Kitchen Cabinet Prices in the GTA: Stock to Custom (2026)

Cabinets take 30–40% of a typical kitchen budget — the single largest line item in the room. As of 2026, GTA pricing per linear foot, installed:

• Stock cabinets: $150–$400
• Semi-custom: $300–$900 (entry semi-custom $300–$500; upper-tier $500–$900)
• Custom: $800–$1,500+, with premium shops quoting higher

As complete packages for a typical kitchen, that works out to roughly $3,000–$6,000 at the budget end, $8,000–$18,000 mid-range, and $18,000–$40,000+ for high-end custom work.

Two notes before the detail. Linear-foot pricing counts the run of cabinetry along walls and islands — a typical 10x10 kitchen carries about 20 linear feet once uppers and lowers along both walls are included. And insist on installed pricing: a supply-only quote that looks cheap reads very differently once delivery and installation are added. Everything below is installed, before 13% HST.

Stock means pre-manufactured boxes in fixed widths that ship fast and install quickly. At $150–$400 per linear foot installed, they anchor the budget tier: a full set for a modest kitchen lands around $3,000–$6,000.

The trade-offs are dimensional. Fixed sizes mean filler strips wherever the run does not divide evenly, standard depths and heights only, and a limited menu of door styles and finishes. Box construction at the low end is basic melamine, though mid-priced stock lines have improved noticeably in recent years.

Where stock earns its keep: simple layouts without awkward corners, secondary and income-suite kitchens, and any project where the budget is going to counters and appliances instead. Paired with decent hardware and a quartz top, well-chosen stock cabinetry reads far above its price. Where it struggles: kitchens with bulkheads, the out-of-square walls of older Toronto housing, or layouts that need every centimetre of storage recovered.

Semi-custom starts from a manufacturer's standard boxes but allows modified widths, depths and heights, plus a much wider range of door styles and finishes. The band is wide because it covers two genuine tiers: entry semi-custom at $300–$500 per linear foot, and upper semi-custom at $500–$900, where plywood boxes, soft-close everything, and painted finishes become standard.

This is where most full GTA kitchen renovations land, with complete packages typically running $8,000–$18,000. The reason is practical: real houses have bulkheads, off-centre windows and walls that are not quite square. Semi-custom absorbs those quirks without the cost of a fully bespoke build — a reduced-depth run along a shallow wall here, a shortened upper under a bulkhead there — while stock cabinetry would force filler panels and dead corners. If your kitchen has even one awkward feature, semi-custom usually pays for itself in recovered storage alone.

Custom means built for your kitchen from drawings. Expect $800–$1,500 per linear foot as the common band, with premium GTA shops quoting above it. Packages run $18,000–$40,000+.

What the money buys is not just fit. Custom shops build to any dimension, match existing millwork, and handle details production lines cannot: inset doors, integrated appliance panels, furniture-grade interiors, true floor-to-ceiling runs. In a century home with tall ceilings, or a design that mixes cabinet depths for a built-in look, custom is often the only route that does not end up looking compromised.

Our honest guidance after two decades of kitchens: custom is justified when the design genuinely demands it — unusual dimensions, panel-ready appliances, millwork matching — or when the kitchen anchors a larger high-end renovation. It is not automatically better-built than upper semi-custom; the quality overlap is real, and what you are buying is flexibility. See our custom kitchen cabinet service for what a bespoke project involves.

Door material moves the price more than most buyers expect. As a materials-level comparison, custom MDF doors run around $275 per linear foot while solid wood runs around $450 — a meaningful gap across a 20-foot kitchen.

MDF has quietly become the default for painted kitchens, and for good reason in our climate: it does not expand and contract the way solid wood does through the GTA's humid summers and dry, furnace-heated winters, so painted MDF resists the hairline cracking that shows up at the joints of painted five-piece wood doors. Solid wood still wins for stained finishes, where the grain is the point, and for the weight and repairability some homeowners want.

Box material is the other spec worth checking: melamine-over-particleboard at the budget end, plywood boxes in better semi-custom and custom lines. Ask every quote to state door material, box material and hinge hardware — it is the fastest way to compare two cabinet prices honestly.

Scale the per-foot rates by your kitchen's actual footage and the budget writes itself. A compact condo kitchen might carry 12–15 linear feet; a typical 10x10 kitchen about 20; a large kitchen with an island 25–35.

Rounded 2026 math, installed: a standard 20-foot kitchen runs roughly $3,000–$8,000 in stock, $6,000–$18,000 in semi-custom, and $16,000–$30,000+ in custom. Large island kitchens push semi-custom packages toward $20,000–$30,000 and custom packages to $40,000 and beyond. The island itself adds its own footage — usually 6–8 linear feet — plus finished panels on the exposed sides.

One caution from the field: installation quality matters as much as the boxes. GTA housing spans 1880s Victorians to last year's subdivisions, and older floors are rarely level — a skilled installer shims and scribes so doors align and counters sit flat. Cabinets are also only one line in the room; see what a full kitchen renovation costs in Toronto for how they fit into a complete budget.

Several levers cut cabinet spending without cutting quality.

If your boxes are sound and the layout works, skip new cabinets entirely: refacing — new doors, drawer fronts and panels on existing boxes — typically saves 40–50% versus replacement, and a professional respray runs $3,000–$7,000 per kitchen. We compare the options in cabinet refacing vs replacing.

If you are buying new, mix tiers deliberately: semi-custom on the perimeter with a custom island, or upgraded doors on standard boxes. Put money into drawers rather than doors below counter height — deep drawers outperform shelf-and-door base cabinets every day — and skip interior accessories you can add later for less. More ideas in how to save on a renovation without cutting quality.

The decision rule we give clients: stock when the layout is simple and your stay is short; semi-custom for most family kitchens; custom when the design genuinely requires it. Cabinets anchor the whole project, so get them specified in writing — as part of a full kitchen renovation, we price the tiers against your actual layout so the comparison is real.