Your Wakefield kitchen could have gone up in the 1600s or the 1960s, and nothing on the street says which. So Custom Cabinets Lynn treats the measure as the start of your quote rather than the confirmation of one.
What we can tell you before we arrive is how long you will be living without a kitchen. Made-to-order doors and drawer boxes run 1 to 2 weeks, and a kitchen built to your opening runs 4 to 12.
Choosing between them is mostly choosing a queue position, and it is worth settling before you fall for a door. We see far more whole-kitchen work here than turnaround work, which is what the Route 128 corridor does to a town.
The lakeside houses near Quannapowitt and the twentieth century stock sit within a mile of one another. So we price your job off the room instead of the neighborhood. A colonial-era wall and a 1955 wall want different layouts, and the difference does not show up in a photograph.
On a whole kitchen your boxes are hardwood plywood rather than particleboard, glued into grooves cut in the sides. Ask for panels made with no added formaldehyde and we will order them. It costs you more than a stapled box. That is the difference between a sink cabinet that survives a slow leak and one that swells and comes out.
Your doors go on hinges that adjust in three directions, since a house that has settled once will settle again. A door with no adjustment left in it binds against its neighbor and never comes back into line. That is a hardware decision made years earlier rather than a fault.
Wakefield at a glance
Cabinets drawn to your opening run $500 to $1,200 a linear foot, and the 10x10 comparison kitchen at $10,000 to $26,500 is the figure to check any quote against. Doors set inside the frame in a specialty wood push it to $1,200 to $2,500 a foot.
Semi-custom at $150 to $700 covers the twentieth century houses well, because a room laid out to a plan takes a catalog width without an argument. Refacing at $5,000 to $13,000 is the quick answer where your boxes are sound and the layout already works.
Whichever way it goes, your dates sit on the estimate beside your price, because the Massachusetts rule puts them in writing on any job over $1,000. Every number above is published on our cost guide with the source under it.
- Coastal exposure
- None. Inland, on a freshwater lake
- Housing era
- 1600s and 1800s survivals mixed straight through 20th century build-out
- What changes the job
- Age varies street to street, so nothing gets assumed before the measure
- Sets your permit rules
- Town of Wakefield building department, under 780 CMR
What cabinets cost in Wakefield
A house in Greenwood where the front rooms were plainly nineteenth century and the kitchen behind them had been rebuilt in the fifties. The newer half had a floor that dropped where the addition met the original sill. So the wall-fitting line came in at $450 to $1,600, while the older half needed none of it. The cabinets were built to the opening at $500 to $1,200 a linear foot. The build ran at the short end of the 4 to 12 week window.
| 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 Wakefield
How long will I be without a kitchen?
1 to 2 weeks if the job is doors and drawer fronts, and 4 to 12 where the cabinets are built to your opening. That gap is a queue position rather than a difference in craft, and it is the first thing worth deciding.
What has to be in writing on a cabinet job in Massachusetts?
The work itself, the materials, the price, how the payments fall, and both dates at either end of the job. Massachusetts requires all of it in writing above $1,000, and your kitchen clears that threshold on its first line.
What does a kitchen cost in Wakefield?
$500 to $1,200 a linear foot built to your opening, or $150 to $700 semi-custom, with the 10x10 comparison kitchen at $10,000 to $26,500. Which one suits you depends on the room rather than on the town.