of you before a price
We draw your kitchen in plan and elevation and walk you through where things go and why, since the cabinets are the last decision rather than the first. You get to argue with a drawing, which costs nothing, instead of arguing with a built run, which costs a great deal.
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We itemize your estimate by component
We name the box material, the door construction, the hardware and the finish as separate lines on your estimate before anything is ordered. Those four decide whether a kitchen still looks right in fifteen years. A total with no breakdown tells you nothing about any of them.
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We build to your drawing, with the fitting allowance already in it
We draw your end panels oversized on purpose so there is material to cut back to the wall you actually have. Building and fitting under one roof is why that allowance is planned rather than discovered. Fitting into a pre-1940 opening runs $450 to $1,600 on the job.
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We install, adjust and hand over the spares
We set your bases off the high point of the floor, screw the uppers into solid wood, trim the ends to the walls and adjust every door and drawer before we walk the kitchen with you. You keep the spare hardware, the finish touch-up and a written note of what was used, so year five is a repair rather than a search.
What belongs on a custom cabinet agreement in Massachusetts
Over $1,000, the agreement is written before anything starts
Massachusetts home improvement law, MGL c.142A, requires a written and signed agreement on residential work above $1,000. It has to carry the work description, the materials, the total price, the payment schedule and the start and finish dates. Every custom kitchen clears that threshold many times over. A handshake on a $20,000 kitchen leaves you with a missing document rather than a shortcut.
The deposit rule has an exception that matters on cabinets
The same law caps a deposit at one third of the contract price, or the actual cost of special-order materials if that is higher. A custom kitchen is special-order by definition, so the material cost can honestly exceed a third. Ask which of the two figures your deposit represents and what the special-order material actually is.
Why Lynn homeowners call us for custom
Nobody wants to pay custom prices and get cabinets that feel like flat-pack furniture. Our team builds the old-school way: thick plywood boxes instead of particleboard, solid wood frames, and dovetailed drawers that will not pull apart when they are full. In a house built around 1946, every bay is a different size, so we draw every box to the opening it is going into. You pay $500 to $1,200 a foot, and you get a kitchen with no fillers and no dead corners.
Lead time is a supply fact, not a measure of workmanship
A full custom kitchen runs 4 to 12 weeks from drawing to delivery, while made-to-order doors and drawer boxes run 1 to 2 weeks. That gap is the whole reason refacing feels fast and building feels slow, and it has nothing to do with how carefully either is done. A shop promising a custom kitchen in ten days has changed the meaning of custom somewhere in the sentence.
What the drawing has to carry
| Fully custom cabinetry, installed | $500 to $1,200 per linear foot |
|---|---|
| Inset doors, specialty species, hand-applied finish | $1,200 to $2,500 per linear foot |
| Fully custom 10x10 kitchen | $10,000 to $26,500 |
| Installation labor share of a custom job | 25% to 40% |
| Custom kitchen lead time | 4 to 12 weeks |
| Written contract trigger, Massachusetts | $1,000 |
Fully custom cabinetry in Lynn runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, or $10,000 to $26,500 for a 10x10 kitchen. Semi-custom runs $150 to $700 per foot and stock $100 to $400. What moves the number is the box, the door and how far out of square the wall is.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Fully custom cabinetry, built to the openingDrawn to your kitchen rather than assembled from catalog sizes. Any width, any height, any depth, and no filler strips standing in for a wall that is not straight. | $500 – $1,200 | per linear foot, installed |
| High-end custom: inset doors, specialty species, hand-applied finishInset doors sit inside the frame rather than over it, which means every reveal has to be even and every one is visible. That is where the hours go. | $1,200 – $2,500 | per linear foot, installed |
| Semi-custom cabinetryCatalog boxes with real choices on door style, finish and some sizes. The middle of the market and the honest answer for most Lynn kitchens. | $150 – $700 | per linear foot, installed |
| Stock cabinetryFixed sizes off a shelf, usually in three-inch increments. Cheapest per foot, and the version most likely to need filler strips against a pre-1940 wall. | $100 – $400 | per linear foot, installed |
| Fully custom 10x10 kitchenThe standard comparison kitchen the industry prices against, roughly 20 linear feet of cabinetry. Use it to sanity-check a quote, not to price your own room. | $10,000 – $26,500 | installed |
| Stock or semi-custom 10x10 kitchenThe same comparison kitchen in catalog boxes. The gap against the custom line above is the whole decision in one number. | $3,000 – $11,000 | installed |
| Building and installation labor alone, on custom workRuns 25% to 40% of the total on a custom job. Worth knowing, because a quote where labor is far under that is either using catalog boxes or leaving something out. | $200 – $300 | per linear foot |
| Installing cabinets you already haveHanging, leveling, scribing, joining and setting the doors on boxes bought elsewhere. The spread is mostly about how true the walls and floor are. | $4,500 – $15,000 | per kitchen |
| A published North Shore figure for the same job, Salem MAOne live, published, local number for a full cabinet installation. Carried because it is the only one in this table that came from this side of the state, and because it sits above the top of the national custom range. | $28,564 | as quoted |
| Scribing and leveling a run into a pre-1940 openingPlaster over lath, a floor that has settled, and no corner at a true 90 degrees. Scribing the end panels and stiles to the real wall instead of filling the gap. On a 1946 kitchen this is normal work, not an extra. | $450 – $1,600 | added to the job |
Want yours measured properly?
We come out, measure the opening at three heights and check how far off square your walls sit, then put a written number on it before anything is ordered.
Questions we get asked
How much do custom kitchen cabinets cost in Lynn?
$500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, or $10,000 to $26,500 for a 10x10 comparison kitchen. We charge $1,200 to $2,500 a foot for inset doors in a specialty wood with a hand-applied finish. Labor is 25% to 40% of what you pay on custom work.
How long do custom cabinets take to build?
4 to 12 weeks from approved drawing to delivery, then three to five days to install. We get made-to-order doors and drawer boxes in 1 to 2 weeks, which is why refacing finishes in a week and building does not.
Are custom cabinets worth it over semi-custom?
In an old house, usually. Semi-custom at $150 to $700 a foot comes in fixed sizes, so your 41-inch bay gets a 39-inch box and a filler. Custom at $500 to $1,200 a foot is drawn to your opening, which is why it has no fillers in it.
What deposit should a custom cabinet job take?
Massachusetts caps it at one third of the contract price, or the actual cost of special-order material if that is higher. A custom kitchen is special-order by definition, so ask which of the two your figure is and what material it covers.
What should be itemized on a custom cabinet estimate?
Four lines at minimum: the box material, the door construction, the hardware and the finish. Those four decide whether your kitchen holds up for fifteen years. A single total with no breakdown tells you nothing about any of the four.
Who builds custom kitchen cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds and installs custom kitchens across Lynn and the North Shore at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot. We measure each run at three heights and draw the fitting allowance into the panels, because no wall in a 1946 house is straight.
Custom cabinets earn their price in a house where nothing is standard, and Lynn is full of those. They are a poor buy in a room where a catalog box would have fitted, and we will say so at the drawing stage rather than after your deposit.
If your existing boxes are sound and it is the faces that have dated, cabinet refacing does most of the visible work for $5,000 to $13,000. Where fitting is the whole job, kitchen cabinet installation covers what that involves, and everything we handle lists the rest.