You’ve decided your kitchen needs a refresh.
Rightly so, your kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where you make fantastic foods that nourish your loved ones throughout their lives.
Having a kitchen that you want to spend time in can make a huge difference in your enjoyment of cooking and food prep.
Then you think about the costs.
Take a look at some kitchen remodeling cost expectations to see what is feasible for you.
Why do you want to remodel your kitchen?
First, ask yourself why you want to remodel your kitchen.
- Are you trying to increase your home’s value ahead of selling it?
- Do you need better appliances and storage?
- Do you hate the colours?
- Need extra lighting to see what you’re doing?
- Spend too much time in the kitchen?
- Spend too little time in the kitchen?
- Kitchen too big?
- Kitchen too small?
Be honest with your answers to these questions. They will get to the heart of the matter before you decide what you want done and how much money it’s going to cost.
What factors go into a kitchen remodeling budget?
You have to consider several factors that go into a kitchen renovation cost.
Size of Your Kitchen
The smaller the kitchen, the lower the costs (in general). If you want to expand your kitchen by knocking out a wall or turning your adjacent dining room into an expanded kitchen, then you need to factor in the size of your new kitchen and not your old one.
Scope of the Remodel
Are you replacing everything in your kitchen? Then that will mean stripping out everything, installing new plumbing and lighting, ordering custom cabinets and matching appliances, ordering new utensils and kitchen tools, and managing the project for the contractors. A huge remodel will have materials and labour costs associated with it, and those could run you $20,000 or more.
However, if you’re just ordering appliances to replace older ones, then your labour costs will be much lower as will your material costs.
What about just changing one or two things, like getting a new backsplash or flooring? What if you want to gradually renovate your entire kitchen over several years? Your budget can change based on what you want done in your kitchen and when.
What Needs to Be Updated
When you get a kitchen renovation contractor in there to assess the situation, you may not know what needs to be updated until an expert takes a look.
For example, you want LEDs and track lighting throughout your kitchen to make it brighter for your food prep space. But your home is 70 years old and it needs new wiring, new outlets, and new electrical infrastructure to make this happen. Your costs could rise if an electrician needs to get in your ceiling to add wiring and circuits to your home’s electrical system.
The same goes for plumbing, gas, masonry, and flooring. You may not realize what needs to happen to make those upgrades a reality.
What Details You Want
The details of your kitchen are the best part.
What you select for a kitchen remodel affects your final kitchen renovation costs.
- Do you want basic appliances or deluxe models?
- Do you want ceramic tile or vinyl flooring?
- Do you want a small sink or a big sink?
- Eight-burner gas range or a four-burner ceramic cooktop?
- Cabinets that go to the ceiling or only part way?
- Wi-Fi enabled appliances as part of a smart home setup?
- Custom cabinets or ones you can buy at a hardware chain or IKEA store?
Lower-grade and lower-tier items will reduce your materials costs.
If you want a deluxe kitchen renovation versus a basic refresh, expect to pay five times as much.
Basic Kitchen Remodeling Cost Expectations
The general rule of thumb for a complete kitchen remodel (Cabinets, floor, splash, lighting, applicances, and so on) is to expect to pay 15 to 20 percent of your home’s value for a kitchen renovation.
For a $150,000 home, get ready to spend $22,500 to $30,000.
If your home is worth $500,000, expect to pay $75,000 to $100,000 for a complete kitchen renovation.
Breakdown of Remodeling Costs Per Type of Project
If you just want a specific project done for your kitchen and nothing else, we can throw some numbers at you.
Let’s say your complete remodel budget comes to $30,000 in your $150,000 home, but you don’t have that much. You prioritize a new floor and new lighting.
Take a look at this handy list to see how much of a total kitchen makeover breaks down by various projects:
Cabinetry and Hardware: 29 percent of $30,000, which is $8,700.
New kitchen cabinets are the most expensive part of a complete kitchen renovation at nearly one-third of the entire costs. And that doesn’t include labour.
Installation: 17 percent of $30,000.
No matter the project, expect labour costs to take up 17 percent of the budget. For a $30,000 overhaul, your labour costs come to $5,100.
Appliances and Ventilation: 14 percent of the total costs.
All-new appliances are the second-highest materials cost for a kitchen renovation. Expect to pay $4,200 for a basic renovation for a $30,000 project.
Countertops: 10 percent.
Expect to pay $3,000 for new countertops in your entire kitchen.
Flooring: 7 percent of the project.
This comes to $2,100. It depends on the type of flooring and the condition of the subfloor.
Lighting: 5 percent of projected budget.
$1,500 for new lighting, including new electrical infrastructure.
Walls and Ceilings: 5 percent.
$1,500 for drywall, paint, wallpaper, and everything sealed up properly.
Design Fees: 4 percent of a project.
If you hire a designer, that is $1,200.
New Doors and Windows: 4 percent of the budget.
Because your kitchen probably only has one or two doors and one or two windows, expect to pay $1,200 for new doors or windows.
Faucets and Plumbing: 4 percent of an entire project.
$1,200 for new sinks, faucets, and plumbing lines.
Other miscellaneous items: 1 percent.
Anything we missed can add $300, such as miscellaneous parts.
So, you decided on just new floors and lighting for now. Those come to $3,600 of a total $30,000 budget for a basic kitchen renovation, not including labour. Add another $612 for labour and installation for floors and lighting, bringing the total cost to $4,212.
Your actual results and costs will vary.
Looking for Just a Quick Refresh?
Consider kitchen cabinet door replacements as a cost-effective alternative to an entire kitchen remodel. These cost just a fraction of what you would pay to completely renovate your kitchen, and new cabinet doors can do wonders for breathing new life into your existing kitchen.
Companies such as Swedish Door specialize in custom cabinet doors compatible with all new IKEA kitchen cabinets and old (Pre 2015) IKEA kitchen cabinets alike. Since these doors are created from your provided measurements or IKEA plans, the manufactured cabinet doors are built to be compatible with nearly any cabinet system.
There's no limit to customizing your cabinet door package. Swedish Door has hundreds style, material and colour combinations to choose from with the option to add in matching panels, mouldings, toe kicks, floating shelves and more to expand your storage options from what you currently have.
Contact us today to get a quote for new custom kitchen cabinet doors. We can make your kitchen look sharp!
