Kitchen cabinet prices per foot run in KL and Selangor — by material, by unit type, and what a quote has to include before you can compare it with another one.
Almost every cabinet maker in the Klang Valley quotes in foot run — written “pfr”, “per ft” or, in Bahasa Malaysia, “per kaki”. It is simply the horizontal length of cabinetry measured along the wall, in feet. Depth is assumed rather than measured: base units are conventionally about 600 mm deep and wall units 300–350 mm, so the rate already carries the depth. That convention is genuinely useful, because it lets you compare melamine against aluminium against solid wood on one number instead of arguing about board areas.
It is also the single biggest source of confusion in Malaysian kitchen quotes. A 12-foot wall with cabinets above and below is not 12 feet of cabinetry — it is 12 feet of base plus 12 feet of wall, and a quote that says only “12 ft” is already ambiguous. Two contractors can quote “the same kitchen” and differ by thousands simply because one counted 24 feet and the other 12. Make both quotes state base, wall and tall-unit feet separately. To turn any per-foot price below into a kitchen cabinet price for your home, multiply the base rate by your base feet, the wall rate by your wall feet and the tall-unit rate by your tall feet — then add the countertop, which is priced on its own.
The rate is set mostly by what the doors and carcass are made of. These are the 2026 market bands we see across Kuala Lumpur and Selangor for cabinetry installed, with basic hardware, countertop excluded (market estimate 2026, indicative Klang Valley):
| Cabinet build | Price per foot run (2026, Klang Valley) | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Melamine board (particleboard / MDF carcass) | RM180 – RM300 per ft run | budget dry kitchen, wardrobes |
| Laminate / HPL door (MDF or plywood carcass) | RM280 – RM420 per ft run | mid-range, most common |
| Moisture-resistant (MR) plywood carcass, laminate door | RM350 – RM600 per ft run | wet-kitchen best value |
| Acrylic or PU / 2K spray door | RM380 – RM600 per ft run | gloss / matte premium finish |
| Solid-surface or PVC-wrapped door | RM500 – RM900 per ft run | mid-premium wet kitchen |
| 5G glass door / wood-veneer door | RM500 – RM750 per ft run | showcase dry kitchen |
| Full aluminium (3G / 4G frame, powder-coated) | RM400 – RM700 per ft run | waterproof, termite-proof; wood-grain coat at the top end |
| Stainless steel cabinet | RM650 – RM1,000 per ft run | heavy-cooking / outdoor / commercial |
| Solid wood (nyatoh / meranti) door & frame | RM600 – RM1,000 per ft run | premium; needs termite treatment |
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💬 Get Your Free QuoteRead that table as a spectrum of durability, not of prettiness. Melamine at RM180 – RM300 per foot is a particleboard or MDF core with a decorative face — perfectly sensible in a dry kitchen or a rental, poor value anywhere it will meet standing water. Laminate at RM280 – RM420 is the volume choice and the one most Malaysian kitchens end up with. Moving the carcass to moisture-resistant plywood (RM350 – RM600 with a laminate door) is the upgrade that changes lifespan the most for the least money. Above that you are paying for finish and material, not for structure: acrylic or 2K spray doors at RM380 – RM600, glass or veneer at RM500 – RM750, and solid nyatoh or meranti at RM600 – RM1,000. Cabinet material compares the boards themselves in detail; melamine vs laminate takes the two mid-market finishes head to head.
Per-foot rates are how the job is priced; whole-job totals are how people actually budget. These are the anchors we would use for a first conversation (market estimate 2026, indicative Klang Valley):
| Job | Typical total (2026, Klang Valley) | What is included |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor promo packages (small, simple kitchen) | simple from RM3,100; premium from RM6,000 | two advertised floor prices, not a band — confirm the scope line by line |
| Typical cabinet set, 15–20 ft run, melamine/laminate | RM4,500 – RM12,000 per job | cabinets only |
| Premium set, 20–30 ft run incl. tall units | RM12,000 – RM25,000 per job | cabinets only |
| Full kitchen renovation incl. cabinets + top + works | RM8,000 – RM50,000 per job | cabinets, worktop, plumbing, tiling and wet works |
The gap between the last two rows is the one to understand before you set a budget. “Cabinets” is joinery only. A full kitchen renovation also carries tiling, plumbing moves, electrical points, the hob and hood, painting and sometimes a wall coming down — which is why the same kitchen can be quoted by a cabinet maker and by a renovation contractor at figures several times apart without either being dishonest. If an island is in the plan, price it separately again: see kitchen island cost.
