Kitchen Cabinet Cost Per Linear Foot: How to Measure It and Do the Math

Kitchen cabinet cost per linear foot is the cabinet bill divided by the feet of wall your cabinets run along, with the upper and lower cabinets on that stretch counted together as one foot. For the lines we sell, our estimator prices it at $150–$250 a foot for value lines, $250–$400 for the most popular lines and $400–$650 for semi-custom, cabinets only. The number is only useful if you measure the feet the same way the person quoting you did, and if both quotes include the same things. This page is about exactly that: how to measure, why per-foot quotes for the same kitchen disagree, and how to turn a real list of cabinets into a per-foot figure you can check.

We sell cabinets for a living, and we price kitchens off SKU lists every day. So instead of another table of national averages, you will find real cabinet codes and prices from our own catalog below, worked through three layouts: a galley, an L with a pantry, and a U with an island. If you want the whole-kitchen picture instead (countertops, labor, what drives the total), our guide to how much kitchen cabinets cost covers it. This one stays on the per-foot math.

Key Takeaways

• One foot means one foot of wall: the uppers and bases on the same stretch count once, appliance openings stay in, and a corner cabinet is counted on both walls it touches.
• Our estimator's bands: Value RTA (KCD, US Cabinet Depot, Tribeca) $150–$250; Most Popular (Fabuwood, J&K, Modernform, Mantra) $250–$400; Semi-Custom (Diamond, Decorá) $400–$650. Island +20%, tall cabinets +10%, crown and trim +5%.
• The denominator changes everything: the same 22-foot galley works out to $331 a foot of wall, $208 a foot of cabinet face, or $530 a foot of base cabinet. Ask which one a quote used.
• List price is not the price: our Fabuwood Galaxy galley is $509 a foot at Fabuwood's list and $331 at the price our site charges.
• Layout moves the number: the same Galaxy line ran $331 a foot in a galley and $425 a foot of wall in a U with an island, because corners, drawers, a pantry and an island all load cost onto the same feet.

Table of Contents

• What One Linear Foot Actually Covers
• How to Measure Linear Feet, Wall by Wall
• Why Per-Foot Quotes for the Same Kitchen Disagree
• Kitchen Cabinet Prices per Foot on Our Estimator
• Why a Narrow Box Costs More per Foot Than a Wide One
• Turning a SKU List Into a Per-Foot Number
• Worked Example 1: A 22-Foot Galley
• Worked Example 2: An L With a Lazy Susan and a Pantry
• Worked Example 3: A U-Shape With an Island
• What the Three Kitchens Show
• Adding Installation by the Foot
• Per-Foot Mistakes We See on Real Orders
• Frequently Asked Questions

What One Linear Foot Actually Covers

In the cabinet trade, a linear foot is a foot of wall length that carries cabinets. Stand facing a wall, run a tape along it, and every foot that has a base cabinet, a wall cabinet or both over it is one linear foot. The base and the upper above it are not counted as two feet. They are the same foot, and a per-foot price covers both.

That is also why the industry's benchmark kitchen, the 10×10, is priced as 20 linear feet: two 10-foot walls in an L, measured wall to wall, with the openings for the range, dishwasher and fridge left in. Nobody subtracts the appliances in that convention. Our 10x10 kitchen pricing guide explains where the benchmark came from and what it hides.

Not everyone counts that way, and this is the root of most confusion. Fixr's cabinet cost guide (updated January 2026) sizes the same 10×10 kitchen at 16 linear feet, having taken the appliance spaces out. Some custom shops price base cabinets and wall cabinets as separate runs with separate rates. Some installers count the feet of cabinet face, not the wall. Each method is defensible. They just produce different numbers for the same kitchen, and a per-foot price means nothing until you know which denominator sits under it.

Here is one real kitchen, the galley we price in full further down, divided three ways. The cabinet total is the same in every row, $7,281.30 in Fabuwood Galaxy at our price.

Same cabinets, same bill, and one "per foot" figure is two and a half times another. When two quotes look far apart per foot, check the denominator before you check anything else.

How to Measure Linear Feet, Wall by Wall

You need a 25-foot tape, a pencil and a rough sketch of the room from above. Measure at countertop height, not at the floor, because baseboards and toe-kick heaters throw the floor measurement off. Write down each wall separately and add them at the end.

