Custom kitchen joinery is cabinetry that is measured, cut, assembled and finished for one specific kitchen — not assembled from a catalogue of fixed module sizes. At Fitout | Renovation Dubai we have been producing exactly that since 1984, from our own joinery workshop in Ras Al Khor Industrial Area 2. Every carcass, door, drawer box, island panel, pantry shelf and cornice on this page is made in-house by our carpenters, then installed by our own fitters anywhere in the seven emirates.
This page covers our joinery and carpentry scope only: the woodwork. Countertops, splashbacks, appliances, plumbing, electrical first-fix and lighting are handled by our other in-house trades and quoted separately, so you always know exactly what you are paying a carpenter for and what you are paying a stone mason or an electrician for. In Short
Quick answer: a made-to-measure kitchen in Dubai from our workshop typically runs AED 1,300 to AED 6,500 per linear metre depending on carcass material, door construction and finish. A complete apartment kitchen usually lands between AED 32,000 and AED 75,000; a villa kitchen with an island and a walk-in pantry usually lands between AED 90,000 and AED 250,000. Full pricing tables are further down this page.
Free site survey, laser-measured drawings and a fixed written quotation — across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
When a client asks us for a kitchen, they are usually picturing the finished room. What we are actually contracted to build is the timber structure that everything else attaches to. Being precise about that boundary is the reason our quotations rarely move once signed. Our carpentry scope covers:
Quartz, granite, porcelain or marble countertops and splashbacks; sinks, taps and waste plumbing; hob, hood and appliance supply; electrical points, under-cabinet lighting and profile lighting; tiling, painting and false ceiling works; and Dubai Municipality or developer NOC submissions. We can absolutely deliver all of it — we run 25+ trades under one roof — but each appears as its own line so nothing is hidden inside a carpentry rate.
A kitchen that performs beautifully in a European showroom does not automatically survive a Dubai summer. Coastal humidity in JBR, Palm Jumeirah and Dubai Marina regularly sits above 80% overnight, while interiors are held at 21–23°C by air conditioning. That gap between outside and inside is where cheap cabinetry fails: raw chipboard edges swell, laminate lifts at the sink, hinge plates rust, and doors that were perfectly aligned in November are catching on the frame by August.
Our custom kitchen joinery is specified around that reality rather than in spite of it. We seal every cut edge — including the hidden ones inside the carcass — before assembly. We use moisture-resistant board grades under sinks and dishwashers as standard, not as an upsell. We machine a ventilation gap behind tall units so trapped air can move. And we leave controlled expansion tolerances on solid timber components, because a solid oak rail that is fitted tight in a chilled apartment will bind the moment the AC is switched off during a summer holiday.
The second Dubai-specific factor is the building itself. Most towers restrict working hours, service-lift bookings and hot works, and many communities require a fit-out NOC before a single screw is turned. Because our units are built in our Ras Al Khor workshop and delivered as finished assemblies, our on-site time is a fraction of what a site-built kitchen needs — which keeps you inside the community’s permitted works window and keeps your neighbours friendly. Fit-out and modification approvals in Dubai are governed by
Dubai Municipality and, inside master communities, by the developer’s own fit-out manual. We prepare the joinery drawings and material data sheets those submissions ask for as part of the job.
Imported flat-pack kitchens are sold in fixed widths — 300mm, 450mm, 600mm, 900mm. Real Dubai apartments are not built to those numbers. You end up with 70mm filler strips beside the fridge, a dead corner that swallows a full cabinet’s worth of storage, and a 2,850mm ceiling with a dust-collecting void above the wall units. Made-to-measure carpentry removes all three problems: units are drawn to the millimetre the laser measure reports, corners get a purpose-built solution, and cabinetry runs to the slab or into a scribed bulkhead.
