Custom Cabinets in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Custom cabinets in Fort Lauderdale have a harder job than cabinets in most of the country. They have to fit the room exactly, look right for years, and hold up through a long, hot, humid wet season in a city with 165 miles of inland waterways and the Atlantic a short drive away. We design and install cabinetry for kitchens, bathrooms, closets, living rooms and outdoor kitchens, and we make material choices with that climate in mind.

What makes a cabinet custom

Stock cabinets come in fixed widths, usually in 3-inch steps, and gaps get covered with filler strips. Semi-custom lines offer more sizes, finishes and options within a catalog. Fully custom cabinets are built to the room's measurements, so a run can fill the wall from corner to corner, a pantry can be the exact depth of an odd alcove, and a vanity can fit between a wall and a shower that are not quite square. HomeGuide puts custom cabinets at about $500 to $1,200 per linear foot installed, against roughly $200 to $550 for semi-custom. We will tell you honestly where custom work pays off and where a semi-custom piece would do the job.

Humidity and material choice

Fort Lauderdale's wet season runs from May through October, with highs in the upper 80s, overnight lows in the mid-70s and frequent afternoon storms. Wood takes on moisture from humid air and gives it back when the air dries, and the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory notes that wood moves far more across the grain than along it. In practice that means:

• Cabinet boxes: furniture-grade plywood holds screws well and handles damp conditions better than standard particleboard, which can swell if water reaches a raw edge.
• Doors: five-piece frame-and-panel doors let a solid-wood center panel move; large slab doors are often better in veneered plywood, MDF (for paint) or a high-pressure laminate.
• Finishes: a factory-cured or catalyzed finish seals better than a brushed-on coat, and all edges and the back of the door need to be sealed, not just the face.
• Wet rooms and garages: bathrooms, laundry rooms and garages are where marine-grade plywood, PVC or polymer boxes sometimes make sense.

If a home sits closed up for months while the owners are away, set the air conditioning or a dehumidifier to keep indoor humidity steady. Cabinets are only as stable as the air around them.

Salt air and hardware

Near the beach and along the canals, salt in the air finds metal quickly. Hinges, drawer slides and pulls in coastal homes, and especially on lanais and pool decks, should be stainless or have a corrosion-resistant finish. For outdoor cabinets we specify 316 stainless where it matters, because its 2 to 3 percent molybdenum content gives it better resistance to chlorides than the more common 304 grade.

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Condos and association approval

Many Fort Lauderdale homeowners live in condominiums, from beachfront towers to garden-style buildings off the Intracoastal. Florida's condominium law bars unit owners from doing anything inside a unit that would hurt the safety or soundness of the common elements, and many associations require an application and written approval before a kitchen or bath job starts. Buildings also set their own rules on work hours, freight elevator reservations, protection for hallways and the documents a contractor must provide. We help you put the application together with a drawing and scope of work, and we schedule around the building's rules.

Permits for kitchen and bath work

Whether you need a permit depends on what changes. Fort Lauderdale's guide to Florida House Bill 803 says that, starting July 1, 2026, some cosmetic, non-structural work under $7,500 on single-family homes, including cabinet replacement, may be exempt from a building permit. The exemption is not automatic: you file a request with a cost estimate and wait for written approval. It does not cover condos or multifamily buildings, properties in a flood hazard area, or any electrical, plumbing, gas, mechanical or structural work. A kitchen that moves the sink, adds circuits for new appliances or opens a wall will need permits. We tell you at the estimate which category your project falls in.

What a typical project looks like

• An in-home visit to measure, photograph and talk through how you use the space
• A layout drawing with door style, finish, box material and hardware choices
• A written, itemized quote; nothing is ordered until you approve it
• Condo approval or permit request filed when needed
• Cabinets built or ordered to the approved drawing
• Removal of old cabinets, with floors and nearby surfaces protected
• Installation, leveling, scribing to walls and fitting fillers and trim
• Countertop template coordination and a final adjustment of doors and drawers

Fort Lauderdale is our main service area, from the beachfront condos along A1A and the canal-front homes of the Las Olas Isles to older neighborhoods west of Federal Highway. We also work across Broward County, including Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Dania Beach and Hollywood, and farther west in Weston, Coral Springs and Pembroke Pines. Each city runs its own building department and permit rules, and condo and HOA communities add their own approval steps. Homes closer to the ocean deal with more salt air, while western suburbs tend toward newer, larger kitchens and garages that bake in the summer heat. Each area page covers what applies there.