How long does a custom kitchen take? A week-by-week timeline

How long does it take to get custom kitchen cabinets?

At Crafted Cabinetry, about 12 weeks from the first call to installed. Roughly the first four are design and decisions; the next eight are building. Across the industry, backlogs of 12 to 18 weeks or more are common, so it is worth asking any shop you talk to which clock they are quoting: time in the shop, or time from first call.

Here is what happens in each step.

Week 0: what happens on the discovery call?

A conversation of about 30 minutes. You talk through what you want from the kitchen, your budget, and anything fixed: a window that stays, a wall that can’t move, an appliance you already own. Photos and rough measurements help. At the end you are matched with a designer.

Weeks 1–2: how does the design stage work?

Your designer produces 3D renderings, material boards and cabinetry drawings, so you can see the kitchen before anything is cut. Physical door and finish samples are mailed to your home, because a colour on a screen is not the colour on a door in your light.

Three rounds of revisions are included. This is the stage where the schedule is won or lost. A kitchen whose decisions are made in the first two rounds stays on the twelve-week track.

Weeks 3–4: what gets finalized before production?

Three things, and production does not start without them:

• Construction-ready drawings with every box, door and drawer sized. Crafted builds to your measurements in 1/16-inch increments, so these drawings are the kitchen.
• An appliance spec sheet. Openings for the range, fridge and dishwasher are cut to the actual models, so the models need to be chosen now, not at install.
• A fixed-price quote. The price is locked before production begins. There are no mid-build change orders.

Weeks 4–11: what happens during production?

About 8 weeks in the shop. Boxes are cut from plywood, drawers are full-extension dovetail, hinges are soft-close, and every cabinet is assembled and checked before it leaves. You get milestone updates along the way rather than silence until delivery.

This is also the window to get the room ready: demolition, plumbing and electrical rough-in, flooring if it goes under the cabinets. Cabinets that arrive to a finished room go in faster than cabinets that wait for one.

Week 12: how are the cabinets delivered?

Fully assembled, labelled and wrapped. Nothing is built on site from flat boxes, which is a large part of why installation goes quickly: the work on site is fitting and fixing, not assembly. Support continues through installation, and the cabinets carry a limited lifetime warranty on materials and workmanship.

What makes a custom kitchen take longer?

• Slow decisions in design. The single biggest variable. Every week spent choosing a door style is a week added to the end.
• Appliances chosen late. Openings are cut to specific models. A change after drawings are final means redrawing.
• A room that isn’t ready. Cabinets can be built on time and still wait for plumbing, electrical or flooring.

Why does a custom kitchen take longer than stock cabinets?

Because a stock cabinet already exists. It was built before you ordered it, in a fixed size, and it ships from a warehouse. A custom cabinet does not exist until your kitchen is drawn, because its size comes from your walls. That is the whole point of it: every box fills its space, reaches the ceiling or meets the appliance exactly, and nothing needs a filler strip to close a gap.

The trade is time for fit. Twelve weeks from first call is the cost of a kitchen that was built for your room rather than chosen from a list.

Is the twelve weeks guaranteed?

It is the plan, not a promise made regardless of what happens. The parts Crafted controls, the design stage and the eight weeks in the shop, are scheduled from the start and updated at each milestone. The parts that depend on decisions and on the room are the ones to watch, and they are the reason the list above exists.

How can I keep my kitchen on schedule?

Come to the discovery call with photos, rough measurements and your appliance list, even if it is provisional. Open the samples the day they arrive. Use the revision rounds to decide, not to start over. And line up the trades for the room while the cabinets are in the shop, so both are ready in the same week.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• How much do custom kitchen cabinets cost in the Bay Area?