Material choice is where most of the price difference in custom kitchen joinery actually lives. Two kitchens can look near-identical on a render and differ by AED 60,000 in the carcass alone. Here is how we specify, in plain language.
| Material | Where we use it | Dubai performance | Indicative rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moisture-resistant MDF E1 / E0 | Painted and lacquered doors, shaker frames, mouldings, curved elements | Excellent — stable, no grain movement, holds a paint finish better than any timber | Mid |
| Marine / BWP plywood | Sink and dishwasher carcasses, pantry bases, outdoor-adjacent kitchens | Best-in-class water resistance; our standard under all wet zones | Mid–High |
| Melamine-faced chipboard MFC | Budget carcasses, staff kitchens, rental-unit refurbishments | Acceptable if all edges are sealed and it is kept away from wet zones | Entry |
| Natural wood veneer on MDF / ply | Oak, walnut, ash and teak doors, island panels, tall-unit fronts | Real grain with engineered stability — our most-requested premium finish | High |
| Solid hardwood oak, walnut, ash | Shaker frames, plate racks, wine cubbies, chunky island legs, edge lipping | Beautiful and repairable; needs correct expansion allowance | Premium |
| High-pressure laminate HPL | Hard-wearing family kitchens, holiday-home rentals, staff pantries | Very tough, colour-stable under strong Gulf daylight | Entry–Mid |
| Acrylic / high-gloss | Contemporary handleless kitchens | Mirror finish, shows fingerprints; specify anti-scratch grade | Mid–High |
| PU lacquer matt, satin, gloss | Painted kitchens in any RAL or NCS colour | Spray-booth finish, fully repairable on site years later | High |
We build to E1 emission class as our floor, and offer E0 or CARB Phase 2 boards where a client asks for the lowest achievable indoor emissions — a request we get often from families with young children and from clients pursuing green building credits. If sustainable sourcing matters to you, we can supply FSC-certified timber and boards on request, with chain-of-custody paperwork issued with the handover file. Panel decors and technical data for the boards we most commonly specify are published by manufacturers such as Egger, which makes it easy to confirm exactly what is going into your kitchen before we cut anything.
Clients often ask where the timber actually comes from. Dubai has a genuinely deep material market — the historic timber trade around Al Ras and Deira, and the modern industrial yards clustered in Ras Al Khor, Al Quoz and Technopark. We hold accounts with multiple suppliers rather than one, because that is how we protect your programme when a container is delayed and how we keep pricing honest.
| Supplier | Known for | How we use them |
|---|---|---|
| Danube Building Materials | One of the UAE's largest building material suppliers — plywood, MDF, laminates, timber and decorative panels | Volume board supply and fast replenishment on large villa projects |
| ACME Building Materials Trading Ras Al Khor & Technopark | American, African, European and Far East timber, plain / melamine / veneer MDF and laminates | Solid hardwood and veneered MDF for shaker and premium veneer kitchens |
| Dani Trading LLC | Marine and commercial plywood, whitewood and MDF from Europe and the Far East | Marine-grade plywood for sink runs, wet zones and pantry bases |
| JAF Middle East | International supplier of plywood, veneers, timber and decorative surfaces | Architectural veneer leaves for sequence-matched island and door fronts |
| Wood Star Intl Trading | Natural, engineered, dyed and smoked veneers with UAE warehousing | Specialist veneer selection — walnut, smoked oak and dyed decorative faces |
| Madar Building Materials | Nationwide UAE supply of construction wood, plywood, hardwood and MDF | Site consumables, framing timber and secondary structure |
| Greenply / Greenlam | Furniture-grade plywood, decorative veneers, blockboard and laminates | Stable furniture-grade ply for drawer boxes and carcass construction |
| Egger / Kronospan via UAE distributors | European decor boards, matched edging and technical panel data | Melamine and laminate decors where an exact colour match is required |
A kitchen is judged in the hand, not on the drawing. The weight of a drawer as it glides out, the whisper as a door closes, the reassurance of a hinge that has not sagged after four years — that is hardware, and it is the last place to save money.
We standardise on European engineering. Blum runners, lift systems and clip-on hinges are our default specification, with Hettich as an equally strong alternative where a client prefers it or where lead times favour it. Both are supported locally in the UAE, which matters enormously five years later when you want a replacement runner rather than a new kitchen.
The pantry is the single fastest-growing request in our joinery workshop, and it is the room where bespoke carpentry pays for itself most obviously. UAE households cook at scale — large families, extended family visiting, Ramadan hosting, staff support — and the standard developer kitchen simply was not drawn for a 20kg rice sack, a 40-piece dinner service and three sets of serving trays.
