Big kitchen, big upgraded wood and upscale ideas. 100K as a baselinefor cabinets. Can go up, to WAY up, depending on how high end are your aspirations.

20’x20’’ is 4x the size of the standard 10’x10’ kitchen that you see most cheap cabinet ”linear foot” costs advertised. Which do not include much of anything, and have lots of open spaces for appliances, blind corners, etc. So that standard ”6K” baseline for a lot of nothing in a RTA gets multiplied by 4, just to buy cheap junky limited RTA. Double that 25K to get into mid level quality, without a lot of features, including expensive and scarce white oak. Double that again to get to the start of something upscale, in white oak. Plus the 50K appliance package, the 30K of counters, the 9K backsplash….

A 400 square foot kitchen is nutso. And probably terribly inefficient, with too much walking. Halve the size of the space, with a bigger no expensive cabinets PANTRY to take up the storage slack. Even a 200 sf kitchen is going to be expensive done as upscale, with at least 50-60K worth of white oak. Plus all the usual suspects involved in an upscale project.

Ballpark starting at 10%+- of your build cost for whole home cabinets in a build. If your wants have you above that, you are over wanting, over spending, and over designing, for the home’s level in the market.

I would try and get quotes from more than one cabinet maker, look at appliance packages/purchases and then add on for additional costs. Are these allowances for your budgeting or from the builder etc?

You can also reply to this thread vs update the original post. It helps for anyone coming in later to see the “conversation”

i would try to get the island at standard depth with 12-15 in overhang for stools . not sure why you want 5 foot deep island. You can probably get cabinetry for your kitchen around 25 k but details are not known. counters/ appliances/ lighting / flooring/ labour and so forth take you to at least 25 k more ..so figure a budget 60- 75 k and factor most people go over budget..but not always. You can get RTA frameless cabinetry now that is really just fine . its a money saver. You can lay your own flooring....DIY , in other words , can help. Good Luck with your plans

Are you going to have builder grade cabinets that are partial overlay with mostly lower cabinets with very few drawers OR are you going with frameless full overlay with mostly drawers OR are you going with inset cabinets also with mostly drawers? There will be quite a big difference in price between the first option and the other two options.

Impossible for any of us to give you a right amount for the allowance.

Get a few rough quotes from your builder's preferred cabinet suppliers, but those might still end up being way off when the time comes to sign contracts.

I have a large kitchen and lots of built-ins throughout the house, mudroom, laundry, etc. In the first quote the builder put in $65K for all cabinets. I correctly guessed that it was going to be too low for the actual house. The final numbers came in at $140K and I wasn't doing anything fancy. Most of the cabinets are painted and the two stained bathroom vanities are a basic wood. This was in 2021.

There isn’t nearly enough info, other than ”white oak” which is a high end choice. You can ballpark $1000 a square foot for the whole entire kitchen, including cabinets, for a high end designer level project, and $300 for an entry level zero frills project, and $150 for a FB marketplace used components project. The truth is that you will allocate % of available funds to the things you value. It’s just super cringey to see someone pay 30K for quartzite counters on top of 25K cheap limited life Vietnamese RTA—-that isn’t even cheap anymore post tarriff. Cabinets * should* be about 1/3 of the overall kitchen remodel budget, or 1/10th a build budget, etc.But if you want to use packing crates and some second hand laminate, as long as the sink is permanantly plumbed and installed, and you have a range hooked up, you can get a CO.

shop around for cabinets.....there is a lot of planning and spec layouts on line now and some of them have dedicated installers . it really depends on how you want to execute this. There are more options all the time. New construction, in a way, is easier. just caught BH and G review for 2025 cabinetry ..Ikea / Reform / Fabuwood/ Form / Hampton Bay/ Semi Handmade

"white oak" presently is typically "rift cut white oak" one of the most premium materials used presently, except Walnut which has been more.

Rift white Oak - Use $650 per lineal foot installed, full Euro box, prefinished custom cabinets with high grade hinges, full extension soft close, lots of drawers.

Factory and import can start $300-400 per lineal foot

You get what you pay for.

Per lineal foot is lowers separately from uppers. An 8' wall of lowers & uppers cabinets is 16' up to 8' tall. Extending these to 9/10/11' ceilings costs more. With factory cabinets you're purchasing another cabinet.

Don't overlook the cost of large laundries and prep kitchens.

There is no standard among "custom" builders. I see both ends in $2-3 mil spec homes.

