The short answer
New kitchen cabinets in Bellingham fall into three price paths in 2026. Refacing a typical kitchen runs about $7,000 to $16,000. Semi-custom and full custom cabinets run roughly $20,000 to $45,000. Countertops are quoted separately, usually $3,500 to $9,500 installed. Where you land depends on whether you keep your boxes, how many cabinets you have, the door style, and the materials you pick.
The honest version is that "cabinets" is not one number. The fastest way to waste money is to price a full custom kitchen when refacing would have done, or to reface boxes that should have been torn out. Below is how we walk a Bellingham homeowner through the three paths.
Path 1: Cabinet refacing ($7,000 to $16,000)
Refacing keeps your existing cabinet boxes and gives you new doors, drawer fronts, and a matching veneer over the box faces, plus new hinges and pulls. It is the right move when the boxes are solid and the layout already works, and you mostly want a fresh look. In a typical Bellingham kitchen, refacing runs about $7,000 to $16,000 depending on cabinet count and door style.
The big variable is how many doors and drawer fronts you have. A small galley kitchen with 18 to 22 doors sits at the low end. A larger kitchen with an island and a pantry can have 40 doors and climbs accordingly. Door style matters too: a flat slab door costs less than a five-piece Shaker or a raised panel.
When refacing is the smart spend
Reface when the boxes are square, solid, and not water-damaged, and when you are happy with where things are. In older Bellingham homes, the first thing to check is the sink base, which takes the most moisture and is usually the first box to swell. If the boxes pass, refacing gets you most of the visual change of a new kitchen for a fraction of the cost.
Path 2: Semi-custom and full custom ($20,000 to $45,000)
Custom cabinets are built to your kitchen's real measurements rather than pulled from a warehouse in stock sizes. This is the right path when the layout is wrong, the ceilings are tall, the walls run wavy, or you simply want exactly the kitchen you have in mind. For a typical Bellingham kitchen, custom and semi-custom run $20,000 to $45,000, with larger kitchens and high-end materials pushing the top of that range or beyond.
What drives the number: cabinet count and run length, door style and material, whether the boxes are plywood or particleboard (we spec moisture-resistant plywood here for a reason), the finish, and how much scribing the install needs on out-of-square older walls. An island, tall pantry units, and specialty storage all add to it.
Semi-custom vs full custom
Semi-custom starts from standard cabinet lines with a range of sizes, finishes, and modifications, which keeps the cost down while still fitting your kitchen well. Full custom is built from scratch to any dimension, which you want for truly odd layouts, unusual ceiling heights, or a specific look you cannot get off a standard line. Most Bellingham kitchens do fine with semi-custom; full custom earns its premium in older or architecturally distinct homes.
Path 3: You buy the cabinets, we install ($3,000 to $7,500)
If you have already bought cabinets, whether stock, semi-custom, or from a big-box store, professional installation runs about $3,000 to $7,500 for a typical Bellingham kitchen. That covers setting the cabinets level and plumb, scribing them tight to the wall, shimming a level run on a sloped floor, and adjusting every door and drawer to line up. In older Bellingham homes the floors slope and the walls are rarely square, so a clean install is more work than it looks.
What countertops add
Countertops are a separate line, usually $3,500 to $9,500 installed for a typical kitchen. Quartz and granite sit at the higher end, butcher block and solid surface lower. That price includes templating off your set cabinets, tear-out of the old top, the new counter, and reconnecting the sink and faucet. We cover material trade-offs in our countertop materials guide.
How to figure out your number
- Count your doors and drawer fronts: that drives a reface quote more than your kitchen's square footage.
- Check the sink base and lower boxes for swelling or water damage: that decides reface vs replace.
- Decide if the layout works: if it fights you, custom is worth it; if it works, reface or reinstall.
- Pick a countertop material range early, since it is a big slice of the budget.
- Get a written, line-item quote, not a round number, so you can see where the money goes.
We quote all three cabinet paths up front so you can see the trade-offs side by side. A free in-home measure is the only way to give you a real number, since the cabinet count and the condition of your existing boxes drive the price more than anything else.