1. Measure every wall that will carry cabinets, corner to corner or corner to end. If a run stops short of a wall, at a doorway or a walkway, measure to where the cabinets will stop.
2. Leave appliance openings in. The 30 inches for a range, 24 for a dishwasher and 36 for a fridge stay in the wall length. That is the dealer convention, and it is what our estimator expects.
3. Measure each wall all the way into the corner. In an L or a U, both walls are measured into the corner, so the corner square is counted on each wall. A 12-foot wall and a 12-foot wall meeting in a corner are 24 linear feet.
4. Count uppers and bases once. A stretch with base cabinets only (under a window, say) still counts as a full foot. So does a stretch of uppers over open counter with nothing under it, which is rare.
5. Note the island and any tall cabinets separately. They are handled differently by hand than in a calculator; the table below covers both.

The corner rule surprises people, so it is worth a sentence more. A 36-inch lazy Susan base sits in the corner and fills 36 inches of both walls. Measured the dealer way, that one cabinet occupies six linear feet of run. It is also one of the most expensive base boxes in any line, and the two effects roughly cancel, which is why the convention survives. Our guide to lazy Susan sizes and corner alternatives goes through the corner options themselves.

If you want the room dimensions that sit behind these measurements (ceiling height, window heights, clearances), our list of kitchen dimensions to know before buying cabinets is the checklist to fill in while you have the tape out. And if you are still deciding the shape of the room, the kitchen layouts guide shows how many feet each layout typically gives you.

Why Per-Foot Quotes for the Same Kitchen Disagree

After the denominator, the second reason per-foot numbers disagree is that nobody agrees on what goes in the numerator. We see buyers compare a $280-a-foot quote with a $390-a-foot quote as if the cheaper one is a better deal, and then find the $280 figure left out half the order. These are the lines to check.

Online cost guides add a third source of confusion by mixing supply and installation. Fixr's bands for stock ($100–$300 a foot) and semi-custom ($150–$650) sit next to a separate labor range on the same page, and it is easy to read an installed number as a cabinet number or the other way round. When you compare anything to our figures, remember ours are cabinets only. For the full list of trim pieces and what each one does, see end panels, scribe molding and fillers and our guide to cabinet molding types.

Kitchen Cabinet Prices per Foot on Our Estimator

Our kitchen cabinet cost estimator works on the dealer convention: you enter wall feet, pick a layout and a tier, tick any extras, and it multiplies. These are the exact bands it uses, cabinets only, installation excluded.

Three extras are added as percentages of that base: a kitchen island adds 20%, tall pantry or oven cabinets add 10%, and crown molding and trim add 5%. The tool then rounds both ends to the nearest $100. So 24 feet in the Most Popular tier with a pantry is 24 × $250–$400 × 1.10, which comes out at $6,600–$10,600.

The bands are deliberately wide. They have to cover a plain run of door bases at the bottom and a kitchen full of drawers, corner units and panels at the top. St. Martin and NOMA sit in the semi-custom tier on the page, but they are built to order and priced per project, so the band is not a price for those two lines.

Two searches we get a lot fall outside those three rows. Custom cabinets, built by a local shop to your drawings, are something we do not sell; Fixr puts them at $500–$1,200 a foot and notes most homeowners pay $500–$1,230. High-end semi-custom with inset doors, specialty paint and many modifications can reach the bottom of that custom band too. Our comparison of stock, semi-custom and custom cabinets explains what you get for each step up, and why the tiers describe how cabinets are made and sold more than how good they are.

Why a Narrow Box Costs More per Foot Than a Wide One

A cabinet has a fixed cost before it has any width: two finished sides, a face frame, a back, hinges, a door. A 12-inch base carries all of that for one foot of wall. A 36-inch base carries it for three. So when you divide each box's price by its width, narrow boxes and drawer boxes come out expensive and wide door boxes come out cheap. This is the part of per-foot pricing that the averages never show you, and it is why two kitchens with the same footage can quote thousands apart.

Here are real boxes from two lines we sell, at the prices our site showed at the end of September 2026. Galaxy is Fabuwood's Allure Galaxy (the twelve standard finishes all price the same, as does Macadamia Beige, added in October; we used Frost), shown at our selling price, which is Fabuwood's list less 35%. USCD is US Cabinet Depot Shaker White at our ready-to-assemble (RTA) price, with a half-inch plywood box; the site also shows US Cabinet Depot's list price beside it.

Read it as pairs, the way a wall is actually built. A 36-inch base with a 36-inch upper over it is $1,098.50 in Galaxy, or $366 a foot. Two 12-inch boxes stacked the same way are $591.50 for a single foot. Three feet of wall filled with narrow boxes instead of one wide pair costs about 60% more for the same footage. In USCD the same comparison is $277 a foot against $384.

