Interior designers ask about trade pricing on custom closets expecting a percentage off a list price. Custom millwork does not work that way. There is no list price for a closet that has not been measured or drawn yet, so the useful questions are different: what the net price covers, how you will present it to your client, and what number to carry in the budget before the quote arrives.
The short answer: trade pricing on custom closets is usually a net price on a written, project-specific quote, not a discount off a published retail figure. The designer then presents that price in whatever way the firm's client agreement sets out, typically a disclosed markup, a design or procurement fee, or a straight pass-through. Before the quote, carry an allowance built from published starting points, and replace it with the written number once the room has been surveyed.
Why a custom closet has no "trade discount" in the retail sense.
Trade programs for sofas, lighting and fabric start from a list price that every buyer can see. The trade price is a fixed reduction from it, and the designer's choice is whether to keep the difference, share it or pass it on. Modular closet systems can work the same way, because they are sold as configured parts from a price book.
A made-to-measure closet is different. Its cost depends on the length of the run, the ceiling height, the number of drawers and doors, the finish, the lighting, the hardware and the condition of the walls it has to meet. None of that is known until someone has measured the room and drawn what has to live in it. So a millwork shop's trade terms usually describe how the quote is prepared and what basis it is priced on, rather than a percentage off a retail price that does not exist. If a shop quotes a flat percentage off "retail" for custom work, ask what the retail figure is and where it came from.
How net trade pricing on custom closets works.
For bespoke work, the sequence is the same almost everywhere, and it is worth knowing because each step affects the price you will eventually present.
- The brief. Your plans, photographs, finish direction and the client's priorities. The more of the wardrobe and the room the shop understands, the less the first number has to guess.
- The survey. The room is measured by the people who will build to those measurements. Out-of-plumb walls, sloping floors and ceiling height all change what can be built and how much scribing it needs.
- The design. A drawn layout, ideally in 3D, with the material and hardware choices that drive cost shown on the page rather than assumed.
- The written scope and quote. The net price, set against a scope that says what is included and what is not.
- Your presentation. Your firm adds its fee or markup according to your agreement and takes the number to the client.
The scope matters as much as the price. Read it the way you would read a contractor's bid: does it include fabrication and installation, and are they shown separately? Is lighting inside the cabinetry included, and who connects it? Are painting, wall repair or work inside the wall excluded? A net price is only comparable with another if both cover the same work.
Three common ways designers present millwork to a client.
How you charge for your involvement is your business, and we do not have a view on which model is right. We do see the three that come up most often, and each one asks something slightly different of the quote you receive.
| Model | How it works | What it asks of the quote |
|---|---|---|
| Disclosed markup | The firm adds an agreed percentage to the net price and states it in the client agreement. | A clean net figure, with fabrication and installation broken out so the markup is applied to a known base. |
| Design or procurement fee | The client sees the millwork at net and pays the firm separately for design, coordination and site supervision. | A scope clear enough for the client to read directly, because they will. |
| Pass-through | The firm's hourly or flat design fee covers its time, and the millwork is passed to the client at net. | An agreed way to handle changes, since every revision lands on the client's number directly. |
Two practical points apply whichever model you use. First, custom work generates more coordination than a sofa order: the survey, design rounds, sample approvals, the building's access rules and the installation day. If your fee is meant to cover that time, price it with the coordination in mind rather than with a product order. Second, write the method into the client agreement before the first quote reaches the client. Clients compare numbers. They rarely object to a fee they agreed to, but they do object to one they discover later.
Setting an early allowance before there is a quote.
Most budgets are set long before anyone has measured the closet. The honest way to handle that is to carry an allowance, clearly labeled as an allowance, built from the maker's published starting points rather than from a guess. Ours are public: reach-ins start from about $3,500, and walk-in dressing rooms from about $18,000. They are starting points, not menu prices. The full reasoning is in our guide to what a custom closet costs in New York, and the closet cost estimator is a quick way to test a room before the first conversation.
From the starting point, the number tends to move with a handful of decisions you will already be making:
- Length and height of the run. A closet taken to the ceiling or carried around a return is more cabinetry than one that stops at seven feet.
- Drawers and doors. Each drawer and each door is joinery, hardware and fitting time, and they add up faster than open hanging.
- Finish. Species, veneer, paint or lacquer, and any match to a reference in your finish schedule.
- Lighting and fittings. Integrated lighting, specialty hardware, linings and accessories.
- The room itself. Out-of-square walls, original trim, radiators and the building's access rules all affect the work.
If the client's figure is close to a starting point and the brief includes several of the items above, say so early. It is easier to choose between drawers and full-height doors at the concept stage than to cut them from a quote.
What to ask any closet or millwork shop about trade terms.
Whoever you work with, these questions clarify the price before it reaches your client:
- Are your trade terms written down, and can I have the current rate card?
- Is the price a net price on a project quote, or a discount from a retail figure? If the latter, where does the retail figure come from?
- Are fabrication and installation quoted separately?
- Who measures the room, and do you build from your own survey?
- Is the design work free or charged, and do I keep the drawings if the project does not proceed?
- How are finish samples handled, and what do they cost?
- What does the written scope exclude: painting, wall repair, electrical connection?
- Who is my single contact once the project is live?
- Is any part of the work subcontracted?
How our trade terms work.
Our answers are plain and are published on the trade program page. The project consultation and a personalized 3D design are free, with no obligation; we meet at the site or at our Bronx workshop. Net trade pricing comes from a trade rate card, available on request with the current program terms. The work is set down in a written scope and quote, and fabrication and installation are quoted separately, so you can apply your markup or fee to a base you understand. A named project contact coordinates with your firm. Finish samples come in a sample box, and we confirm sample costs before anything is ordered. If your office documents in CAD or Revit, ask about the resources available for your project. We reply to new enquiries within two working days.
What sits behind the price matters as well. We have made closets since 2008. The cabinetry is milled in our own workshop at 382 Canal Place in the Bronx and installed by the same crew, never subcontracted, and it carries a 25-year guarantee. How a project runs, step by step, is published in full, and the division of work between your office and ours is set out in our note on working with interior designers. Architects will find the drawing side in closet millwork for architects.
Drawn from the trade program as published · Published Fall MMXXVI