In Houston, custom kitchen cabinets usually run $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, according to HomeAdvisor (homeadvisor.com, 2026), which puts a typical 20 to 30 linear foot kitchen between about $10,000 and $36,000. Angi’s 2026 guide lands in the same place: $12,000 to $18,000 for a medium 20 to 30 foot kitchen and $20,000 to $30,000 for a large kitchen with 35 or more feet of cabinets (angi.com, 2026). Thumbtack also lists $500 to $1,200 per linear foot for custom work (thumbtack.com, 2026).
Those are national and Houston market ranges, not a quote. The custom cabinets cost in Houston for your kitchen depends on how many feet of cabinets you need, the wood, the door style, the finish and how much of the interior is drawers and pull-outs instead of plain shelves. This page breaks down each piece so you can read a cabinet quote line by line.
The three tiers are built differently, and the price gap reflects that.
| Tier | Per linear foot installed (HomeAdvisor, 2026) | 20-foot kitchen | 30-foot kitchen | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | $100 to $300 | $2,000 to $6,000 | $3,000 to $9,000 | Fixed sizes in 3-inch steps, particleboard boxes, a few door styles and colors, filler strips to close gaps |
| Semi-custom | $150 to $650 | $3,000 to $13,000 | $4,500 to $19,500 | Factory line with more sizes, depths and finishes; some modifications; built to order at a factory, so the order waits for a production slot |
| Custom | $500 to $1,200 | $10,000 to $24,000 | $15,000 to $36,000 | Built to your measurements, any wood, door style and finish, plywood boxes, no fillers |
HomeAdvisor’s separate custom-cabinet guide lists the same tiers slightly wider: stock $100 to $400, semi-custom $150 to $700, custom $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, with 20 feet of custom cabinets at $6,000 to $14,000 for the cabinets alone (homeadvisor.com, 2026). Angi’s custom range runs $500 to more than $1,500 per linear foot, or $200 to $500 per square foot of cabinet face (angi.com, 2026).
Two things the per-foot number hides. First, uppers and lowers are counted separately, so a 12-foot wall with cabinets above and below is 24 linear feet. Second, tall pantry and oven cabinets count as linear feet but hold three or four times the material of a base cabinet, so a kitchen with two tall units prices above the per-foot average.
Every custom cabinet quote is a stack of choices. These are the ones that move the total the most, in rough order.
The door and drawer fronts are where the wood shows and where the species matters. HomeAdvisor lists per-linear-foot costs by species (homeadvisor.com, 2026):
Walnut, rift-sawn white oak and quarter-sawn oak sit above cherry. For a painted kitchen, maple or MDF doors are the right choice: smooth, stable, and the paint hides the grain. For a stained kitchen, you are paying for the species and for grain matching across the doors.
A sprayed, catalyzed finish from the shop costs more than a stain-and-clear-coat, and a painted finish costs more than a stained one because paint needs primer, more coats and more sanding between them. Two-tone kitchens (painted perimeter, stained island) are two finish setups. Glazes and distressing are labor on top.
Framed cabinets have a solid wood face frame on the front of the box. Frameless (European) cabinets skip the frame and hang the door on the box side, which gives wider openings and full-access drawers. Frameless boxes need thicker plywood sides and more precise hardware, so they price a little higher per foot, but they fit flat-panel and modern kitchens better.
A base cabinet with three drawers costs more than the same cabinet with a door and a shelf. Each drawer is a box, a front, and a pair of soft-close slides. Drawers are also what most clients say they would not give up, so plan for drawer bases on most of the lower run and doors where you store tall items.
Soft-close hinges and undermount slides are standard on custom work. Budget and premium hardware brands differ by a few dollars per hinge and more per drawer slide, which adds up on a 30-drawer kitchen.
HomeAdvisor prices the common add-ons (homeadvisor.com, 2026): pull-out spice rack $200 to $500, lazy Susan $200 to $600, pull-out trash and recycling $200 to $450, drawer organizers $100 to $300, pan dividers $100 to $300, appliance lift $200 to $400. Five or six of these on one kitchen is $1,500 to $2,500.
Most Houston homes built since the 1990s have 9 or 10 foot kitchen ceilings. Standard 36 or 42 inch uppers leave a gap on top. Running cabinets to the ceiling means either 48-inch-tall uppers or a second stacked row of short cabinets with their own doors and crown molding. Stacked uppers add a second row of boxes, doors, hinges and crown, and they are the most common upgrade on River Oaks, Memorial and Sugar Land kitchens.
Glass-front doors need a mullion frame and a finished interior. Open shelving is cheaper per foot than cabinets but needs finished sides. Decorative end panels, refrigerator and dishwasher panels, and stacked crown molding are each line items.
Custom cabinets come from two kinds of makers: factory custom lines that ship from out of state, and local shops that build in Houston.
