Pantry and butler's pantry cabinets in Lynn, MA fail on height rather than on width, so Custom Cabinets Lynn checks your wall for lean before checking anything for size. Built cabinetry runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot against $150 to $700 semi-custom. Fitting a run into a pre-1940 opening adds $450 to $1,600. Our cabinet price guide shows where a butler's pantry lands against a straight run of tall units.
We put a level on your wall before we put a tape on it. A tall unit stands the whole height of the room. So a wall leaning half an inch over 8 feet turns into a gap that opens toward the ceiling, and every door on the run tells you about it.
Then we ask what is going inside. A pantry holding cans and jars is a weight problem. One holding cereal boxes and paper towels is a space problem. The two get built differently even though they look identical from the doorway.
The last thing we check is how the run gets into your room. In a house from the 1920s the turn in the stairs will not take a full-height box standing up. So we build it to arrive as parts and go together on your floor.
Where the cabinetry is going
A tall run against a leaning wall
We build your tall units to the wall you have rather than the one on the drawing. The taller the box, the further a lean travels. Fitting a run into a pre-1940 opening carries $450 to $1,600. That is normal work in this housing stock rather than an extra, and a quote with no line like it has either measured very carefully or not at all.
Pull-outs instead of deep fixed shelves
We put your storage on pull-outs wherever the cabinet is deep. The back third of a fixed shelf holds whatever you last forgot about. Rev-A-Shelf makes the pull-out pantries and tray dividers that fix this. A loaded one gets heavy, so it runs on Blum soft-close slides rated to 75 lb, or on heavier side-mounted slides where it goes past that.
A butler's pantry between kitchen and dining room
We rebuild the butler's pantry where your house still has one. In this housing stock there is often a counter and a run of glass cabinets sitting behind a later wall. A full one runs $3,000 to $12,000 with the counter, the doors and the glass. It is usually the cheapest way to add working surface to a kitchen that has run out.
A pantry door you are not meant to notice
We face a pantry door to match the wall where you want the opening hidden. It is the weight of that door rather than the look of it that decides the hardware. So we fit heavier hinges and a catch that holds, and we keep spares on hand instead of on order for three weeks.
How we fit it to your room
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We check your wall for lean before anything else
We hold a level against the wall at both ends of the run. The error that ruins a tall unit is the lean, and it never shows up in a width measurement.
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We weigh the job rather than just measure it
We ask whether your pantry is holding cans or cereal. Weight decides the slides and the shelf length, while space only decides how deep the cabinet has to be.
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We plan your outlets before the backsplash
We mark where the counter outlets sit before the run goes up. A taller cabinet or a deeper backsplash can bury one, and putting it back is a line on your quote rather than a surprise.
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We bring your run in as parts
We build to fit through the doorway and up the stairs, then join and level on site. A full-height box that cannot turn your landing is a box that stays on the truck.
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We hang your doors twice
We set every door once the run is fixed and again after the shelves are loaded. A tall cabinet settles onto its feet a little when the weight goes in.
The rules a tall run has to answer to
Counter outlets are spaced by code, not by preference
The electrical code puts an outlet within 24 inches of any point along a counter, which works out as outlets no more than four feet apart. A butler's pantry counter falls under that rule. If a taller run or a deeper backsplash covers one of yours, it has to go back. That is an electrical line on our quote rather than something found at inspection.
The shelf load is the one that counts here
A well-built shelf holds 15 lb per square foot for seven days with no sag and no joints opening. A pantry shelf of cans and bottles sits at the heavy end of everything a kitchen stores. So the shelf length and the pins it sits on are a real question for you rather than a detail.
A slide rating describes a moving load
The 75 lb Blum publishes for its soft-close slide is what the slide takes while the drawer is being pulled, not while it sits shut. A full-height pull-out pantry loaded with cans passes that on its own. That is why we put heavier hardware under the tall pull-outs than under the drawers in the base run beside them.
What a catalog line will and will not do
KraftMaid and the other semi-custom lines build tall units in a fixed set of widths and depths. Where your opening happens to suit one of them, that is real money saved. Where it does not, the gap gets closed with a filler strip. On a tall unit that strip runs the full height of the room and it is the first thing anyone notices.
What the drawing has to say
| Custom cabinetry, by the foot | $500 to $1,200 per linear foot |
|---|---|
| Semi-custom cabinetry, by the foot | $150 to $700 per linear foot |
| Butler's pantry or wet bar cabinetry | $3,000 to $12,000 |
| Fitting and leveling into a pre-1940 opening | $450 to $1,600 |
| Outlet spacing along a counter, by code | 24 inches from any point |
| Blum soft-close drawer slide rating | 75 lb per drawer |
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 does a custom pantry cost in Lynn?
$500 to $1,200 per linear foot built to your opening, or $150 to $700 semi-custom. Add $450 to $1,600 where we have to fit your run into a pre-1940 opening. In this city that is the usual case rather than an extra.
Are pull-outs worth the money in a pantry?
In a deep cabinet, yes. The back third of a fixed shelf holds whatever you forgot you owned, and a pull-out turns that into space you use. In a shallow cabinet you can already reach everything, so your money is better spent on shelving.
Can I have a butler's pantry in an older house?
Often you already have one. A counter with glass cabinets between the kitchen and the dining room is common in this housing stock, and yours may still be there behind a later wall. We rebuild one for $3,000 to $12,000.
Will a tall pantry fit up my stairs?
Not standing up, in most houses from the 1920s. We build the run to come in as parts and go together on your floor. That is a decision we make at the drawing rather than a problem found on delivery day.
Does a new pantry run affect my outlets?
It can, and it is worth raising before you sign anything. The electrical code puts an outlet within 24 inches of any point along a counter. So a deeper backsplash or a taller cabinet that buries one means we put it back.
Who builds pantry cabinets near me in Lynn?
Custom Cabinets Lynn builds tall pantry runs and butler's pantries across Lynn and the North Shore. We put a level on your wall before a tape, because on a full-height unit the lean matters more than the width.
No one wants a tall pantry with a wedge of filler running the full height of the wall. We trim the run to the wall you have, put the deep storage on pull-outs, and hang every door twice. We would rather sell you two pull-outs and one cabinet fewer than a deep box you have to unpack to use.
If a whole kitchen rather than one run is the real question, custom kitchen cabinets covers it. Cabinets for out-of-square walls goes into fitting a run to a wall that leans, and everything we handle lists the rest.