Inset and shaker cabinet doors in Lynn, MA succeed or fail on a gap you can measure, so Custom Cabinets Lynn sets your door gaps for August rather than for the day of the fit. Solid hardwood doors and fronts run $200 to $500 per linear foot, and wood veneer runs $100 to $250. Swapping doors and drawer fronts across a whole kitchen runs $2,200 to $6,600. Our cost guide sets those against refacing and against new boxes.
We leave the gap around your inset door wider than it looks like it should be on the day, and we tell you that before we do it. The air in your kitchen sits below 20% humidity in February and reaches the sixties in August. A door that fits perfectly in the dry months has nowhere to go in the wet ones.
An overlay door hides all of this from you. It sits over the front of the cabinet, so it can grow a sixteenth of an inch and nobody ever knows. An inset door sits inside the opening with a visible gap on all four sides. The same growth closes that gap on one side while opening it on the other.
That is the entire trade-off. Inset looks better and asks more of the shop, the wood and the hinge. That is why it sits at the top of every price range on this page.
What you are choosing between
Shaker, which is a five-piece door
A shaker door is four frame pieces around a flat center panel, and we never glue that panel in. It sits loose, finished on all six faces before assembly. So it can grow and shrink through the year without splitting or showing a bare line at the edges when it pulls back. That construction is what makes a shaker door the safest solid door in this climate.
Inset against full overlay
Inset doors sit inside the cabinet frame with a visible gap all the way around. So every gap on your run can be measured from across the room. We work to about half the tolerance an overlay door allows. The hours spent getting there are what put inset work at $1,200 to $2,500 per linear foot rather than $500 to $1,200.
Raised panel and glass fronts
A raised panel is thicker through the middle and thinner at its edges. So it carries more wood and more movement than a flat shaker panel. A glass front has no panel to move at all, which makes it the most stable door on any run. That is a large part of why a period kitchen puts glass in the upper cabinets.
Doors and fronts only, boxes left where they are
We change your doors and drawer fronts and leave the boxes alone wherever they are sound, at $180 to $330 per door or $2,200 to $6,600 across a kitchen. It is the cheapest real change you can make to a room. On a kitchen with a wood frame around the openings it is where the door style can genuinely change, because that frame is what an inset door sits inside.
How we build it
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We measure your openings, not your old doors
We take every opening on its own. In a kitchen built on site no two openings are identical, and an inset door made to an average of them fits nothing.
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We set your gap for the wet end of the year
We leave the gap that August will need rather than the one February wants. You cannot put wood back onto a door that was cut to fit on a dry day in the winter.
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We finish every panel before it goes in its frame
We coat all six faces of your panel before it goes into its frame. A panel finished only where you can see it shows a bare line at the edges the moment it shrinks.
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We pick the hinge to suit your door
We hang inset work on Blum hinges built for it. They adjust in three directions, which is what lets us walk a whole run of visible gaps into line at the end.
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We cure your doors before they go back on
We hold them off the boxes for the paint maker's full cure time instead of the touch-dry time. An inset door rehung early picks up a mark from the frame it closes against.
What decides whether an inset run stays right
A door that drops a hair shows against three edges
A good door and hinge survive 25,000 opens and closes, about twenty years of daily use. That matters more on inset work than anywhere else. An overlay door that drops a hair shows against nothing. An inset door that drops the same amount shows against three visible edges. So we fit hinges rated for it and adjust them before we leave.
The frame under your doors is older than 1978
Changing doors on an older kitchen means scraping, sanding and priming the wood frame around the openings. Past 6 square feet of disturbed paint in one room of a pre-1978 home, the job falls under the lead-safe rules at 454 CMR 22.00. In a city whose median build year is 1946 that is the normal case rather than an exception. It belongs on your quote as a line you can read.
The finish schedule is part of the door
Benjamin Moore ADVANCE recoats at 16 hours and reaches full hardness at 30 days, with 3 to 5 days before anything goes back onto a shelf. A sprayed shop finish gives a harder film again. On inset work that matters, because the door edge meets the frame every single time it closes, and a soft finish takes a mark from it.
Period inset is a set of proportions
Shaker, Arts and Crafts, Early American and Victorian doors are separated from each other by frame width, gap and hardware rather than by wood or color. Knowing which one you are asking for is what stops a period kitchen reading as a modern one with old handles screwed to it. So we ask before we draw.
