Seems about what my cab maker would quote it. I had him quote mine at much less cabinetry and it as waaaaay more than I expected. Seemed like a pretty simple piece to me. Yours has waaaaay more going on than mine. Maybe look at eliminating the cab backs and just have the drywall behind showing.

Depending on the materials and construction details it might be on the high side, or it might be priced about right. The devil's in the details, as always.

i think benches cost a lot for some reason. i figured out roughly that for the quote i got for my kitchen banquette, that the bench portion costs around $3k. the back of the bench which i asked to have slanted for comfort, would be custom angled and an extra $600. i decided to not do cabinets for the bench and put in a custom upholstered sofa -- more comfortable for sitting and not even half the price! not sure if this would be an option for you?

your mudroom design is really nice as is though..

It doesn't sound terribly high. Some of the cost could be related to doing set-up for cuts different than their usual bang-out-a-small-box for upper and lower cabinets and for handling bigger pieces through their process (particularly for the bench - at 5' wide and 7' 6" wide). They save on not having doors and drawers, but the insides need to be finished which balances that out.

I agree with Aloha's advice - talk to them about the estimate - why it is higher than for the other cabinets and what could be done to bring it more in line with what you'd like to pay.

Sadly, it is probably not out of line, but at the same time, maybe not worth that amount. I have a somewhat skewed sense of reality, however, since my dad is a woodworker an builds a fair amount of items for us. Since he only charges for the materials, and not for the labor, I don't have a real good estimate on what things cost. Also, since he just makes individual pieces for me, his labor time is way more than the typical cabinetmaker that has a shop set-up with the jigs, etc. Unfortunatly, I have found that most the time that you can ask for them to take something out, and it only reduces the cost by a small fraction ($200 or less).

If you really like it, maybe it is something you could wait to do for a while? That is what we are doing with several of our built-ins.

Typical cabinets are only the desirable wood on the front and faceframe. The boxes are plywood or MDF. Your bench is almost all alder, with very little hidden "box" material. That is why it's so expensive.

To cut costs, you could do the cubbies on the left with doors and have the interior be plain plywood. The shoe shelves could be the pivot out bins with just alder on the front. Just do the top cubbies across without the backing material. Just do a drywall back. You can do coat hooks from just an open shelf rather than having the enclosures. Do you need the counter and cabinet to the right? What about a separate console type table with mirror above?

I think it seems reasonable. I had the same issue with my kitchen - a custom cab maker. I was about 10k for the whole kitchen, but the mudroom area (much smaller than yours) was around $2k. We opted not to do it and had my father-in-law build a less elaborate set-up. Don't know why, but mudrooms seem to run a lot of money!

though it looks simple, think of it as about 11 cabinets total, 9 without the doors...$2900 sounds very reasonable to me. And even though you dont have doors all the interiors have to be perfect since they will show

Wow - take it and run. We have two alcoves we are having built out; one in the family room and one in the master bedroom; they are each 90" x 90" and will cost close to $6k each, including staining. I wish we had a mudroom to do this. I love your design!

I think that sounds pretty fair as well.

But, if you are trying to save a few bucks, what if you went with something like this?.....

Would this be any cheaper? I have the separate cubbies now and in my house, it's a joke. I had this vision of my kids neatly hanging up their coats and book bags in their own little cubby. NOT.

Going with something like this next time.

Love the big drawers for shoes.

Just a thought

my mudbench was only $700

Funny!! I was just admiring that pic on Houzz last night. I think I am going to eliminate the open shelving on the left side. That will save us nearly $600 and can be added later if we need it. The base cabinet on the right will be a 3 drawer stack. 2 deep bottom drawers perfect for the kids hats/mittens. And I will still have the open shelving on the top.

I want the bottom underneath the bench to be open, because we are the type of family to just kick our shoes off, I just don't see the kids actually putting their shoes in a drawer. (Myself either ;-) Also considering removing the dividers, for the reasons you mentioned.

I received another estimate today from another custom cabinet maker, and they were within about $700 for the entire mudroom. So I'm believing now, that the original estimate was not out of line.

Thanks for your help!

Looks VERY reasonable to me.

There is a HUGE price difference between those two painted built ins , the 2nd which was probably constructed on site out of poplar or MDF

-and-

cabinets built in a shop out of Alder, stained and topcoated.

They may both be as functional and visually appealing but there is way more cost associate with Nikki's alder rendering.

For what it's worth, here is the quote I received for mine (65" wide x 96" tall:

Labor (5) days $1,400
Material $485
Paint $400
Mgmt. Fee 10% $228.50
Total $2,513.50
This would include face frame on the whole front. It would have 5" v-groove ship lap wainscoting in the back.

Here is a link that might be useful: Locker Sketch

My L-shaped custom banquette is almost $2000, and that's not even including the cushions.

His 'setup' is probably designed for efficient cabinet construction, not one off benches.

Doing something different in a production shop is fully custom work, and is going to cost more.

I agree, sounds like a GREAT price to me. Stained and finished interiors always cost more....tall units cost more.

If I had to do that unit in a semi-custom cabinet. It would be $2500-$3500 not installed.

If that's installed....then it's a great deal!
Kompy