Mudroom lockers and benches in Lynn, MA take harder use than any other cabinetry in a house, so Custom Cabinets Lynn builds the bench as a frame and hangs the storage around it. An open bay per person with a bench, hooks, a drawer under and a shelf over runs $2,400 to $9,600 for the cabinetry. The same work priced by the foot is $500 to $1,200 built, or $200 to $550 semi-custom. Our cost guide puts both next to the rest of the house.
We start by asking how many people come through this door and how tall the shortest one is. A bay built to a single height suits one person, and you have several. The hook a six-year-old can reach is not the hook you want your own coat on.
Then we read your floor. A back entry in a house from the 1940s has usually settled toward the door. An 8-foot bay set square to a level line shows a wedge of daylight at one end, unless we trim the base down to what your floor is really doing.
The last thing we need from you is whether this space is heated. Plenty of these entries are an enclosed porch or a back hall with no radiator. Wood in an unheated space swells and shrinks further across the year than wood in your kitchen. That changes the panels and the finish rather than the price.
Where the cabinetry is going
An open bay for each person
We build your bays open rather than with doors. A wet coat behind a closed door stays wet, and the door is the part that gets kicked in a room where everybody has their hands full. Each of your bays carries a hook rail, a shelf over and a drawer under on Blum soft-close slides. We size the pulls on the fronts for a hand in a glove.
A bench you can genuinely sit on
Your bench holds an adult plus whoever climbs up next to them. So we build it as a frame with a front rail and cross rails, and we treat the lid as nothing more than a lid. A seat top spanning much over 3 feet with no support under the middle flexes in the first winter. Once it has flexed, the finish cracks along the front edge and stays cracked.
Boot storage that drains instead of pooling
We leave your boot space open at the bottom and finish the underside of every shelf. Snow melt and grit sit on a shelf for hours after the boots have gone upstairs. A plywood shelf handles that, so that is what we give you. A particleboard shelf takes water up through the bare face and swells at the front edge, right where you have to look at it.
A bay that fits under your stairs
We make a full-size pattern of the run where a back entry sits under a staircase. That ceiling line is rarely straight and it is never parallel to the floor. Our drawer boxes are built to whatever opening we end up with, on a 1 to 2 week lead, against the 4 to 12 weeks a full custom job takes.
How we fit it to your room
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We take your wall at three heights
We measure at the floor, at bench height and at the top of the bay. A plastered back entry rarely holds one width, and the run has to clear the narrowest of the three.
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We find your framing before we draw anything
We locate the studs first. A hook carrying a soaked winter coat pulls straight out of a back panel, and the wood that stops it has to land on solid framing.
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We set your hook heights to the people using them
We mark the rails bay by bay with your family standing in the room. That costs us ten minutes and decides whether your coats end up on hooks or on the floor.
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We trim your base down to the real floor
We shim and trim along the bottom rail so your bench line reads level even where the floor is not. The eye reads that line against the door casing and catches a quarter inch of taper.
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We finish the faces you will never see
We coat the undersides, the backs and the inside of every cubby. The water in this room arrives from below, and a bare face is the one that drinks it.
What a back door does to cabinetry
The frame carries the weight and the lid does not
A mudroom drawer full of gloves gets opened more in a winter than a kitchen drawer does in a year. So we fit slides tested through 25,000 opens and closes, about twenty years of ordinary use. The lid on your bench is a hinged panel, not a beam. What we build under it has to take the weight whatever the lid is made of.
The paint in this room is almost always older than 1978
A back entry usually still carries its original painted wainscot and casing. Cutting a bay into that disturbs more than 6 square feet of old paint, and in a pre-1978 home that puts the work under the lead-safe rules at 454 CMR 22.00. It means we seal the room, nothing gets dry sanded, and the cleanup is a HEPA vacuum and a wet wipe. That is a line on your quote, not a surprise.
An unheated entry moves further than a heated room
Air in a heated house runs from under 20% humidity in winter up to the sixties in summer, and an enclosed porch goes past that at both ends. Wood shifts roughly 1% for every 4% change in its own moisture. So a solid panel that would sit safely in your kitchen has to be free to move out here, or it splits down the middle.
Paint on a mudroom takes more abuse than paint on a bookcase
We use Benjamin Moore ADVANCE, which brushes out like an oil paint and does not yellow over a white face. It wants 16 hours between coats and 3 to 5 days before anything gets loaded against it. That schedule matters more here than elsewhere, because the first thing to touch this finish is a wet sleeve rather than a clean hand.
