What custom cabinets cost in the Antelope Valley
Custom cabinets in Palmdale run $500 to $1,200 per installed linear foot, which makes a typical full kitchen $10,000 to $26,500 and a large one with an island and pantry wall more. Refacing a structurally sound kitchen costs $4,500 to $12,000 and is the right call more often than the industry admits. What moves a project inside its range is nearly always one of three choices: the wood and finish on the doors, the interiors behind them and how much of the room is island. The table below is the one we quote from, and the invoice matches the quote.
The published table
| Project | Typical range | What moves the price |
|---|---|---|
| Design visit and measured drawings | $250 to $1,000 | Credits against the build |
| Full custom kitchen, per linear foot installed | $500 to $1,200 | Wood species and interior fittings |
| Typical full custom kitchen, complete | $10,000 to $26,500 | Box count and the island |
| Semi-custom kitchen, per linear foot | $150 to $650 | Stock boxes wearing custom fronts |
| Cabinet refacing, full kitchen | $4,500 to $12,000 | Door count and veneer choice |
| Custom bath vanity, installed | $1,800 to $6,500 | Size and stone coordination |
| Closet system | $2,000 to $8,000 | Melamine versus wood interiors |
| Garage cabinet wall | $2,500 to $10,000 | Wall count and bench tops |
| Media wall or entertainment built-in | $3,500 to $15,000 | Span, lighting and equipment bays |
| Install only, cabinets you supply | $120 to $300 per cabinet | Scribe and leveling conditions |
| Demo and haul-off of old cabinets | $400 to $1,200 | Kitchen size and disposal |
| Crown, trim and scribe finish work | $8 to $20 per linear foot | Ceiling condition |
| Hardware supply and install | $4 to $12 per door or drawer | Soft-close upgrades |
| Commercial casework, per linear foot | $200 to $450 | Drawing set and code finishes |
Ranges reflect projects across Palmdale, Lancaster and the valley towns. Measured drawings turn your project into an exact written number, and the design fee credits against the build.
The three choices that price your kitchen
The doors carry the wood budget. Doors and drawer fronts are most of the visible wood in a kitchen, so moving from paint-grade to stained alder to rift white oak or walnut moves the whole project. The boxes underneath stay well-built plywood regardless, which is why two kitchens with identical bones can sit at opposite ends of the range.
The interiors decide how the kitchen works. A base cabinet with one shelf is the floor; drawer banks, rollouts, a mixer lift and a fitted pantry climb from there. Interior fittings are where we counsel spending, because they are what you touch every day, and where a builder-grade kitchen most obviously cheaped out.
The island is its own small project. Panel ends, seating overhangs, deep drawers and plumbing or power turn an island into a third of the job on its own. When a budget needs trimming, the island is usually where we find the money without touching the perimeter run.
Cost questions, answered
Why do cabinet quotes vary so wildly between companies?
Because most quotes are a single number with a showroom attached, and the number flexes with what the salesperson thinks you will pay. Our table prices the pieces separately, the design, the boxes per foot, the demo and the trim, so any quote you gather can be decomposed and compared honestly.
What actually makes custom cost more than big-box cabinets?
Three real things: the boxes are built to your exact walls instead of in three-inch increments with fillers, the doors are your wood and style rather than a catalog page, and the installation includes scribing to walls that are never as straight as stock cabinets assume. What you skip is the retail markup chain, which is why custom often lands closer to premium stock pricing than people expect.
Is refacing really half the price of new cabinets?
Roughly, when the boxes qualify. Refacing at $4,500 to $12,000 keeps the boxes and replaces everything you see and touch, doors, drawer fronts, veneer and hardware. The catch is box condition, which we inspect before recommending it. A failing box under new veneer is money buried.
Does the desert climate genuinely change cabinet pricing?
It changes construction more than price. Antelope Valley air swings from near-zero humidity to winter moisture, so doors need engineered center panels where paint is involved and finishing on all six faces everywhere. Shops that build this way charge similar money to shops that do not; the difference shows up at year three, not on the invoice.
Sources worth reading before any cabinet contract: California’s Contractors State License Board explains the C-6 cabinet and millwork classification and lets you verify any license free at cslb.ca.gov, the EPA’s formaldehyde rule for composite wood (the standard your plywood and MDF should meet) lives at epa.gov, and the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association publishes the durability standard quality cabinets are tested against at kcma.org.
Turn the range into drawings
A design visit pins your project to measured elevations and an exact figure off this table. Palmdale Custom Cabinets answers the same day.