What the spec has to carry
| Solid hardwood doors and fronts, by the foot | $200 to $500 per linear foot |
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| Wood veneer doors and fronts, by the foot | $100 to $250 per linear foot |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, whole kitchen | $2,200 to $6,600 |
| High-end inset cabinetry, by the foot | $1,200 to $2,500 per linear foot |
| Door and drawer open-and-close test | 25,000 cycles |
| Benjamin Moore ADVANCE recoat window | 16 hours |
Refacing a Lynn kitchen runs $5,000 to $13,000 installed, or $150 to $450 per linear foot. Swapping doors and drawer fronts alone runs $180 to $330 per door. What moves the number is the door material, how many boxes are actually still sound, and whether the kitchen predates 1978.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Refacing a standard kitchen: new doors, drawer fronts and veneered boxesThe whole visible surface changes and the layout does not. Priced on the door count and the run length rather than on the square footage of the room. | $5,000 – $13,000 | installed |
| Refacing priced by the footMeasure the run of base and wall cabinets along the wall, not the floor. This is the number to compare quotes on, because it strips out how big the kitchen happens to be. | $150 – $450 | per linear foot |
| Rigid thermofoil or laminate doors and frontsThe cheapest way to change the look. It is a vinyl film heat-pressed onto a substrate, and it is the one door type that will not survive a steam vent or a wall oven at close quarters. | $80 – $125 | per linear foot |
| Wood veneer doors and frontsReal wood face over an engineered core. Stable through a New England heating season because the core does not move the way a solid panel does. | $100 – $250 | per linear foot |
| Solid hardwood doors and frontsFive-piece doors with a floating panel. The top of the refacing range and the only version that can be sanded and refinished again in fifteen years. | $200 – $500 | per linear foot |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, boxes left aloneWhere the boxes are sound and only the faces are dated. Includes the door, the hinge boring and the hanging. Drawer fronts price the same way. | $180 – $330 | per door, installed |
| Doors and drawer fronts only, whole kitchenThe same job counted across an average kitchen rather than per door. The cheapest real change you can make to a kitchen that is structurally fine. | $2,200 – $6,600 | installed |
| Labor alone on a door and front swap, doors suppliedFor anyone pricing the doors separately. Hanging and adjusting is most of this line, because a door that is hung but not adjusted reads as a bad job within a month. | $140 – $230 | per door |
| Soft-close hinge and undermount runner retrofit during a refaceDone while the doors are already off, which is the only time it is cheap. Hinges and runners carry their own load and cycle ratings, so this gets specified rather than picked off a shelf. | $30 – $80 | per door or drawer |
| Replacing a failed sink base or dishwasher end panel during a refaceThe row that separates a real refacing quote from a cosmetic one. A swollen particleboard sink base will lift new veneer inside a year, so it gets replaced rather than skinned. | $400 – $1,400 | per box |
| Lead-safe containment and cleanup on a pre-1978 kitchenSealing the room, HEPA vacuuming and a wet cleanup rather than a broom. On a kitchen built before 1978 this is a rule about the work, not an upgrade, and it is on the quote or it is being skipped. | $350 – $1,200 | per 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 inset cabinet doors cost in Lynn?
$200 to $500 per linear foot for solid hardwood doors and fronts, and $1,200 to $2,500 per foot where a whole kitchen is built inset with a hand-applied finish. We swap doors and fronts across a kitchen for $2,200 to $6,600.
Why do inset doors stick in the summer?
Your gap ran out of room. Indoor humidity climbs from under 20% in February to the sixties in August, and your door grows with it. So the gap has to be set for the wet end of the year rather than for the day of the fit.
Is a shaker door solid wood?
Five pieces, and the middle one sits loose. We surround a flat center panel with four frame pieces and never glue it in. We finish all six faces before assembly, so your panel moves through the year without splitting.
Can I change overlay doors to inset?
Sometimes, and the frame around your cabinet openings decides it. An inset door sits inside that frame, so yours has to be square and sound enough to take one. Where it is, we swap doors and fronts at $180 to $330 per door.
What hinge does an inset door need?
One built for inset, with three-way adjustment. Blum makes one, and the adjustment is how we walk a whole run of your visible gaps into line at the end of a fit.
Who builds inset kitchen doors near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds inset and shaker doors across Lynn and the North Shore. We set your gaps for August rather than for the morning we hang them, because there is no putting wood back onto a door.
Nobody wants inset doors that look perfect in March and stick shut by August. We measure every opening on its own, set the gap for the wet end of the year, and finish every panel before it goes into its frame. We would rather build you a well-set overlay run than an inset one that fights the seasons every year.
If the choice of wood comes first for you, white oak and hardwood cabinets covers it. Cabinet refacing is the page on changing the faces and keeping the boxes, and everything we handle lists the rest.