That gives you four practical rules for reading any per-foot figure. Drawers push the number up; a kitchen built mostly of drawer bases can sit near the top of its band, and our drawer base price and size guide shows that premium width by width. Sink bases pull it down, because a sink base is a box with no shelf, no drawer and a false front. Tall cabinets are the single most expensive thing per foot of wall. And a plan with several 9-, 12- and 15-inch boxes, usually from fitting around a window or an awkward wall, will price higher per foot than a clean plan of 30s and 36s. The 3-inch increment sizing system explains why the sizes step the way they do, and a filler is often cheaper than dropping to a narrower box.

Turning a SKU List Into a Per-Foot Number

If you already have a quote or a design with cabinet codes on it, you can check its per-foot price in about ten minutes. If the codes are unfamiliar, our guide to reading cabinet SKU codes decodes them. Then:

1. Split the list into groups: base cabinets, wall cabinets, tall cabinets, island, and trim (fillers, toe kick, panels, crown, light rail).
2. Make sure every price is on the same basis. On our Fabuwood pages, the struck-through figure is Fabuwood's list and the lower figure is what you pay, 35% less. US Cabinet Depot shows one price. J&K has no per-cabinet prices on our site at all; it is priced per project, so a J&K per-foot figure only exists once a layout has been quoted. Mixing a list-price quote with a net-price quote is the fastest way to reach a wrong conclusion.
3. Add each group. Keep the subtotals; they tell you where the money is.
4. Measure the wall feet the way the measuring section above describes, openings in, uppers and bases once, corners on both walls. Keep the island's feet separate.
5. Divide twice: once for the perimeter (perimeter cabinets and trim ÷ wall feet) and once for the whole kitchen (everything ÷ wall feet plus island feet). The first number is the one to compare with a dealer's per-foot figure. The second tells you what the island did to the total.
6. Compare against the band for the tier. Inside it means the list is ordinary for that line. Near the top means drawers, corners, panels or a pantry are doing the work. Above it means ask why.

The three kitchens below are worked exactly this way. Every price is a real SKU from our catalog, and the layouts are planned the way we would plan them: sink landing space on both sides (the NKBA Kitchen Planning Guidelines recommend at least 24 inches on one side of the sink and 18 on the other), 30-inch-high uppers on an 8-foot ceiling, and 3-inch fillers where a run meets a wall. USCD's online catalog sells cabinets but not fillers, toe kick or trim, so the USCD totals are boxes only and the Galaxy totals include Galaxy's own fillers and toe kick. Neither includes crown, freight, tax or installation.

Worked Example 1: A 22-Foot Galley

Two facing walls, each 11 feet (132 inches) long, closed at both ends. The sink wall carries a dishwasher and a drawer stack; the cooking wall carries the fridge, the range and a three-drawer base beside it. That makes 22 linear feet, 17 cabinets and six fillers.

At Fabuwood's list price, the same Galaxy order is $11,202.00, or $509 a foot. That is the figure a list-price quote would show you for exactly these boxes.

Now check it against the estimator. A 22-foot galley comes out at $3,300–$5,500 in the Value RTA tier and $5,500–$8,800 in the Most Popular tier. USCD's $4,893 lands in the upper half of its band and Galaxy's $7,281 does the same in its own. Both sit there for the same reason: two drawer bases and a 24-inch-deep cabinet over the fridge are not the cheapest way to fill 22 feet. Swap the DB18 for a B18 and the DB30 for a B30 in Galaxy and the order drops by $526.50, about $24 a foot.

With no corners, every foot of a galley is a foot of reachable cabinet, so its per-foot figure makes a good baseline for a line before the complications of the next two kitchens.

Worked Example 2: An L With a Lazy Susan and a Pantry

Two 12-foot walls meeting in a corner, measured into the corner on both sides, so 24 linear feet. The corner base is a 36-inch lazy Susan and the corner upper is a 24-inch diagonal corner wall cabinet. The sink wall has the dishwasher; the second wall has the range, the fridge and an 18-inch pantry at the end, with its side facing the fridge finished to match. That is 17 cabinets and one filler.

Galaxy at list is $12,687.00, or $529 a foot. On the estimator, an L of 24 feet with the tall-cabinet box ticked returns $4,000–$6,600 for Value RTA and $6,600–$10,600 for Most Popular. Both real orders fall inside their bands.