@Verde Arroyo Designs Your numbers make sense.

I did a kitchen remodel 20 years ago that was considerably smaller than what you are going to have. Quarter sawn white oak, 42 inch uppers, smaller island, functional interiors everywhere; i.e. blumotion drawers, pullouts in tall pantry cabinets, spice drawers, silverware/utensil inserts, etc. Spent $50K on cabinetry.

We never build new but have looked at a lot of resale homes close to $1M. VERY few people invest in having functional interiors for the cabinetry. They pick something that looks nice on the outside and cheap out on functionality including things like cheap drawer glides. Having lived with a kitchen that was perfectly designed for function as well as esthetics, I'd have a hard time building a new home with a kitchen that wasn't. Something to consider when you're pondering your kitchen budget.

I would not do allowances if you can avoid it. Get quotes and pick what you want now. That goes for everything. Otherwise, get ready for lots of creep in your estimate.

If you really must do allowances, design your your entire kitchen in IKEA and get that quote. That should take you a couple hours in their design tool. Then add 25% for installation. That is your bottom line minimum. Multiply that by two for a reasonable estimate for anything else.

What did you expect your allowance to be? What is your allowance? What is your home cost? There just aren't any details.

"VERY few people invest in having functional interiors for the cabinetry."

This brings up a good point to consider. The "fun" stuff like bild corner units, chrome pull outs, drawer accessories, etc can really drive up the cost of a kitchen.

I did three custom (true custom) kitchens. The first was our forever kitchen and no expense was spared, we did exactly wanted. The second one was simple, I added the under sink pull outs and drawer inserts myself. The third was for a rental (fitting a kitchen into a unique space) and I was trying to maximize storage space. The cost for the interiors of the cabinets was probably a quarter or third of the budget. I cut those out.

Coming in late here, but I have a few thoughts:

- I agree with the people who say, Don't build the kitchen so big. So many of us love to cook, and it's easy to think, I love to cook, so I want a BIG kitchen! Space for everything! No. You want an efficient kitchen. Big means more steps, more to keep clean, and -- oh, the price tag for all those cabinets and countertops. It's much better to have a modest-but-lovely kitchen accompanied by a good-sized pantry. A pantry will hold your crock pots and punch bowls and small appliances 1) more cheaply than fancy cabinetry, 2) and it'll be easier to see what you want on the shelf rather than looking through cabinets. 3) And, finally, you can close the door on a messy pantry, whereas your actual kitchen clutter is always "out there" for the world to see.

- Whatever cabinets you buy, go with quality. I remember standing in my mother's mid-remodel telling her she'd be having a grandchild soon -- now that grandchild is 30, and those cabinets still look fantastic. She sold the house to one of my siblings, and two grandchildren were raised in that house, so don't think those cabinets were babied. Quality costs upfront but pays down the line.

- Definitely go with mostly drawers. This website is united on few things, but the love of drawers-instead-of-cabinets is one of them. You might not go with 100% drawers -- think through your needs and plan carefully, but make drawers your standard.

- Study up on inset, partial overlay and full overlay. This can make a pretty big difference in the cost of your cabinets.

- Do you plan glass fronts for any of your cabinets? This will bump up your price, as the cabinets must be finished both inside and out.

- Do you plan TALL cabinets to reach the ceiling? Most people, it seems, prefer this look. If you want the look without the price, consider a wooden "header" (stained to match) above the cabinets.

- A couple things to demand: drawers that reach the back of your cabinets (I'd lived in my house over a decade before I realized my drawers are only something like 18" deep -- all that empty space behind them), the heaviest-possible hardware, and (if you choose pulls) wider pulls. I personally wouldn't go TOO wide on drawers, as it puts more demand on the hardware.

- Things that don't matter: Fancy drawer inserts. Consider that once they're built-in, you're committed to them -- if you think you want them, think, measure and plan super-carefully. Remember that you can always add really good drop-in items from Etsy or Amazon and get the function you need. Pull-outs are questionable too.

Things you want to be sure of:

- You have a straight, easy path to carry in groceries /out trash.

- You have a place for both trash and recycling.

- You have a fire extinguisher.

- Your glassware is stored close to the dishwasher AND the refrigerator.

- Your silverware is stored close to the dishwasher.

Regarding drawers - be sure they are full extension as well, not 3/4. Full extension means the drawers open fully so you're not scraping your knuckles when getting to things in the back.

Soft close is a "nice to have", full extension is a "must".