A kitchen is three different products sharing one wall, and they do not cost the same per foot.
| Upgrade | Typical cost (2026, Klang Valley) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Upgrade carcass to MR plywood | RM30 – RM60 per ft run | worth it in wet zones |
| Tall / larder unit (multiplier on base rate) | 1.6 – 2.2 x base rate | quoted as 1.6–2.2x a base-cabinet foot |
Standard heights and depths, appliance clearances and the LPG-cylinder cabinet are set out in kitchen cabinet types and standard sizes; if your kitchen is mostly tall storage, see pantry cabinet cost.
A per-foot rate is only meaningful if you know what it wraps. At minimum, a quote should state that the rate covers the carcass board and thickness, the door material and finish, edge banding type, hinges and runners (brand tier and whether they are soft-close), end panels and fillers, the plinth, delivery and installation, plus any sink and hob cut-outs — and it should say plainly what is excluded, which is usually the countertop, the sink, the tap, the appliances, electrical and plumbing works and any tiling. A “shell price” that quietly excludes soft-close hardware, end panels, the plinth and cut-outs is how an estimate becomes a final invoice half again as large. We have written the full checklist, including the deposit red flags, in the hidden charges in a kitchen cabinet quote.
In the wet zone, also ask how the sink cut-out and any holes drilled for pipes and hinges will be sealed. Those raw edges are where particleboard takes on water, whatever the board is called on the quote.
Most Malaysian homes cook the way the material has to survive: heavy wok work, high heat, grease and steam in the wet kitchen, and lighter use in the dry kitchen out front. The material choice should follow that split rather than the budget. In the wet zone — the sink run, the hob run, anything that gets hosed down — put the money into the carcass: moisture-resistant plywood, aluminium or rigid PVC for base units, and PUR rather than EVA edge banding. In the dry zone, where the units mostly hold crockery and small appliances, melamine or laminate on a standard carcass is entirely reasonable and is where a tight budget should be spent.
If you are still deciding the layout, wet kitchen vs dry kitchen covers which to build and dry and wet kitchen cost covers what the split adds. For a hard-working wet kitchen, aluminium cabinets remove the swelling problem entirely; swelling and peeling repair covers what to do when it has already happened.
| Myth | Fact |
|---|---|
| “Melamine is garbage — you can’t use it anywhere in a Malaysian kitchen.” | The melamine face is effectively waterproof. Melamine board fails where moisture reaches unsealed edges, drilled holes or damaged edge banding, and the particleboard core then swells and the face lifts; humid air plus a bad edge is enough to start it. With sound edge banding it performs well in dry zones: wall units, dry-kitchen runs and pantry interiors. It is a poor choice under the sink. |
| “If my cabinet swelled, the board must have been fake.” | Swelling starts where water gets past the face: a raw edge, a hole drilled for a pipe or hinge, the sink cut-out, or banding that has chipped or lifted. Genuine board swells there too, so how the edges and holes are sealed matters as much as the board’s name. |
| “A plywood carcass is waterproof.” | Moisture-resistant plywood resists moisture far better than particleboard or MDF, but it can still swell or delaminate if left soaking, and it is not immune to termites. |
| “Aluminium cabinets will still rot eventually, like wood.” | An aluminium carcass is inorganic. It does not absorb water, swell or rot, and termites cannot eat it. |
The countertop is not in the cabinet rate. It is templated after the carcasses are installed, fabricated off site, and supplied and installed with your cabinets a few days later — and on this site it is also priced per foot run so it can be added to the cabinet number directly (market estimate 2026, indicative Klang Valley):
| Countertop material | Price per foot run (2026, Klang Valley) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Laminate top | RM60 – RM150 per ft run | tight budget / rental |
| Solid surface | RM150 – RM350 per ft run | seamless, repairable |
| Granite | RM200 – RM500 per ft run | needs sealing yearly |
| Quartz (engineered stone) | RM250 – RM600 per ft run | most kitchens; mid-grade ~RM380/ft |
| Sintered stone | RM400 – RM900 per ft run | heat-proof, marble look |
| Concrete / rendered top (table top konkrit) | RM80 – RM180 per ft run | wet-kitchen tradition; tiled or rendered on site |
On a 15-foot kitchen that is roughly RM900 – RM2,250 for a laminate top, RM3,750 – RM9,000 in quartz and RM6,000 – RM13,500 in sintered stone (market estimate 2026, indicative Klang Valley), so it deserves its own line in the budget rather than a shrug at the end. Kitchen countertop compares the materials on heat, staining and repairability; quartz countertop price goes deeper on the material most kitchens end up choosing, including how to tell engineered quartz from compressed marble.
