How Much Do Kitchen Cabinets Cost? UK Unit Prices for 2026

Ask three showrooms to price a kitchen and you will get three numbers that share nothing but a currency symbol. That is because "cabinets" is a bundle of nine separate purchases — carcasses, doors, hinges, drawer runners, internal fittings, plinth and cornice, handles, delivery and fitting — and every quote weights them differently.

The fastest way to stop overpaying is to work out which of three jobs you are buying before you look at a single price. Most people who think they need new cabinets need new doors, and plenty who think doors will do are staring at carcasses that failed years ago.

Empty the sink base and the cupboard beside the dishwasher, then take ten minutes with a torch. What you find there decides your budget more than any showroom conversation.

• •Run a thumbnail along the floor of the sink base and the unit next to the dishwasher. Swollen, crumbling or delaminated chipboard means that carcass is finished — patching never holds.
• •Open and shut a door twenty times. If it drops or catches, look at the hinge cup. Blown-out cup holes in an 18mm MFC door mean the door is done; a hinge that simply needs adjusting is a 30-second screwdriver job.
• •Press on an 800mm shelf. Over 5mm of sag means thin shelving, not a failed unit — replacement 18mm shelves are £8-£15 each.
• •Check whether the drawer boxes are metal-sided (Blum or Hettich) or stapled chipboard. Metal boxes on sound carcasses are worth keeping.
• •Ask yourself whether the sink, hob or fridge is moving. If yes, you are not buying cabinets — you are buying a refit with plumbing and electrics attached.

Those checks drop you into one of three bands. Doors and fronts only is the cheapest genuine improvement in a kitchen — the trade-offs are covered in cabinet refacing versus full replacement. New carcasses on the existing footprint suits most UK homes. A layout change is a different project, priced in our full kitchen remodel cost guide.

• •Doors and fronts only, 10-14 units: £600-£2,800 supplied, plus £350-£700 fitting.
• •Flat-pack units (IKEA Metod, B&Q Cooke & Lewis): £80-£180 per unit with door — £1,100-£2,400 for 12 units.
• •Rigid mid-range (Howdens, Magnet, Benchmarx, DIY Kitchens): £150-£400 per unit — £2,200-£5,500 for 12-15 units.
• •Premium painted in-frame or bespoke joinery: £600-£2,000+ per unit — £9,000-£30,000 supplied.
• •Supply and fit, units only, no worktop: £3,800-£9,500 mid-range.

Showroom quotes hide this detail, which is why it is worth knowing. Carcass material matters more than the price list suggests: 18mm moisture-resistant MFC is standard, and a plywood upgrade at £25-£45 per unit is money well spent under a sink. Our comparison of plywood and MDF explains where each earns its keep.

• •600mm base carcass, 18mm MFC: £45-£75. Plywood equivalent: £80-£130.
• •Standard door or drawer front: £15-£40 budget, £40-£90 mid-range, £120-£320 painted in-frame.
• •Soft-close hinge pair: £4-£12. Blum Tandembox drawer box: £35-£90.
• •Corner carousel or magic corner pull-out: £60-£220 each.
• •Tall larder unit, carcass and doors: £180-£480; a pull-out mechanism adds £150-£400.
• •Plinth, cornice and pelmet: £25-£70 per 3m length.
• •Handles: £4-£25 each, and you will need 22-30 of them.
• •Delivery: free to £60 nationally; bespoke joinery adds £150-£300.

For a cabinets-only job the split is usually 60-65% materials, 35-40% labour. Fitters charge £190-£280 a day across most of the UK and £280-£380 inside the M25, and swapping 12-15 units on an unchanged layout takes 3-5 days. Flat-pack adds half a day to a day of assembly unless you build them yourself beforehand.

Rip-out and disposal runs £250-£500 with a skip. Electrics are the sting people forget: new circuits are notifiable under Part P in England and Wales, so a registered electrician must certify them — budget £280-£650 if sockets or spurs move. Gas hob connections are Gas Safe work only, £90-£180. Worktops sit outside cabinet pricing; laminate templating and fitting is £150-£400, while stone is quoted per square metre, as set out in our quartz and granite worktop comparison.

• •Out-of-square walls in period houses: add 0.5-1 day of scribing and packing.
• •Non-standard widths and bespoke fillers: 15-25% premium over stock sizes.
• •Painted in-frame construction: roughly triples the door cost versus vinyl-wrapped shaker.
• •Integrated appliances: each needs a door, hinge kit and housing — £90-£220 apiece.
• •Region: London and the South East run 20-30% above average; the North East and Northern Ireland sit 8-12% below.

These are complete jobs, VAT included, with worktops excluded so the cabinet spend is visible.

• •Galley kitchen, two-bed terrace in Leeds. Eight flat-pack units, layout unchanged, carcasses self-assembled. Units and fronts £1,180, handles and plinth £140, fitter 2.5 days at £200 = £500, rip-out and skip £280. Total £2,100.
• •1930s semi in Nottingham. Fourteen rigid shaker units with a pull-out larder, sink moved 900mm along the same wall. Units £3,900, fittings and handles £520, fitting 4.5 days at £230 = £1,035, plumbing £320, electrician for two spurs £410, rip-out £350. Total £6,535.
• •Victorian terrace in south London. Twelve bespoke in-frame painted units, layout reworked around an island. Cabinetry £16,800, install 8 days at £340 = £2,720, electrics and plumbing £1,850, making good £900. Total £22,270.

A quote reading "supply and fit new kitchen — £11,500" is not a quote, it is a number. Ask for it broken down and the weak points show themselves. Half the disputes we see start with an assumption nobody wrote down, the theme running through our guide to kitchen remodelling mistakes.

• •Ask for the unit schedule: every carcass with its width, plus doors, fillers, plinth and cornice lengths. Divide the supply figure by the unit count — over £450 a unit on a non-bespoke kitchen needs explaining.
• •Check the labour line states days and a day rate, not a lump sum. Fewer than three days for 12+ units usually means corners.
• •Get in writing who removes and disposes of the old kitchen, and whether the skip is included.
• •Confirm the exclusions: worktop, splashback, flooring, tiling, plastering, decorating and appliance connection are all commonly left out.
• •Ask which electrical work is notifiable and who issues the Part P certificate. If nobody can answer, walk away.
• •Hold back 5-10% until snagging is signed off — misaligned doors and unfitted end panels are the usual stragglers.

These figures come from 2026 trade and retail price lists for the main UK cabinet suppliers, day rates quoted by fitters in the Midlands, the North and Greater London, and breakdowns from completed installs. All prices include VAT at 20%. Carcass prices have been broadly flat for two years while painted doors and solid timber fronts have risen 6-9%, so a shaker kitchen now costs relatively more against a slab kitchen than it did in 2023.

One timing point: national suppliers discount hardest in January and late August, and fitter availability is loosest in those same weeks. If layout is still open, work through planning a kitchen remodel before you order — changing a unit schedule after delivery costs far more than changing a drawing.