Kitchen cabinets cost roughly $100 to $300 per linear foot for stock, $150 to $450 for semi-custom, and $500 to $1,200 or more for true custom — which puts a real kitchen somewhere between about $4,000 and $40,000 installed. That is a spread you could park a van in, and it is still the honest answer. Anyone who quotes you one firm number over the phone, sight unseen, is guessing.
The good news is that the spread isn't random. Cabinet pricing turns on four fairly boring dials: how the box is built, how the doors are made, how the finish goes on, and how much of it has to be built to your walls instead of pulled off a shelf. Learn those four and you can read a quote instead of nodding politely at one.
Kitchen cabinet cost by tier
Cabinet shops price by the linear foot — the length of wall your cabinets run along, measured at the floor. Most mid-size kitchens have 20 to 30 linear feet between the base run and the upper run.
| Tier | Per linear foot | 25-ft kitchen | Lead time | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stock | ~$100–$300 | ~$2,500–$7,500 | Days to 2 weeks | Fixed widths in 3-inch jumps, short door menu |
| Semi-custom | ~$150–$450 | ~$3,750–$11,250 | ~5–8 weeks | Standard boxes you can resize and upgrade |
| Custom | ~$500–$1,200+ | ~$12,500–$30,000+ | 8+ weeks | Any dimension, any species, any layout |
Add install, hardware and the odds and ends further down, and a full custom Oxnard kitchen commonly lands in the $15,000 to $40,000 and up range. Install alone is usually 1 to 3 weeks of crew time. For the tier-by-tier detail on what actually changes as you climb, we went deep on stock vs semi-custom vs custom cabinets separately.
What a linear foot actually includes
Here's the part that makes homeowners feel like they're losing it. Two shops quote the same kitchen, one says $9,000 and one says $16,000, and both are pricing "per linear foot."
The reason is that a linear foot is a unit of wall, not a unit of cabinet. One shop might be pricing base cabinets only. Another prices base plus wall cabinets stacked over that same foot of wall — twice the cabinetry, same linear foot. A third folds in crown molding, toe kick, filler strips and installation.
Ask every bidder the same three questions and the spread usually collapses on its own:
- Does this include wall cabinets, or base only?
- Does it include installation, or is that a separate line?
- What is the box material and the drawer box construction at this price?
Where the money actually goes
Four things move a cabinet quote more than everything else combined.
The box. Particleboard sides are the cheap end. Furniture-grade plywood — 1/2 inch is common, 3/4 inch is better — costs more and behaves better, especially under the sink, where one slow supply-line drip turns particleboard into oatmeal. Certified cabinets get tested with shelves and bottoms loaded to 15 pounds per square foot for seven straight days under ANSI/KCMA A161.1. Thin sides do not enjoy that week.
The drawer boxes. A stapled butt-joint drawer with a 1/2 inch bottom is a different animal from a 5/8 inch solid maple box with dovetailed corners. Dovetails cost more and outlive the kitchen. That same standard cycles drawers 25,000 times under load, which is roughly two decades of reaching for a spatula.
The doors. A five-piece Shaker door has five parts and four joints. A slab door has one piece. Raised panel needs more machining than either. Multiply the difference by every door and drawer front in the room and it stops being small.
The finish. Stain is color plus a topcoat. Paint is sand, prime, sand again, then two or three sprayed coats of conversion varnish or catalyzed lacquer. Paint is almost always the pricier line, and we explain exactly why in painted vs stained kitchen cabinets.
The line items that appear after the cabinet number
The cabinet price is not the kitchen price. These are the ones that catch people out:
- Installation, often a meaningful share of the cabinet cost on its own
- Filler strips — 3-inch fillers wherever a run doesn't meet a wall cleanly, which is every kitchen ever built
- Crown, light rail and toe kick, all priced by the foot and all adding up quietly
- Finished end panels, because an exposed cabinet side costs more than a hidden one
- Demo and haul-away of the cabinets you're replacing
- Countertops, a separate trade with its own template and lead time, which is why we also handle quartz and granite countertops
- Plumbing and electrical the moment anything moves, even six inches
The one place we'd spend the extra money
If your budget stretches to exactly one upgrade, put it in the box and the drawer boxes, not the door style. Plywood sides and dovetailed maple drawers behind a plain Shaker door will outlast a showy raised-panel door screwed to a particleboard carcass, every time. No guest has ever opened your drawer to judge the joinery.
There's a second reason. Door styles date; boxes don't. Fifteen years from now you can hang new doors on a good box for a few thousand dollars. You cannot slide a good box under nice doors without starting the whole job over.
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When you should not buy new cabinets at all
Straight up: if your boxes are square and solid and already in the right places, and your only real complaint is that the doors look like the decade they were built in, don't buy new cabinets. Refacing runs about $4,000 to $10,000, takes roughly a week, and leaves your kitchen usable while it happens. The full decision is laid out in cabinet refacing vs replacing.
Smaller than that: if what actually bothers you is a drawer that bangs shut and a hinge that squeaks, buy clip-on soft-close dampers at roughly $4 to $12 each and give yourself another five years. That's a screwdriver and twenty minutes, not a remodel.
The bottom line
How much do kitchen cabinets cost? Budget $100 to $300 per linear foot for stock, $150 to $450 for semi-custom, and $500 to $1,200 and up for custom, then add install and trim on top. Pick the tier based on how strange your walls are, not on how the showroom door feels in your hand.