Two quotes with identical doors can differ by a four-figure sum purely in the metal you never see. Hinges, runners and lift mechanisms are the parts that fail first, and they are also the easiest line to downgrade without the drawing changing (market estimate 2026, indicative Klang Valley):
| Hardware item | Typical price (2026, Klang Valley) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard hinge (no soft-close) | RM3 – RM8 per hinge | basic, no damping |
| Soft-close hinge, generic / DTC | RM8 – RM20 per hinge | generic and DTC-type brands |
| Soft-close hinge, Blum / Hettich / Hafele | RM18 – RM40 per hinge | European brands, per hinge |
| Ball-bearing drawer runner | RM25 – RM60 per pair | side-mounted, per pair |
| Blum Tandembox / Legrabox drawer system | RM150 – RM400 per drawer | metal box system, per drawer |
| Lift-up (Aventos-type) mechanism | RM250 – RM600 per door | for wall units, per door |
Hardware cost should follow door weight and use frequency. Heavy glass or solid doors need heavy-duty hinges or a third and fourth hinge per door; a drawer holding cast-iron pans wants a ball-bearing or undermount runner rather than a cheap roller. Branded European soft-close hardware (Blum, Hettich and Hafele are the names you will see quoted) sits at the top of that table and is a legitimate upgrade — but only after the carcass is right, because good hinges bolted to a swollen particleboard panel still tear out. Soft-close hinge price and repair covers the tiers and the sagging-door fix.
White kitchen cabinets, matte black, grey, sage or forest green, two-tone with a dark base and light uppers, wood-grain: these are the searches that dominate every year, and they are almost entirely a finish decision, not a price decision. Within a given material, colour does not change the per-foot rate — a white laminate door and a sage green laminate door cost the same to make. What moves the number is the finish family: standard laminate, high-gloss acrylic, 2K or PU spray, ultra-matte anti-fingerprint laminate, glass or real veneer. Those sit at different points in the table above, and that is the decision worth having.
Two practical notes for Malaysian conditions. Very dark matte doors and high-gloss white both show fingerprints and water spotting badly in a kitchen with heavy cooking, which is why anti-fingerprint matte laminates have been displacing gloss at the top end. And a white spray-painted MDF door in a sunny kitchen can yellow over the years if it was not properly primed. Choose the colour you want, then the finish that will survive your kitchen. Kitchen cabinet door styles covers shaker, flat slab, handleless and two-tone in detail.
There is a big difference between saving money and deferring it. The savings that hold up over ten years are the ones that change the visible spec, not the structural one:
What we would not cut: the carcass in the wet zone, the edge banding type, or the number of hinges on a heavy door.
Custom cabinetry is manufactured, not bought off a shelf, so the sequence matters. Broadly: a site measure with a laser, then a 3D drawing and a written quote; on acceptance a deposit — the market norm in Malaysia is around 50%, and you should confirm the figure and the milestones in writing before paying anything; then factory fabrication, typically quoted at two to four weeks in the trade; then delivery and installation over a few days; then countertop templating, with the stone fitted a few days after the carcasses are in. Treat every one of those durations as a market norm to confirm in writing with your own contractor, not a promise. The full sequence and what a sensible payment schedule looks like are set out in the custom kitchen cabinet process.
Normalise two quotes before you judge them. Check that both count the same feet, split into base, wall and tall. Check the carcass board and thickness (16 mm is the bare minimum in the trade, 18 mm the standard), the door material and finish, and the edge banding — PUR cross-links with moisture and holds up in heat far better than the EVA hot-melt that reactivates and lets laminate peel. Check the hinge and runner tier, and whether end panels, fillers, the plinth and the cut-outs sit inside the rate. Nine times out of ten the “cheaper” quote is simply a smaller scope, and once you line the two up the gap closes to a few hundred ringgit.
Then look at the contractor rather than the paper: a workshop or showroom you can visit, quotes issued in their own name, a written payment schedule tied to milestones, and photographs of completed jobs. If you are also weighing modular against custom, IKEA vs custom kitchen cabinets compares the true landed cost of both.
ClickBina builds custom kitchen cabinetry across Kuala Lumpur and Selangor as part of a renovation team rather than as a showroom sale — so the cabinet run, the tiling behind it, the plumbing under the sink and the electrical points beside the hob are sequenced by one contractor instead of three. We measure on site, quote per foot with the base, wall and tall runs itemised, state the carcass board, door finish, edge banding and hardware tier on the quote, and put the exclusions in writing so the final invoice is the one you agreed to. Send us the room dimensions or a photo on WhatsApp for a fixed per-foot quote. Bahasa Malaysia readers can use the twin guide, harga kabinet dapur.
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