HoursMon–Fri: 8:00 AM–5:30 PM · Sat: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM · Sun: Closed
Call (816) 540-1960
Independence, MO · Kitchens, vanities, built-ins
Independence Custom Cabinets Co. designs, builds and installs cabinetry for the rooms people spend their days in: kitchens, baths, mudrooms, pantries and the wall beside the fireplace. Each piece is drawn for one room, built to its measurements and finished in paint or stain you picked from real samples.
01·Finished rooms
Nine kinds of rooms we draw and build. Every one starts with a tape measure and ends with doors that close with an even gap. Scroll sideways to see them all.
02·Door styles
The door decides most of how a cabinet looks. These are the three we build most, and each one suits a different kind of house.
Older homesThe door sits inside the face frame, flush with it, with a gap about the thickness of a coin all the way around. It is the look of a 1910s kitchen and the most exacting style to build, because every door has to be fitted to its own opening.
Almost any houseA flat center panel in a square frame, set on top of the cabinet box. It works in a 1950s ranch and a new build alike, takes paint well, and costs less than inset because the doors overlap their openings.
Modern roomsOne flat panel, no frame. It shows off wood grain, especially rift-sawn white oak or walnut, where the grain can run across a whole row of drawers. Slab doors are veneered over a stable core so they stay flat.
03·Finishes
Colors look different on a phone, under kitchen lights and next to your floor. We bring real door samples in the finishes you are deciding between.
Most people pick between a painted door and a wood door they can see the grain through.
For paint, the colors people ask us for most are soft whites, greige, sage, navy and a deep green. We spray painted cabinets in the shop. Maple is the usual choice under paint because its tight grain doesn't telegraph through the way oak's does.
Stain behaves differently on each wood. Oak's open pores soak up color, cherry darkens in sunlight over its first few years, and walnut rarely needs anything but a clear coat.
Rift-sawn white oak under a matte clear finish is the wood look we get asked about most right now. The rift cut gives straight, even grain without the big "flake" figure of quartersawn oak, which some people love and some don't.
Then there's hardware. The same door looks different with aged brass than it does with black or nickel, so we order samples you can hold before deciding.
04·Design and build
Most of the work happens before a cabinet comes into the house. The process page goes through each step in detail.
01We sit down with your photos, your sketch or just a list of what bugs you about the room now: no drawer space, a blind corner, a dead wall.
02Every wall, window, outlet, vent and pipe gets measured. Old walls are rarely plumb or square, so we check that too and plan scribe strips for the gaps.
03You get scaled drawings of each wall and a written price that lists every cabinet, finish and piece of hardware. We revise until it is right.
04Boxes, face frames, doors and drawers are cut and assembled in the shop, where every joint can be checked for square.
05Doors and boxes are sanded, sprayed and cured in the shop, so your kitchen never smells like a paint booth.
06Cabinets are set level, fastened to studs and scribed to the walls. Then every door and drawer gets adjusted until the gaps match.
These are typical ranges, not promises. Large kitchens, unusual woods and stone counters with their own lead times can stretch the schedule. The dates for your job go in writing once the drawings are approved.
05·What to look for
We are a preview listing and have no reviews to show yet. What you can judge on any cabinet maker's work, including ours, is how it is built.
Ask any shop to open a finished drawer or show you a sample door. The answers tell you more than a photo gallery does.
06·What we build
Kitchens are most of what we do. Each of the other rooms has its own page with sizes, materials and prices.
01 Inset, shaker and slab kitchens built to the room, from a single island to every wall, painted or stained.
See the service
02 Furniture-style vanities, linen towers and medicine cabinets sized to old and odd bathrooms.
See the service
03 Fireplace bookcases, window seats, office walls and dining room hutches, scribed to walls that aren't straight.
See the service
04 Lockers, benches, laundry cabinets and pantries that hold up to boots, backpacks and wet coats.
See the service07·Climate and wood
Missouri weather swings wide, and solid wood swells and shrinks with it. Good cabinets are built to allow for that.
The University of Missouri's Missouri Climate Center describes a continental climate where warm, moist air masses move north from the Gulf of Mexico in summer. NOAA's comparative climatic data for Kansas City International Airport (1972–2018) puts the average July morning relative humidity at 85%.
The same source describes dry, cold air masses swinging down from the northern plains and Canada in winter. Heated indoor air gets drier still. Wood gives up moisture and shrinks across the grain, which is why a badly built door can show a crack or a gap by February.
Chapter 13 of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook recommends an average moisture content of 8% for interior woodwork, with individual pieces between 6% and 10%, in most of the United States. It also notes that finishes slow down dimensional change but do not prevent it.
So we build from kiln-dried lumber in that range and check it with a moisture meter. Door panels float in grooves instead of being glued in, so they can move. Wide flat parts such as slab doors and end panels are veneered over a stable core. And every face of a part gets finish, not just the side you see.
