How to price custom closets

By the ClosetCRM team · November 2026

Price a closet from your costs up, then check it against the market. Add materials, hardware and labor, cover your overhead, and divide by one minus the margin you want. The calculator below does the arithmetic. The rest of the page explains each number and the mistakes that leave money on the table.

Closet pricing calculator

Materials$Hardware and accessories$Labor hours (design, shop, install)hrsTrue cost per labor hour$Overhead%Margin you want to keep%

Price to quote

Deposit at 50%

Job cost

Cost with overhead

Profit after overhead

The method, step by step

Materials. Panels, shelves, backing and edge banding for this job, at what you pay, including waste. Ten percent waste is a fair starting figure if you cut your own.
Hardware and accessories. Rods, slides, handles, baskets, lighting. These are where quotes most often miss cost.
Labor. Design, shop and install hours times what an hour really costs you: wages plus payroll taxes, insurance and paid time off. That is usually 25% to 35% above the wage.
Overhead. Rent, trucks, software, insurance, your own salary. Take last year’s overhead divided by last year’s job costs. For many small shops it lands between 15% and 30%.
Margin. Divide by one minus your target margin. To keep 40%, divide by 0.60. Do not multiply by 1.40. That is the most common pricing mistake in the trade, explained in markup vs margin.

Check it against what closets sell for

$4,000Median approved closet quote

$1,700 to $8,000The middle half of jobs

$14,000+The top one in ten

If your cost-up price for an ordinary walk-in is far outside that middle band, find out why before you send it. Either your costs are unusual, or a number is wrong.

Per linear foot is a check, not a method

A price per foot is quick, and clients like it. But a foot of double hang and a foot of drawers cost very different amounts to build. Use per-foot pricing to sanity check a quote or to give a range on the phone. Build the real quote from sections and parts.

Three ways closet companies undercharge

Free design. Two hours of design on every job that does not close is paid for by the jobs that do. Put design time in your labor.
Forgetting the second trip. A return visit for one missing part can wipe out the profit on a small job. Add a little for it.
Old prices. If your price list has not changed in a year and your supplier’s has, your margin has shrunk without you deciding it should.

Figures are combined across closet companies using ClosetCRM: 7,026 approved quotes and their invoices in the 12 months to November 2026. No single company’s numbers are shown.

Doing this in ClosetCRM

Keep one price list for sections, parts and installation. Every quote pulls from it, so a price change is made once, and every designer quotes the same numbers.

Give a job a budget and record what you actually spend on it, from supplier orders to bills. Each job shows its real margin next to the one you quoted, so you find out which kinds of jobs make money.

Ask the AI assistant for a quick number while the client is still on the phone.

Ask the assistant“Price a 10 foot reach-in with double hang, one shelf tower and installation from my price list.”

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FAQs

How much should I charge for a custom closet?

Enough to cover materials, hardware, labor and overhead and leave your target margin. As a market check, the median approved closet quote across companies on ClosetCRM is about $4,000, and half of jobs fall between about $1,700 and $8,000.

What margin should a closet company aim for?

Many aim for a gross margin of 40% to 50% on the job, which has to cover overhead and profit. Your own figure depends on whether you manufacture or buy parts, and on your overhead.

Should I charge for the design consultation?

Most closet companies do not charge the client directly, but the time is real. Include design hours in your labor so the jobs you win pay for the ones you do not.

How do I price installation?

Estimate the hours, multiply by your true hourly cost including taxes and insurance, add drive time, then apply the same overhead and margin as the rest of the job.