A dedicated room, usually 1.6–2.4m wide, fitted floor-to-ceiling on one or both sides. We build a mix of closed base cabinetry with a working counter, open adjustable shelving above at 300–400mm depth so nothing hides behind anything, plate racks, wine or bottle cubbies, and a tall broom or appliance cupboard. Lighting valances are machined into the shelf fronts so the whole room lights evenly. This is the classic villa solution in Arabian Ranches, Damac Hills, Al Barari and Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Very common in UAE villas: a beautiful show kitchen that stays immaculate, connected to a hard-working preparation kitchen behind it. The joinery brief here is split personality by design — the show kitchen gets sequence-matched veneer, handleless fronts and an island with a waterfall panel, while the back kitchen gets marine-ply carcasses, HPL fronts, heavy-duty runners and generous open shelving. We detail the connecting doorway so the two never visually clash.
Where there is no separate room, we build a tall run — usually 600mm deep, 2,400–3,000mm high — with internal pull-outs, a bi-fold appliance garage for the kettle and toaster, and a drop-down worktop. In apartments in Downtown Dubai, Business Bay and Dubai Marina this recovers an astonishing amount of storage from what was previously a blank wall.
Layout is decided by the room, not by preference. Our surveyors will tell you honestly when an island will not work, and we will say so before you have paid for a design.
| Layout | Works best when | Typical joinery scope |
|---|---|---|
| Single-wall straight run | Studios and 1BR apartments under 2.6m of usable wall | 3–5 linear m Tall unit at one end, full-height wall cabinets |
| Galley two facing runs | Narrow apartment kitchens, 2.2–2.8m room width | 6–9 linear m Careful door-swing planning, tall units on one side only |
| L-shaped | Open-plan apartments and townhouses | 7–11 linear m Corner carousel or blind-corner pull-out |
| U-shaped | Enclosed villa kitchens and back-of-house prep kitchens | 10–14 linear m Two corner solutions, peninsula option |
| Island kitchen | Villas and large open-plan layouts, minimum 900mm walkway each side | 12–18 linear m Plus island carcass, waterfall panels, seating overhang |
| Double island show + prep | Large villas in Ranches, Al Barari, Emirates Hills, Saadiyat | 18–26 linear m Across two rooms, matched veneer programme |
Flat fronts with a routed J-profile, a shadow gap rail or push-to-open. Reads as architecture rather than furniture. Best in veneer, matt PU lacquer or fenix-style anti-fingerprint laminate. The dominant look in Dubai’s contemporary towers.
A five-piece door with a recessed centre panel, built from MDF for a painted finish or solid hardwood for a natural one. Timeless, and the natural partner to a walk-in pantry with plate racks. Popular in Arabian Ranches, Mudon, Damac Hills and Sharjah villa communities.
The most demanding carpentry we do: doors sit inside the cabinet frame, flush with the face, with 2–3mm shadow gaps all round. There is nowhere for an error to hide, which is precisely why it looks so good. Priced at the top of our range and worth it.
Machined vertical profiles on island panels, tall-unit fronts and breakfast bars. Adds texture and shadow to otherwise flat contemporary schemes — currently one of our most requested details in Dubai Hills and Downtown apartments.
Framed doors with clear, reeded, antique or bronze-tinted glass, usually on the upper run or a display cabinet, with an interior finished to match because it will be seen. Our in-house glass team cuts and fits, so there is no third-party coordination delay.
How Long Does It Take? Typical end-to-end programme: 5–8 weeks for an apartment kitchen, 8–14 weeks for a villa kitchen with a walk-in pantry, measured from signed quotation to handover. Ramadan, Eid and peak-summer holiday periods can shift material lead times — we tell you at quotation stage rather than at week six.