What the drawing has to say
| Mudroom lockers and bench, cabinetry only | $2,400 to $9,600 |
|---|---|
| Custom built-in cabinetry, by the foot | $500 to $1,200 per linear foot |
| Semi-custom built-in cabinetry, by the foot | $200 to $550 per linear foot |
| Lead-safe threshold, painted surface disturbed per room | 6 square feet |
| Door and drawer open-and-close test | 25,000 cycles |
| Made-to-order drawer box lead time | 1 to 2 weeks |
Built-in cabinetry in Lynn runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot with doors and drawers, $200 to $550 semi-custom, and $300 to $850 for open shelving. A full wall of built-in bookcases prices as one job rather than by the foot, at $2,000 to $7,500. What moves your number is the height and how far off straight your wall runs.
| What the job is | Typical range | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Built-in bookcases and shelving, priced by the footFloor to ceiling against a finished wall. The spread is mostly about height and whether the shelves are fixed or adjustable, because adjustable means boring every shelf position twice. | $300 – $850 | per linear foot, installed |
| Built-in bookcases, a full wallThe same job counted across a room rather than per foot. Includes scribing to the wall and the ceiling, which on an older house is most of the fitting time. | $2,000 – $7,500 | installed |
| Custom built-in cabinetry, priced by the footDoors, drawers and a finished face rather than open shelving. Same per-foot economics as a custom kitchen because it is the same construction. | $500 – $1,200 | per linear foot, installed |
| Semi-custom built-in cabinetry, priced by the footCatalog boxes fitted and trimmed to look built in. Cheaper, and the giveaway is always the filler strip at the wall. | $200 – $550 | per linear foot, installed |
| Home office desk and surround, built inA worktop, drawers, a file bank and the shelving over it, fitted to the room. The top of the range is a full wall in a large room with a hardwood face. | $3,500 – $20,000 | installed |
| Window seat, standard installationA fitted seat under an existing window with storage under the lid. On a Lynn bay window the fitting is the job, because the two side walls almost never return at the same angle. | $2,500 – $3,500 | installed |
| Reading nook seat, smaller openingThe cheaper version under a standard window rather than a bay. Priced on the width and whether the seat lifts. | $500 – $4,000 | installed |
| Built-in daybed under a windowFull mattress depth rather than a seat, usually with drawers underneath. The top of the range carries panelling and a fitted surround. | $1,000 – $8,000 | installed |
| Mudroom lockers and bench, cabinetry onlyAn open locker bay per person with a bench, hooks, a drawer under and a shelf over. Cabinetry only, in an existing room. No framing, no roof, no floor. | $2,400 – $9,600 | installed |
| Butler's pantry or wet bar cabinetryA short run with uppers, a counter and usually glass fronts. Common in the older houses on this side of the North Shore, and often still there behind a later partition. | $3,000 – $12,000 | installed |
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 does a mudroom bench with storage cost in Lynn?
$2,400 to $9,600 for the cabinetry in a room you already have. That covers an open bay per person with a bench, hooks, a drawer under and a shelf over. It leaves out framing, flooring and any building work, because those are a carpenter's lines on your quote rather than ours.
Should the lockers have doors on them?
Usually not, for two reasons. Your wet coat behind a closed door is still wet the next morning, and the door is the part that gets kicked. Where you want the mess hidden, one bay with a door at the end of the run costs you far less than four.
Will one bay do for two people?
Rarely, and this is the decision that moves the price. Two coats sharing a hook rail means your outer one never gets hung. So we would rather give you four narrow bays than two generous ones. The number of bays drives your cost more than the total width does.
Can a bench like this go in an unheated porch?
Yes, with the panels built to move. Wood shifts about 1% for every 4% change in its moisture, and an unheated porch runs past the 25% to 65% band a heated room sees. So we leave the panels loose in their frames and finish all six faces before we put them together.
Is lead paint a problem in an old back entry?
Usually, and you want it priced rather than discovered. Any pre-1978 home comes under 454 CMR 22.00 once more than 6 square feet of old paint is disturbed in a room. So cutting a bay into your original painted wainscot means we seal the room, work wet, and clean up with a HEPA vacuum instead of a broom.
Who builds mudroom lockers near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds locker bays and benches across Lynn and the North Shore. We set your hook heights with the family standing in the room, because a hook nobody can reach turns into a coat on the floor.
No one wants a bench that flexes under the second person or a shelf that swells under the first pair of boots. We build the seat as a frame, cut the shelves from plywood, and finish every face the water can reach. We would rather build you four honest bays than three handsome ones with a door on each.
If the walls in your back entry are the real obstacle, cabinets for out-of-square walls covers what fitting into plaster actually involves. Built-in bookcases and shelving is the same construction in a dry room, and everything we handle lists the rest.