Custom kitchens in Chisinau: how to read the price and what to put in the contract

The first thing anyone hears when they come to order a kitchen is the price per linear metre. The figure sounds concrete and reassuring: it feels like you finally have something to compare. It is the most useless number in the whole conversation.

A custom kitchen is not a purchase but a project running several weeks, involving a surveyor, a designer, a workshop and fitters. A mistake at any of those steps costs more than the price gap between two factories. So first, what the bill is actually made of; only then, where to go.

Why price per metre tells you nothing

A linear metre is a metre of kitchen frontage. Into it you can put three drawers with Blum soft-close and a quartz worktop, or one hinged door with a shelf and a laminate top for three hundred lei. The price differs several times over; the metre is the same.

The bill comes from five parts and only one depends on length: carcasses, fronts, worktop, hardware and installation. The only honest way to compare two companies is to ask both for a specification on the same project: which board, which edging, whose runners, how many hinges, what worktop.

In Chisinau there is an added difficulty: nobody publishes prices. We went through seven manufacturers’ websites on 31 August 2026. The wording is nearly identical everywhere: “the price depends on dimensions, the project, hardware and materials”, “the final price is set after measuring”, “contact us for a personalised quote”. The one figure shown openly is not a price but an order threshold: Art House states it does not make small individual items and works only on projects from 30,000 lei.

The practical conclusion is simple: you will learn your budget only after a survey and only for your own project. So it makes sense to request quotes from three companies at once, giving each the same brief: same dimensions, same appliances, same type of fronts and worktop. Three quotes against one brief tell you more than three prices for an abstract metre.

Carcasses: the part you never see

Carcasses are almost always chipboard. Two questions matter: thickness and moisture resistance. Sixteen millimetres is standard, eighteen carries weight better, especially on long shelves. Under the sink and next to the dishwasher, moisture-resistant board is worth having; it is usually recognisable by the greenish tint of the core.

The quiet saving is the edging. A two-millimetre edge survives knocks and keeps water out of the core; a 0.4 mm edge costs a fraction and peels off the fronts beside the hob within a year or two. In a specification that is one line, easy to miss.

Fronts

Fronts are what you pay for with your eyes, and the widest range in any quote.

Laminated chipboard fronts are the cheapest and the least bothered by moisture. Foil-wrapped MDF allows routing and curves but fears steam: beside the hob and above the kettle the foil lifts over time. Painted MDF costs more, gives any colour and a proper matt finish, but shows fingerprints and does not forgive sharp knocks. Acrylic gives deep gloss and shows every drop of water. Veneer and solid wood sit at the top of the market, age well and want stable humidity.

In Chisinau most orders are either foil or painted MDF. Rimobel works with chipboard, painted and veneered MDF and solid wood; Art House uses painted AGT MDF; Arama R runs its own paint shop on SIRCA materials.

The worktop and the joint at the sink

The worktop wears out faster than anything else in a kitchen. Laminated postformed tops are cheap and serve well until water reaches the edge by the sink. That is where they swell first, and that is where sealing is most often skimped.

Quartz composite and solid surface cost several times more but solve the joint problem: with acrylic stone the seam is invisible and the sink can be bonded flush. From our list, Arama R makes its own worktops in DuPont and quartz, and was praised in one review for exactly that work in a bathroom.

Hardware: half the service life

Drawers and hinges open tens of thousands of times. This is where the gap between a cheap and an expensive kitchen shows up soonest: a drawer stops closing fully, a door starts to drop.

Ask for specific brands and insist they appear in the specification. From what companies state openly: Art House and MobMagic use Blum, MobMagic also Hettich, Numina and GAMET, Arama R uses HIGOLD, and Rimobel mentions Push-to-Open mechanisms. The rest write vaguely about “European manufacturers”, which means nothing in a contract.

What happens before the design

More renovations go wrong here than at the choice of fronts. Appliances are chosen before the design, not after: the hood, oven, dishwasher and fridge set the cabinet dimensions. Sockets and water and waste outlets have to be marked out before the workshop cuts the first board.

Surveying and 3D design are free at most companies: Rimobel and Art House say so explicitly, INDART travels to the address, MobMagic promises a visit plus a 500 lei voucher. A free survey is not a gift, though: its cost already sits inside the quote.

