There’s no doubt that renovating a kitchen is an expensive endeavor, but it is worthwhile when you see those before and after pictures of your new, beautiful, shiny kitchen space.
You’ve decided to renovate your kitchen. Fantastic! That’s a big first step. The next step will be to assess exactly what you want to renovate in your kitchen. Are you tearing down just one set of cupboards or this a full-scale renovation from the flooring-up? Once you know what you’re doing, you can craft a plan and get to work. Here are five things to consider when pricing out your newest kitchen renovation.
Build a budget
It’s very important that you craft out a hard budget for yourself, rather than let yourself go into it blind and get bogged down in unexpected costs and be unable to complete the renovation. It’s really important that you craft yourself a budget that you can stick to. The industry standard says that the average costs of a full-layout change of a kitchen are around $30,000 and that the kitchen usually fetches between three and eight percent of a home’s resale value. So, no matter what your reasons for renovating, know that you’ll be putting down a good chunk of change.
Consider the floor plan
Secondly, you’ll want to consider your floor plan when building your new kitchen. In most cases, you’ll be confined to the design of the room. If it’s a long rectangle, or a small square, or something a bit more open concept. But don’t worry, regardless of what you’re working with, you’ll be able to craft something truly to your liking. Consider whether or not you want cabinets on the floor as well as on the wall, consider how many sinks (and possibly reverse osmosis for better tap water), if more than one, consider if you want an island for even more counter space.
Next, you’re going to want to consider how many appliances you’re going to have and how they’re going to fit into your counter or floor space. Consider how much storage space you have or, if you’re working with a smaller area, consider downsizing your storage space to three or four cabinets, rather than the typical eight to ten. All of these considerations are critical before you begin to price out the items that you’ll need.
Cabinets: The backbone of any kitchen
It’s safe to say that the backbone of any kitchen is its cabinets. How they look plays a huge role in how the kitchen looks. Now, you can be as cheap or as expensive as your budget will allow with this, but it is a rough guess that cabinets eat up roughly 30% of your budget. Custom-built cabinets are projected to cost anywhere from $500-$1500 per cabinet. Ones from IKEA, for example, are less expensive. Your final option is cabinets like those from places like Home Hardware, which are mass-produced and cheaply built. Again, it depends on your budget, but most people opt for somewhere in the middle.
The counter space
The counter space will eat up approximately 10% of the budget, but they are a necessary expense, and they matter, and what you build them out of matters! Here’s a little tip: go cheaper for the longer stretches and save the expensive stuff for the island. After all, the island is the centerpiece of the kitchen. Despite the island being the centerpiece of any kitchen, the side countertops are very important, too and you want to make sure that there’s uniformity all the way around the kitchen. Your choice of countertop really depends on what you want out of it and the look that you’re going for overall. The choices are endless and the choice is the fun part!
The finishing touches
Now that you’ve chosen your countertops, sinks, and cabinetry, the finishing touches are next. These are all the little accents, the backsplash over the oven, for example, can fetch a cool $2,000. You should also accent anywhere between $2000 and $5000 for new appliances if that’s something you’re doing. Then come all the small stuff like door handles and lighting.
Labor costs
Unless you’re doing the work yourself, which is fine! It’s perhaps better, depending on your budget, to do it this way. Doing most of the labor-intensive work yourself will save you money and you’ll learn a lot along the way, but if you have it in your budget, hire a professional – this includes plumbers, electricians and carpenters, and even an interior designer if you wish. If you’re outsourcing, you can expect at least $8000 for labor costs when all is said and done, across all of the different professionals that you’ll want to hire.
There’s no doubt that renovating a kitchen is an expensive endeavor, but it is worthwhile when you see those before and after pictures of your new, beautiful, shiny kitchen space, ready to be used and make memories of meals made and parties thrown.
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