Three things in this kitchen are worth pulling out. First, the corner. The LSB36 is counted in both 12-foot walls, so it occupies six of the 24 feet, and at $1,095.25 it works out to about $183 per wall-foot in Galaxy, a bit below the kitchen's average. Swap it for a BLB36/39 blind corner at $614.25 and the Galaxy total drops by $481, roughly $20 a foot, at the cost of the awkward reach into a blind corner, and a blind base needs 39 inches of wall instead of 36. Second, the pantry. At $1,264.25 for 18 inches of wall it costs about $843 a foot of its own width, and one of the reasons this L runs higher per foot than the galley. Its finished side alone is $211.25 of that; without it, the pantry's exposed side next to the fridge would show the unfinished box. Third, USCD's per-foot number barely moved between the galley and the L, while Galaxy's rose. USCD's corner lazy Susan and utility cabinet are priced lower relative to its other boxes than Galaxy's are, which is a good example of why you compare lines on your own layout and not on a single per-foot average.

Worked Example 3: A U-Shape With an Island

A bigger room: a 10-foot wall, a 12-foot wall and another 10-foot wall, 32 linear feet of perimeter with two inside corners, plus an 8-foot island with drawers on the working side and seating on the other. The fridge wall starts with a 24-inch pantry at the open end, finished on both sides. The sink sits under a 36-inch window on the back wall, so there are no uppers over it. The range wall ends in a 36-inch drawer base with its open end finished. Both corners take a lazy Susan below and a diagonal corner cabinet above. That is 21 cabinets.

At Fabuwood's list, the Galaxy order is $20,907.00, which is $653 a foot of perimeter. That is a figure some people would call custom pricing, for stock-sized framed cabinets.

This is the example where the two division methods part company, so be clear which one you are comparing. The estimator does not add island feet. It takes the 32 perimeter feet and adds 20% for the island and 10% for the tall cabinet: $6,200–$10,400 in Value RTA and $10,400–$16,600 in Most Popular. Both real orders fall inside. By hand, adding the island's 8 feet, you get 40 feet and a lower per-foot figure. Neither is wrong. What is wrong is quoting $340 a foot from the second method and comparing it to someone else's $425 from the first.

The island itself is a small kitchen of its own: $2,490.80 in Galaxy for 8 feet, or $311 a foot, with no uppers above it. That is before the finished back panel on the seating side, overhang supports and any outlet the local code requires on an island, none of which are in this total. If you are planning one, check the island clearance guide first; an island that squeezes the aisle below a workable width is money spent making the kitchen worse.

The perimeter figure climbed to $425 a foot for reasons you can now point at. Two lazy Susans sit in 12 of the 32 feet. The pantry is finished on both sides. The range is flanked by two drawer bases instead of door bases. And the window over the sink removed three feet of uppers but not three feet of wall, so the wall-foot figure absorbs a cheap stretch that was never there. In a U, the per-foot number rises with every corner even when every individual box is ordinary.

What the Three Kitchens Show

Four lessons come out of that table. The first is that list price is a trap: the same Galaxy cabinets swing from $331 to $509 a foot depending on whether a quote uses the manufacturer's list or the price you actually pay. The second is that the line matters more than the layout at the low end and less at the high end; USCD stayed between $220 and $260 a foot of perimeter across all three rooms, while Galaxy ran from $331 to $425. The third is that corners, pantries, finished ends and drawers are what push a kitchen up its band, much more than footage. The fourth is that the estimator's bands held for every case, which is what they are for: a sanity check before a real quote, not a replacement for one.

Every box used here is priced individually on the Galaxy Frost and USCD Shaker White collection pages; the Galaxy page also sells a fixed 10×10 package, which our worked 12×12 estimate puts in context. Our US Cabinet Depot review and Fabuwood price list cover the rest of each catalog.

Adding Installation by the Foot

We sell and ship cabinets nationwide, but we do not install the cabinets you buy from us, so the installation number has to come from an installer near you. The published figures are a starting point, and they disagree with each other in a useful way.

Fixr puts installation labor at $50 to $200 or more per linear foot. On the 22-foot galley that is $1,100 to $4,400. Homewyse prices it per cabinet instead, starting at $278 to $427 per cabinet as of September 2026, and its figure includes scribing, assembly, hardware and cleanup. Seventeen cabinets at that rate come to $4,726 to $7,259, or $215 to $330 a foot, well above Fixr's low end. The gap is mostly scope: a per-cabinet rate that includes assembly and scribing is a different job from hanging pre-assembled boxes on a flat wall.

So convert every installer bid to a per-foot figure using your own wall feet, and ask whether assembly, fillers, crown and appliance cut-outs are in it. Our guide to kitchen cabinet installation cost and labor breaks down what installers charge for and why; if you are buying flat-pack boxes, the RTA assembly guide shows the hours involved, and RTA vs pre-assembled cabinets weighs the trade. For everything around the cabinets, from tear-out to countertops, see the line-by-line cost to replace kitchen cabinets.