Deadlines are the main risk

This is the most common theme in negative reviews across every company at once. At one factory a customer writes that installation was promised in three days and a month later the work was still unfinished. At another, a sofa promised for the end of August had not arrived by mid-October, and the customer was offered the damaged showroom display instead.

Meanwhile exactly one of the seven checked companies publishes a lead time: MobMagic, 30 to 45 days. The rest either say nothing or write “within the term stated in the contract”. Which means you write that term in yourself, as a date rather than “about a month”, ideally with liability for delay.

What belongs in the contract

• A specification with materials and hardware brands, not “kitchen furniture” on one line.
• A completion date and an installation date, which are two different dates.
• Who is responsible for measuring. If the company’s surveyor measured, a sizing error is their problem.
• Deposit and balance. Paying in full before delivery leaves you without your only leverage.
• The guarantee and what exactly it covers: carcasses, fronts or only hardware.
• Extra charges for changes after the design is approved.
• Whether installation and carrying up to the flat are included.

Companies talk about guarantees more readily than about prices. Rimobel gives five years, Art House three years on furniture and five on Blum hardware, MobMagic five years on hardware plus replacement of damaged sections on delivery.

Where to go

Ratings and review counts are Google data as of 31 August 2026.

Full-cycle factories. Rimobel on Muncesti has the best rating in the niche on the largest number of reviews (4.7, 289). Customers thank designers and fitters by name and come back years later for a second kitchen; on the downside, one review says a message went unanswered for a month. INDART in Riscani has been running since 2004 (4.5, 218), and its reviews more often praise timekeeping, including delivery ahead of schedule. Arama R on Columna (4.2, 120) has its own workshops and makes solid surface worktops; it is praised for quality that lasts, yet it also collected the harshest reviews about installation deadlines.

Studios and workshops. Art House has two showrooms, in DecorPark and CreatorMall, and is the only one that states its 30,000 lei order threshold upfront, which saves time for anyone looking for a single wardrobe. Its locations rate 4.6 and 4.4, but there are fifteen reviews across two addresses, too few to draw conclusions from, even though none of them mention downsides. MOBILAT.MD on Uzinelor (4.5, 23) also takes commercial projects; reviews praise the owner and the production manager, though one person openly writes that the review was left as part of a promotional campaign, which is worth remembering when reading ratings. Crinela on Petricani (4.1, 47) has a showroom with parking and stock items, but it also carries the most complaints about missed deadlines and full prepayment without delivery.

Young workshops. KitchenRoom and MobMagic are small producers with about eight reviews each. That is too few to judge a company by its rating, but the texts are substantial: KitchenRoom is described as delivering early and installing tidily, and MobMagic is the only company publishing its lead time and guarantee terms. With workshops this young, getting the specification on paper matters more than usual.

The praise and complaint notes are drawn from public Google reviews, up to ten per company. This is not statistics but recurring themes. Placement in this article is not for sale.

Before you sign

• Appliances chosen and their dimensions known.
• Sockets and water outlets marked out before the design.
• Board thickness, edging and hardware brands written into the specification.
• Worktop and the sealing method at the sink agreed.
• The contract carries a date, not “about a month”.
• The deposit is not the entire sum.
• It is clear what the guarantee covers and who comes out under it.

Common questions

What does a custom kitchen cost in Chisinau?

Manufacturers do not publish prices and quote after a survey, which was the state of the market on 31 August 2026. The only figure shown openly is an order threshold: at Art House projects start from 30,000 lei. For comparable numbers, give several companies the same technical brief.

How long does it take?

One of the seven companies checked publishes a lead time, 30 to 45 days. The others put it in the contract, so ask for a specific completion date and a separate installation date.

What deposit is normal?

A partial deposit is standard practice, since the workshop buys materials for your project. Paying in full before delivery leaves you without leverage if the schedule slips, and those are exactly the stories that come up most in reviews.

What board thickness do I need?

Sixteen millimetres is standard, eighteen holds long shelves better. Under the sink and next to the dishwasher use moisture-resistant board, and specify 2 mm edging on fronts rather than 0.4 mm.

Is better hardware worth paying for?

It is the part that works every day and fails first. On a tight budget it is wiser to take simpler fronts and keep decent runners and hinges.

Who is liable if the kitchen does not fit?

Whoever did the measuring. That is why it matters that the company’s own surveyor measures, and that this is written into the contract.