Your Middleton kitchen was most likely built after 2000. So the question Custom Cabinets Lynn gets asked here is why a house this new still has a builder's default kitchen.
We start from your layout instead of your walls, since there is little wrong with the walls and a lot wrong with where the refrigerator went. A builder's default puts the sink under the window and the storage wherever the boxes fit.
Your money goes into where things sit rather than into fitting cabinets to a crooked wall. The $450 to $1,600 an older town pays for that never reaches your quote, because stock built after 2000 comes in close to square.
A handful of colonial-period houses are still standing here, and those behave like a Salem kitchen. So we ask when yours went up before quoting anything. The two answers put you in different rows of the same price list.
We take the island or peninsula first where the room can carry one, since that is where the work surface and the storage both come from. An island needs a real walkway on every side that gets used. Squeeze one into a room that cannot spare it and two people end up stuck at the dishwasher.
We put your pantry where the run is short rather than stretching the run further along the wall. A tall unit beside your refrigerator takes the load off shelves that would otherwise sag. It costs less than another two feet of run.
Middleton at a glance
Semi-custom at $150 to $700 a linear foot covers most of this stock, since your opening is already a standard width. Stock cabinets at $100 to $400 a foot are a real option here, and they are not in most of Greater Boston.
Where you want the room changed rather than refitted we build to your opening at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot. A 10x10 kitchen in stock or semi-custom lands at $3,000 to $11,000 installed, against $10,000 to $26,500 for one drawn to the room.
We spray a sound kitchen at $2,000 to $6,500 where the layout already works and only the color is wrong. Every row above, and the source that produced it, sits on our cost guide.
- Coastal exposure
- None. Inland, on the Ipswich River
- Housing era
- Colonial survivals inside a town that grew 57.4% after 2000
- What changes the job
- Square walls are normal here, so the work is layout rather than fitting
- Sets your permit rules
- Town of Middleton building department, under 780 CMR
What cabinets cost in Middleton
A 2000s house near the Ipswich River where the walls were true and the kitchen still had nowhere to set a mixing bowl down. We moved nothing structural. We added a peninsula and a full-height pantry beside the refrigerator, then refitted at $150 to $700 a linear foot in semi-custom. There was no wall-fitting line on that quote, because there was nothing to fit to. Your money goes into the layout instead.
| 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 from Middleton
My walls are straight, so why is a built kitchen still expensive?
Because straight walls are not the thing you are paying for. Building to your opening at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot buys the box, the door and the finish, and none of those gets cheaper in a newer house. What does disappear is the $450 to $1,600 wall-fitting line, and that is real money back on a North Shore quote.
Is a stock kitchen a mistake in a house like this?
Not necessarily, and this is one of the few towns where it holds up. Stock arrives in fixed three-inch widths at $100 to $400 a linear foot, which is fine when your opening is a standard width. It is a costly compromise when it is not. Where you want a particular width or a particular door, semi-custom at $150 to $700 buys that without a full build.
What if my house is one of the old ones?
Then you are on the other side of this page. A colonial-period house here gets measured the way a Salem or a Marblehead one does, with three height readings across the opening. Your layout comes off the tightest of them, which adds $450 to $1,600 anywhere in Essex County. A pre-1978 kitchen carries the lead-safe line on top of that.