Per-Foot Mistakes We See on Real Orders

We build and remodel kitchens ourselves, and most of these we have watched cost someone real money on a job.

• Subtracting the appliances and then using a dealer's per-foot price. If you take the fridge, range and dishwasher out of a 20-foot kitchen, you have about 13 feet. Multiplying 13 by a band built on 20-foot kitchens understates the cabinets by a third.
• Counting uppers and bases as separate feet, then using the same band. That doubles the footage and roughly doubles the estimate. Our bands already cover both.
• Forgetting the corner is counted twice. Measuring an L as 12 feet plus 10 feet minus the 2-foot corner gives 20, not 22. The band assumes 22.
• Comparing a list-price quote with a net-price quote. On Fabuwood, the difference is 35%.
• Treating a per-foot quote as a promise. A per-foot number is a budget. The price is the sum of the SKUs, and it changes when the drawer count or the corner does.
• Ignoring what the per-foot figure left out. Fillers and toe kick came to $267.80 on the Galaxy galley. On the U, toe kick and finished sides came to $833.30, and that is before crown, light rail or the island's back panel. Small against the total, but they are always on the final order.

Contractors ordering several kitchens a year should also know that trade pricing through Captivating Pro is set by brand and line, and moves every per-foot figure on this page. Price the job on the same basis you will buy it on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do kitchen cabinets cost per linear foot?

For the lines we sell, cabinets only: $150–$250 a foot for value lines such as KCD, US Cabinet Depot and Tribeca, $250–$400 for Fabuwood, J&K, Modernform and Mantra, and $400–$650 for semi-custom lines such as Diamond and Decorá. Custom shop work runs higher, around $500–$1,200 a foot by Fixr's figures. Those bands assume the dealer way of measuring: wall feet, appliance openings in, uppers and bases counted once.

Do you count upper and lower cabinets separately?

Not in the dealer convention. One foot of wall with a base and an upper on it is one linear foot, and the per-foot price covers both. Some shops price base and wall runs separately with separate rates, which is fine as long as you do not then multiply their feet by a combined band.

Is a corner counted twice in linear feet?

Yes. Each wall is measured into the corner, so the corner square appears in both walls' lengths. Two 12-foot walls in an L are 24 linear feet, even though a single lazy Susan fills the corner.

How do I count an island or peninsula?

By hand, add the island's length once if it has cabinets on one side and twice if it has them on both. In our estimator, enter only the wall feet and tick the island option, which adds 20%. A peninsula is added to the wall total, once per side that carries cabinets.

How many linear feet is a 10x10 kitchen?

Twenty, in the industry convention: two 10-foot walls measured into the corner, appliance openings included. Some cost guides, including Fixr's, count it as 16 by removing the appliances, which is why their per-foot figures and dealers' are not directly comparable.

How much are custom cabinets per linear foot?

Fixr's January 2026 guide puts custom cabinets at $500–$1,200 a foot, with most homeowners paying $500–$1,230. We do not build custom cabinets. The top of our range is semi-custom, $400–$650 a foot on our estimator, with St. Martin and NOMA priced per project.

How many linear feet of cabinets are in a single-wide trailer kitchen?

There is no standard figure, so measure it the same way as any kitchen: each wall into its corners, openings in. Most single-wide homes are roughly 14 to 18 feet wide, which caps any run that crosses the width, and many single-wide kitchens are one straight run or a small L. Your tape measure, not a typical figure, is what the price should be built on. Measure the height and depth of the existing cabinets too; manufactured-home kitchens can have lower ceilings and non-standard boxes, and that decides what fits before the price does.

Should I compare quotes per linear foot or per cabinet?

Use per foot to see whether a quote is in the right range for its tier, and the cabinet list to compare two quotes against each other. Two quotes with the same per-foot figure can contain different drawer counts, corners and trim. Put the SKU lists side by side and the difference shows up.

Get a Per-Foot Number for Your Own Layout

The fastest way to a real figure is a real list. Send your wall measurements and a rough sketch to our free design service and a designer will lay out the kitchen and send an itemized, cabinet-by-cabinet quote within 24–48 hours, which you can divide by your own feet the way this page shows. If you want a number in the next minute, run your footage through the cost estimator first.

Questions about a quote you already have, from us or anyone else? Send it through our contact page or call 609-900-3358, and we will tell you what is in it and what is missing. If you are weighing J&K, which is priced per project, the J&K Cabinetry review is the place to start.