We publish indicative pricing because vague answers waste everybody’s time. The figures below are for joinery and carpentry only, supplied and installed, and reflect current Dubai market rates. They exclude 5% VAT, countertops, appliances, plumbing and electrical works.
| Specification | Base units per LM | Wall units per LM | Tall / larder per LM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melamine-faced board, laminate fronts entry | AED 1,300 – 1,900 | AED 900 – 1,400 | AED 2,200 – 3,200 |
| MR-MDF carcass, HPL fronts mid | AED 1,900 – 2,600 | AED 1,300 – 1,900 | AED 3,000 – 4,400 |
| MR-MDF carcass, PU-lacquered fronts | AED 2,400 – 3,400 | AED 1,700 – 2,500 | AED 3,800 – 5,600 |
| Natural veneer on MDF / plywood | AED 2,600 – 3,900 | AED 1,900 – 2,900 | AED 4,200 – 6,400 |
| Solid hardwood shaker oak / ash | AED 3,500 – 5,200 | AED 2,600 – 3,900 | AED 5,500 – 8,000 |
| Solid hardwood in-frame walnut / premium oak | AED 4,800 – 6,500 | AED 3,600 – 5,000 | AED 7,000 – 10,500 |
Marine / BWP plywood carcass upgrade: add 15–25%. Sequence-matched veneer across a full run: add 10–20%.
| Project type | Approx. joinery run | Indicative range joinery only |
|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1BR apartment straight or galley run | 4–6 linear m | AED 18,000 – 42,000 |
| 2–3BR apartment kitchen L-shaped | 8–10 linear m | AED 32,000 – 75,000 |
| Townhouse kitchen with peninsula | 10–13 linear m | AED 55,000 – 110,000 |
| Villa kitchen with island | 14–18 linear m | AED 90,000 – 195,000 |
| Villa show kitchen + prep kitchen + walk-in pantry | 20–28 linear m | AED 165,000 – 400,000+ |
| Stand-alone walk-in pantry joinery only | 5–9 linear m | AED 22,000 – 85,000 |
| Kitchen door & drawer-front replacement carcass retained | Per existing run | AED 550 – 2,400 per door / front |
| Item | Indicative price |
|---|---|
| Soft-close concealed hinge European | AED 30 – 70 each |
| Full-extension tandem drawer box | AED 220 – 480 per drawer |
| Steel-sided premium drawer system with glass side | AED 450 – 950 per drawer |
| Corner carousel / LeMans swing shelf | AED 750 – 2,400 |
| Tall larder pull-out 5–6 basket | AED 1,900 – 5,500 |
| Lift-up / bi-fold wall unit flap system | AED 400 – 1,300 per unit |
| Solid oak cutlery / spice / knife insert | AED 350 – 1,200 per drawer |
| Integrated waste & recycling pull-out | AED 600 – 1,800 |
| Appliance garage with tambour or bi-fold front | AED 1,800 – 4,500 |
| Handles & knobs client-selected | AED 25 – 350 each |
Reading the Numbers Honestly Why the ranges are wide: two 10-metre kitchens can differ by AED 80,000 purely on door construction and internal fittings. A slab laminate front on melamine board and a hand-finished walnut in-frame door are both ‘a kitchen’. Our surveyor will narrow you to a AED 5,000 band within one visit.
Our workshop is in Ras Al Khor Industrial Area 2, which puts us within a short drive of most of Dubai and within comfortable delivery reach of the entire UAE. We install custom kitchen joinery in:
Downtown Dubai · Business Bay · Dubai Marina · JBR · Palm Jumeirah · Jumeirah 1, 2 & 3 · Umm Suqeim · Al Barsha · Emirates Hills · The Meadows · The Springs · The Lakes · Arabian Ranches 1, 2 & 3 · Dubai Hills Estate · Damac Hills 1 & 2 · Mudon · Town Square · Jumeirah Village Circle & Triangle · Dubai Sports City · Motor City · Al Furjan · Discovery Gardens · Jumeirah Golf Estates · Al Barari · Tilal Al Ghaf · The Valley · Dubai Creek Harbour · City Walk · Bluewaters · Jumeirah Islands · Jumeirah Park · The Villa · Silicon Oasis · Mirdif · Al Warqa · Nad Al Sheba · Deira · Bur Dubai · Al Quoz · DIFC · JLT
Saadiyat Island · Yas Island · Al Reem Island · Al Raha Beach · Khalifa City · Al Reef · Mohammed Bin Zayed City · Masdar City · Corniche · Al Ain city and surrounds
Al Majaz · Al Khan · Al Nahda · Muwaileh · Al Zahia · Tilal City · Sharjah Waterfront City · Al Ramtha · University City
Ajman: Al Nuaimiya, Ajman Corniche, Al Zorah, Emirates City · Umm Al Quwain: UAQ Marina, Al Salamah · Ras Al Khaimah: Al Hamra Village, Mina Al Arab, Al Marjan Island, RAK city · Fujairah: Fujairah city, Dibba, Al Faseel
Delivery and installation outside Dubai is quoted transparently as a mobilisation line rather than buried in the rate. For Fujairah, Al Ain and RAK projects we typically mobilise a resident crew for the installation week to keep the programme tight.
