How Much Does Custom Cabinetry Cost in Tampa?
At BUILT, custom cabinetry typically runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, plus installation, and the most involved kitchens go above that. The low end is a full-overlay slab door in wood veneer with a matte clear finish. The high end is inset Shaker with a color-matched satin finish, integrated pulls and LED-lit drawers.
Most cost guides give one national range and stop there. We'd rather give you ours and show you what sits at each end of it. We've tracked our labor hours on every project since 2013, so these numbers come from what the work takes in our shop, not from a survey.
The range: $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, plus installation
That figure covers the cabinetry itself: 3D modeling and shop drawings, materials, fabrication, finishing and hardware. Each room is its own line on our estimate, and that line includes everything in the room, crown and trim included. Installation is a separate line, because it depends on the house more than on the cabinets.
We count linear feet the way the work is built: base cabinets and wall cabinets are separate runs, and an island counts wherever it has cabinets. If you're comparing quotes, ask each shop how it counts. A shop that measures only wall length will show fewer feet for the same kitchen.
HomeAdvisor's current national figure for custom cabinets is the same $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, and in our experience it's accurate for custom work. One difference is worth knowing. HomeAdvisor describes its range as including labor, and ours is before installation.
A per-foot number is a way to set a budget. It isn't how the final price gets calculated. That comes from counting every cabinet, drawer, panel and hour in the project, which we explain in How Is a Custom Millwork Estimate Built?
Why most Tampa cost pages show lower numbers
Search for cabinet prices in Tampa and most of the pages you find quote somewhere between $150 and $500 per linear foot, installed. Those figures aren't wrong. They describe a different product.
HomeAdvisor puts stock cabinets at $100 to $400 per linear foot and semi-custom at $150 to $700. Stock cabinets are built ahead of time in fixed sizes. Semi-custom cabinets come from a catalog of sizes with a limited set of modifications. Both are ordered, delivered and fitted to the room with filler strips where the sizes don't work out.
Custom means there is no catalog. Every cabinet is drawn for its wall, built to that drawing, and finished to a sample you've approved. The price reflects that work. We go further into why a high-end quote can look so different from a cost guide in Why Does a High-End Millwork Quote Look So Different From HomeAdvisor's Numbers?
What you get at each end of the range
Around $500 per linear foot. Full-overlay slab doors in wood veneer with a matte clear finish. The simplest construction we build.
Middle of the range. Shaker full-overlay in a painted or stained finish, often with a more drawer-heavy layout.
$1,200 per linear foot and up. Inset Shaker doors, a color-matched satin finish, integrated pulls and LED-lit drawers.
Some things don't change wherever you land:
Cabinet boxes in 3/4-inch plywood
MR50 moisture-resistant MDF for painted doors, and kiln-dried hardwood for stain-grade work
Blum soft-close hinges and drawer slides
A UV-protectant finish applied in our shop, with every surface sealed
Shop drawings you approve before anything is cut
A service visit within the first year, at no charge, to reset doors, drawers and reveals
The lower end of our range is a simpler design. It isn't a lesser cabinet. Why those materials matter here is covered in Which Cabinet Materials Hold Up in Florida Humidity?
What moves a project up the range
Door style. This is the largest single step. In our shop, inset Shaker costs about 50 percent more than slab, on the whole per-foot price. We don't price doors separately from the cabinets they hang on. An inset door sits flush inside the frame with a small, even gap all the way around, so every door and drawer front is fitted to its opening individually. What you get for it is a look that can't be ordered: we set the frame width, the Shaker rail width and the trim to suit your kitchen, so the proportions belong to that room.
Finish. Sheen, whether the piece is stained or painted, and the material underneath all move the price. A matte clear coat over veneer is the simplest finish we apply. A painted finish matched to a specific color takes more steps: primer, sanding, color coats and a topcoat that has to stay crisp on every edge. The higher the sheen, the more every flaw shows, so high-gloss finishes and exotic veneers cost more again.
Drawers and what goes in them. A drawer costs more than a door. It's a box, a set of slides and a front that has to line up with its neighbors. LED-lit drawers and integrated pulls each add machining, wiring or fitting time on top of that.
Density. Kitchens pack more into each foot than other rooms: appliance panels, a sink base built around plumbing, tall pantries and finished ends on every exposed side. Two kitchens of the same length can sit at opposite ends of the range for that reason alone.