At Kitchen Remodel Masters, Jose, a cabinet maker with 20 years in the trade, builds every cabinet in our own Houston shop. Three things that changes:
We do not publish a per-foot price because the drivers above change it for every kitchen. What we do publish is a free 3D design with the actual door style, wood and finish, so the quote you see is for the kitchen on screen.
If you buy cabinets from one place and hire an installer, installation is its own line.
In a full-service quote like ours, removal, installation, panels and crown are in the cabinet price, and the plumber and electrician are scheduled around the install. Ask any cabinet quote whether installation and removal are included; the per-foot numbers in this guide assume they are.
The 2025 Cost vs. Value report from the Journal of Light Construction puts a midrange minor kitchen remodel in Houston at $28,300 with a resale value of $30,024, or 106 percent of cost recouped (jlconline.com, 2025). That project is mostly cabinets, countertops and appliances in the existing layout. A midrange major remodel in Houston cost $81,521 and recouped 47 percent. The lesson for cabinet budgets: new cabinets in the same footprint hold their value; moving walls and plumbing is for how you live, not for resale. Our kitchen remodel ROI guide goes deeper on the numbers.
A custom cabinet project through Kitchen Remodel Masters runs on this schedule:
The custom flat-panel cabinets with quartzite countertops project shows a full set of shop-built cabinets installed in a Houston kitchen.
Custom is not always the answer. If your boxes are solid plywood, the layout works and you want a new color, painting the cabinets costs a fraction of replacement. If the doors are dated but the boxes are good, refacing sits between the two. Our paint, stain, reface or replace guide lays out the decision with Houston price ranges for each option. Custom cabinets make sense when the boxes are water damaged, the layout is changing, the ceilings are tall, or you want drawers, pull-outs and a fit that catalog sizes cannot give.
The ranges above come from national and Houston market data. Your number comes from a design. Sean comes to your home, measures, and builds a free 3D design with the exact door style, wood species and finish you pick. The written proposal that follows is the price for that kitchen, with the cabinets built by Jose in our shop. Call (713) 364-6603 or request your free consultation.
Custom kitchen cabinets usually run $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, according to HomeAdvisor (2026). A typical 20 to 30 linear foot Houston kitchen lands between about $10,000 and $36,000. Angi's 2026 guide puts a medium 20 to 30 foot kitchen at $12,000 to $18,000 and a large kitchen over 35 feet at $20,000 to $30,000.
HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack both list $500 to $1,200 per linear foot for custom cabinets (2026). Angi lists $500 to more than $1,500 per linear foot, with the top end for exotic wood and complex layouts (2026). Per-foot prices usually include the boxes, doors, finish and installation, but confirm that on every quote.
Per HomeAdvisor (2026), stock cabinets run $100 to $300 per linear foot installed, semi-custom $150 to $650, and custom $500 to $1,200. On a 25-foot kitchen that is roughly $2,500 to $7,500 for stock, $3,750 to $16,250 for semi-custom, and $12,500 to $30,000 for custom.
Paint-grade maple, birch and MDF doors are the least expensive, at about $300 to $400 per linear foot per HomeAdvisor (2026). White oak runs $400 to $600 and cherry $500 to $700 per linear foot. Walnut and rift-sawn white oak sit above that.
Yes. A full-overlay shaker or flat-panel door is the baseline. Inset doors, which sit flush inside the face frame, take more fitting time and tighter tolerances, so inset doors cost more than the same door in full overlay, and beaded inset costs more still.
HomeAdvisor lists hanging cabinets at $50 to $450 per linear foot depending on cabinet type, cabinet maker labor at $70 to $175 per hour, and removal of old cabinets at $300 to $800 (2026). Most Houston custom cabinet quotes fold installation into the per-foot price.
Factory custom lines are built out of state and shipped, and the order waits in a production queue before it ships. Cabinets built in a local shop start the day the design is approved. At Kitchen Remodel Masters, most custom cabinet projects take about 2 to 4 weeks from start to finish because Jose builds them in our own Houston shop while the rest of the materials are ordered.
A midrange minor kitchen remodel in Houston cost $28,300 and recouped 106 percent at resale in the 2025 Cost vs. Value report from the Journal of Light Construction. Cabinets are the largest line in that number. A major midrange remodel at $81,521 recouped 47 percent, so the return is highest when cabinets are the focus and the layout stays.
Not by themselves. Replacing cabinets in the same layout is cosmetic work. The City of Houston requires permits when the project moves plumbing, adds electrical circuits, runs gas, or removes a bearing wall. Kitchen Remodel Masters pulls those permits when the scope needs them.
Stacked uppers are a second row of short cabinets above the standard uppers that run to a 9 or 10 foot ceiling. They add boxes, doors, hinges and crown molding, so the upper run costs noticeably more than standard uppers. They also remove the dust shelf on top of the cabinets, which many Houston homeowners want.