Custom kitchen joinery in Dubai typically costs between AED 1,300 and AED 6,500 per linear metre for base units, supplied and installed, depending on carcass material, door construction and finish. A complete 2–3 bedroom apartment kitchen usually falls between AED 32,000 and AED 75,000, while a villa kitchen with an island and a walk-in pantry generally ranges from AED 90,000 to AED 250,000. All figures exclude 5% VAT, countertops and appliances.
Allow 5–8 weeks for an apartment kitchen and 8–14 weeks for a villa kitchen with a pantry, measured from signed quotation. Workshop production is typically 3–5 weeks; installation is 3–7 days for an apartment and 7–14 days for a villa. Painted and lacquered finishes add curing time, and imported veneers or specialist hardware can extend lead times.
For fit, yes — decisively. Flat-pack kitchens come in fixed module widths, which in a real Dubai apartment produces filler strips, dead corners and a dust void above the wall units. Made-to-measure carpentry uses every millimetre, solves corners properly and runs to the ceiling. On price, entry-level custom work in Dubai is broadly comparable to mid-range imported ranges, because local labour and local board supply offset the absence of import duty and shipping.
Moisture-resistant MDF for doors and painted components, and marine or BWP plywood for carcasses in wet zones — under the sink, beside the dishwasher and in any kitchen opening onto a terrace. The single most important factor is not the board grade but whether every cut edge, including hidden internal ones, has been sealed before assembly. That is where budget cabinetry fails first in the UAE.
Yes. We regularly build pantry joinery as a stand-alone project without touching the existing kitchen, typically AED 22,000–85,000 depending on size and specification. It is one of the highest-value single upgrades for UAE villas, and the works are usually contained to one room, so the main kitchen stays usable throughout.
Often, yes. If the carcasses are sound, square and free of water damage, a door and drawer-front replacement in new veneer, laminate or lacquer gives a near-complete transformation at a fraction of the cost — usually AED 550 to AED 2,400 per door or front, including new hinges and soft-close. Our surveyor will tell you honestly if the existing boxes are not worth keeping.
We prepare the joinery drawings, material data sheets and method statements that Dubai Municipality and community fit-out managers request, and we coordinate the submission. Approval timelines vary by building and community, so we build a realistic allowance into the programme rather than promising a date we do not control.
All seven emirates. Dubai across every major community, plus Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. Delivery and installation outside Dubai appears as a transparent mobilisation line in the quotation.
European soft-close hinges and full-extension runners as standard, with premium systems available on request. Both major brands we specify are supported by UAE distributors, so a replacement runner or hinge in year seven is a spare part, not a new kitchen. Every hinge we fit has three-way adjustment for lifetime realignment.
Yes. We build to E1 emission class as standard and can supply E0 or CARB Phase 2 boards, as well as FSC-certified timber and panels with chain-of-custody paperwork, on request. Please raise this at survey stage, as it affects both material lead time and cost.
Frequently, yes. Bring us a door, a drawer front or an offcut and we will colour-match a lacquer, source a compatible laminate decor, or select a veneer leaf with matching grain and tone. Perfect matching to a decor discontinued years ago is not always possible, and we will say so rather than deliver a near-miss.
We snag the kitchen together with you, adjust every door and drawer, and issue a written snag list with dates. Anything within our 12-month workmanship warranty is corrected at no cost. Because our carpenters are employees rather than subcontractors, the same team that built the kitchen comes back to service it.
Dubai’s single-source fit-out and renovation specialists since 1984. 25+ in-house trades delivering residential and commercial interiors across all seven emirates.