A worked example
A typical kitchen of about 25 linear feet, counted our way, runs around $25,000 in cabinetry before installation. Depending on complexity, kitchens of that size land between $20,000 and $40,000. The top of that span works out to $1,600 a foot, which is where the most involved kitchens go: inset doors, drawer-heavy layouts, color-matched finishes and lighting throughout.
A larger kitchen with an island and a pantry wall can have twice the footage, and the numbers grow with it.
Other rooms price differently
Kitchens aren't the only thing we build, and the per-foot numbers shift with the room. All of these are before installation.
Kitchens and general cabinetry: $500 to $1,200, more for the most involved. Higher with inset doors, color-matched finishes, integrated pulls, LED-lit drawers.
Dressing rooms: $900 to $2,000, sometimes more. Higher with finished cabinet interiors, more LED lighting, glass doors, leather-lined drawers.
Library walls and built-ins: From $500, and well beyond. Higher with drawers, LED lighting, premium finishes.
Wall paneling: From about $200. Higher with integrated doors, custom outlets and switches, high gloss or exotic veneer.
Dressing rooms surprise people. They cost more per foot than most kitchens because the insides of the cabinets are on display. In a kitchen, a cabinet interior is something you see for a moment when you open a door. In a dressing room, it's the room.
What installation adds
Installation is its own line because the same cabinetry can take very different amounts of time to install. Our own crew does the work, within about 50 miles of Tampa, and we price it per home. Three things decide it: the distance from our shop, how complex the install is, and how accessible the site is.
Older homes in South Tampa and around Palma Ceia often have walls and floors that are out of level, so there's more scribing and shimming.
Condo projects in downtown St. Pete come with freight elevator reservations, restricted work hours and building insurance requirements.
Tall ceilings mean stacked upper cabinets and more trim work on site.
How to bring the number down without cheapening the work
Because our pricing is built on thirteen years of tracked labor hours, we can reprice a design quickly and show you options side by side. We'll tell you plainly what's driving the number, and we'll value-engineer where it makes sense. The changes that usually help most:
Slab or overlay doors in secondary rooms, with inset kept for the kitchen
Doors with rollout shelves in place of some drawer stacks
LED lighting where you'll see it every day, not everywhere
A clear or standard finish in place of a custom color match or high gloss
What we wouldn't change is the box material or the finish quality. Those decide how the cabinetry looks in ten years, and in Florida they're tested hard.
How payment works
For projects under $100,000, it's 50 percent to start, 25 percent when the project goes into production, and 25 percent after installation. Larger projects are typically split 30/30/30/10.
Getting a number for your project
The fastest way to a real number is to show us the project. Bring drawings if you have them, your appliance list, a few photos of the door style and finish you like, and a budget range. We'll give you a working range early and a firm price once the drawings are done. If you're comparing shops, our 12 questions to ask a custom cabinetmaker will help you compare quotes that are describing the same thing.
If you have a project in Tampa, St. Pete or Sarasota, talk with us about it.
Frequently asked questions
How much do custom cabinets cost per linear foot in Tampa?
At BUILT, custom cabinetry typically runs $500 to $1,200 per linear foot, plus installation, and the most involved kitchens go above that. A typical kitchen of about 25 linear feet runs around $25,000 before installation. Stock and semi-custom cabinets cost less, roughly $100 to $700 per linear foot, and are a different product.
Does the per-foot price include installation?
Ours doesn't. The per-foot price covers the cabinetry itself, including shop drawings, and installation is priced per home based on distance, complexity and how accessible the site is.
How much more do inset cabinets cost?
In our shop, inset Shaker costs about 50 percent more than slab, on the whole per-foot price. Every inset door and drawer front has to be fitted to its opening with an even gap, and that fitting takes time.
Why does a custom dressing room cost more per foot than a kitchen?
Dressing rooms typically run $900 to $2,000 per linear foot, and sometimes more, because the cabinet interiors are finished to the same standard as the outside. They also tend to carry more LED lighting, glass doors and details like leather-lined drawers.
BUILT is a custom architectural millwork and cabinetry firm in Tampa, Florida. Since 2013 we've engineered, built, finished and installed cabinetry and millwork for custom residences throughout Tampa Bay and Sarasota. Talk with us about your project →
Written by Andrew Watson, founder of BUILT.