08·Independence homes
Independence has far more prewar houses than its eastern Jackson County neighbors, and older rooms are where custom cabinets earn their keep.
The Census Bureau's American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates) counts about 56,100 housing units in Independence. About 7,400 were built before 1940 and another 12,700 in the 1940s and 1950s, so roughly 36% of the city's homes are more than 65 years old. The 1960s and 1970s added about 19,100 more.
Around the Square, the Harry S Truman Historic District, a National Historic Landmark since 1971, takes in the streets of Victorian and early 1900s houses near the Truman Home. Farther out, the city fills with postwar ranches and split-levels.
Those houses share a few habits. Walls lean and floors slope. Kitchens were laid out for a smaller refrigerator and no dishwasher. Ceilings in the older houses run tall, which leaves room for cabinets that go up to the crown. Stock boxes come in 3-inch width steps, which almost never add up to an old wall, so the leftovers get filled with wide filler strips. Building to the measured room avoids that.
American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates
Built before 1960 Newer
09·Rules that apply
Three questions that come up on older Independence houses before the old cabinets come out.
The City of Independence's Building Inspections Division says a permit is required for electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling work. Moving a sink, adding outlets or venting a new hood can bring a kitchen under a permit. Replacing cabinets in the same layout usually does not. We point out which parts of your plan need one.
The EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule covers paid work that disturbs paint in homes built before 1978, beyond small jobs of six square feet or less per room inside. Tearing out painted cabinets and trim counts, and demolition of painted surfaces is always covered. The rule requires the firm doing the work to be EPA-certified, so ask any contractor for that certificate.
Independence's Heritage Commission reviews exterior changes to locally designated historic properties. Its historic preservation FAQ says interior work does not require review, so new cabinets inside a designated house don't need a Certificate of Appropriateness.
Old plaster walls bow, and settled floors can drop noticeably across a kitchen. We find the high spot of the floor, set the base cabinets level from there, and scribe filler strips and end panels to the walls so there are no gaps.
10·Pricing
We price each job from measured drawings. National cost guides give a fair starting range, and these are the figures they publish.
$15,000to$25,000
Average about $18,600 for ~30 linear ft
Fixr · checked Oct 2026 · national
$500to$1,200
Custom cabinets, full kitchen
HomeGuide · checked Oct 2026 · national
$2,000to$7,500
Average about $4,500
Angi · checked Oct 2026 · national
Those are national figures, not Independence quotes. What moves a real price:
The pricing page goes through vanities, built-ins and mudrooms too.
11·Service area
All of Independence, then the towns along I-70, I-470 and MO 291, including Liberty across the Missouri River.
Inside Independence we work everywhere from the older streets around the Square and North Delaware to the neighborhoods off Noland Road, 23rd Street and Little Blue Parkway. Every visit happens at your house: we measure there, bring samples there and install there.
12·Getting a price
Call (816) 540-1960 or use the callback form. We will ask which room, roughly how big, the year the house was built, and whether plumbing or wiring needs to move.
Then we come out to measure, talk through styles and look at the walls, floor and ceiling. The written price lists every cabinet by size, the wood, the door style, the finish, the hardware, delivery and installation, and anything we are leaving to other trades.
A 1950s ranch kitchen, refittedFAQ·Quick answers
Short answers. If your room is the odd one out, call and describe it.
Fixr's national cost guide puts a custom kitchen at $15,000 to $25,000, with an average near $18,600 for about 30 linear feet. HomeGuide lists $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed. A single vanity or a pair of bookcases costs far less. We give a written price from measured drawings, so you see the real number for your room before anything is built.
Plan on a few weeks for measuring, drawings and revisions, then several weeks in the shop for building and finishing. Installation itself usually takes days, not weeks, because the cabinets arrive finished. We put the dates in writing once the drawings are approved.
Inset doors sit inside the cabinet's face frame, flush with it, with a thin even gap all the way around. Overlay doors sit on top of the frame and cover most of it. Inset looks like old furniture and suits older Independence houses, but it takes more fitting time, so it costs more.
Wood moves with the seasons here, and it should be planned for, not fought. Door panels float in their frames so they can swell in summer and shrink in winter. We build from lumber dried to the moisture range the USDA recommends for interior woodwork, and we finish every face of each part.
Swapping cabinets alone is usually not permit work. Moving plumbing, adding circuits or changing ventilation is: the City of Independence says a permit is required for electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling work. We tell you which parts of your project need one.
All of Independence, plus Blue Springs, Lee's Summit, Raytown, Grain Valley and Oak Grove in Jackson County and Liberty across the river in Clay County.
→·Next step
Call or send the form. Tell us which room, roughly how big, the year the house was built and a style you like. We set up a measuring visit, draw it, and give you a written price before anything gets built.
Talk to the shop(816) 540-1960