If you'd rather have an itemized number for your actual kitchen than an internet range, Oxnard Elite Cabinets will measure it, price the custom kitchen cabinets line by line, and tell you plainly if cabinet refacing gets you there for a third of the money. Free measure across Oxnard and Ventura County. Call (844) 511-2320.
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Related services in Oxnard
Oxnard Elite Cabinets money pages — go straight to the service you need.
- Custom Kitchen Cabinets →
Custom kitchen cabinets are the largest line item in almost every Oxnard remodel, and the place where the gap between a careful bid and a cheap one hides inside the box where nobody looks. Every kitchen we build starts with a 3/4-inch furniture-grade plywood carcass, solid maple dovetail drawers, and a layout drawn around the way you actually cook rather than around a catalogue of standard widths.
- Cabinet Refacing, Refinishing & Painting →
Cabinet refacing, refinishing, and painting are three different routes to the same destination, and which one suits your kitchen depends on the condition of the boxes rather than on how tired the doors look. We assess the carcasses first and tell you honestly which route makes sense, including the occasional answer that none of them do and you should spend the money elsewhere.
- Countertops →
Countertops are the surface you touch more than any other in the house, and the right choice comes down to heat, water hardness, and how much upkeep you will honestly do. We template, fabricate, and install quartz, granite, solid surface, and butcher block tops across Ventura County, set on cabinetry we have leveled ourselves so the joints stay tight.
- Bathroom Vanities →
Bathroom vanities fail before any other cabinet in a coastal house, because it is a wooden box parked under a water supply in a room that steams up twice a day. Vanities we build for Oxnard baths use sealed interiors, a solid plywood floor in the sink base, and hardware picked for a wet room.
- Walk-In Closets & Wardrobes →
Walk-in closets and wardrobe systems return more per dollar than anything else we build, because the square footage already exists and the builder wasted it on one rod and a shelf. Closet systems we design in Ventura County start from an inventory of what you own rather than from a pretty drawing, which is the whole reason they stay organized after the first month.
Frequently asked questions
How much do kitchen cabinets cost per linear foot?
Stock cabinets run roughly $100 to $300 per linear foot, semi-custom about $150 to $450, and true custom $500 to $1,200 and up. A typical kitchen has 20 to 30 linear feet of cabinetry, so the same room can cost $3,000 or $30,000 depending mostly on the tier you pick.
How much should I budget for kitchen cabinets in a remodel?
Cabinets are usually the single largest line in a kitchen remodel. A full custom kitchen commonly lands between $15,000 and $40,000 installed. If that number stings, semi-custom boxes with plywood sides and dovetail drawers get you most of the way there for a lot less.
Why are custom kitchen cabinets so expensive?
Because nothing comes off a shelf. Every box is cut to your wall dimensions, every door is built and finished to order, and someone spends hours scribing them to walls that are never actually straight. You are paying for labor and fit far more than for exotic wood.
Are plywood cabinet boxes worth the upgrade over particleboard?
Usually yes, and it is the upgrade we would buy first. Furniture-grade 3/4 inch plywood sides hold screws better, survive a slow leak under the sink, and sag less under loaded shelves. Cabinets certified to ANSI/KCMA A161.1 are tested with shelves loaded at 15 pounds per square foot for seven days, and thin sides show themselves fast.
How long does a kitchen cabinet installation take?
Install itself typically runs 1 to 3 weeks depending on kitchen size and how out of square the walls are. The longer wait is the build queue in front of it: days for stock, roughly 5 to 8 weeks for semi-custom, and 8 weeks or more for custom.
Is it cheaper to reface cabinets than to buy new ones?
Much cheaper. Refacing solid boxes runs about $4,000 to $10,000 against $15,000 to $40,000 and up for new custom cabinetry. It only works if the existing boxes are sound and the layout already suits you, because refacing cannot move a single cabinet.
Local context
How this applies in Oxnard, CA
Every article here is written from cabinet work done in Oxnard and Ventura County, so the numbers reflect local labour, permit and material costs rather than a national average. Your own job can land either side of them depending on access, the condition of what is already there, and the materials you pick — furniture-grade plywood boxes, solid maple dovetail drawers, Blum and Grass soft-close hardware.
The way to turn any of this into a real answer is to have someone look at your actual situation. The free estimate is free, itemized and written down, with no deposit and no obligation. Call (844) 511-2320 or start on the Oxnard Elite Cabinets homepage.
Areas Oxnard Elite Cabinets covers
Oxnard first, then the surrounding communities of Ventura County. Each has its own page with local detail rather than a copy of this one:
- Ventura, CA — Ventura County, population 110,763
- Camarillo, CA — Ventura County, population 70,741
- Port Hueneme, CA — Ventura County, population 21,954
- Thousand Oaks, CA — Ventura County, population 126,966
- Simi Valley, CA — Ventura County, population 126,356
- Moorpark, CA — Ventura County, population 36,284
Or jump to the full list of Oxnard services.
The Oxnard Elite Cabinets Team
Licensed cabinet pros in Oxnard, CA
Written by the Oxnard Elite Cabinets team — licensed, insured cabinet pros with 15+ years serving Oxnard, CA and the surrounding area.