Can I get an estimate for our kitchen remodel?
This is a question that lands in our inbox regularly and one that can’t be answered just by dropping by your home for 20 minutes and giving a price. There are so many variables that go into a kitchen remodel. A kitchen remodel can range from $20,000- $100,000+, just depending on what you’re looking to do.
If you’re looking at a simple refresh where you’re updating your countertops, backsplash, sink, faucet and lighting, you’ll be looking more at the $30,000 range. But if you manage it yourself or better yet, do it yourself, you will save on labor, time, management costs.
Jordan and Matt DIYed their kitchen and did a quick refresh by scraping ceilings and applying knockdown, painting their cabinets themselves, replacing hardware, and updating lighting and only spent around $800.
So… as you can see, with all selections you put into your home, the price tag can vary greatly. But with that, quality also comes into play. You can do a tile for $1 per square foot or $100 per square foot. It all depends on what is most important to you.
Which is why when we get that message our first question back to any lead is…What’s your budget?
Most homeowners are scared to give any contractor their budget. Knowing how much you can spend will help us determine which areas you want to prioritize and where we focus on recommending the quality of finishes.
Before we give any construction bids out, we start with our design process. That way we can get to know our clients. Do they have a large family, no kids, like to entertain, eat out every night? By knowing that, we can then guide them what to invest in.
We did a full blog post of our own personal kitchen remodel and walked you through the finishes and why we chose what, which you can find here.
Today we wanted to chat about the budget breakdown and why and how the costs add up so fast. Usually once we get pricing back to homeowners, 6 times out of 10 they are in sticker shock.
Prices for kitchen remodels range from contractor to contractor and with the designs, but this is just simply what we paid for our own. And this is us DIY’ing our own space. We personally put in around 300-400 hours of our own labor into this project that isn’t accounted for in these costs. If we would have had to pay for installers, misc labor and project management costs, it would have probably went up by another $15-20K.
Kitchen remodels are expensive and are often emotional. Here’s our budget breakdown of all of the costs. And in full disclosure, we partnered with a lot of these brands and were gifted product. Otherwise, to be honest, we wouldn’t have been able to afford this kitchen remodel.
We also want to note that prices vary across the US and even in counties. In Minnesota, we recently had a full gut kitchen remodel that one city required $0 permit fees while the next one was $5,000. So here is our full budget breakdown from Elk River, MN.
Our Kitchen Budget Breakdown:
Permits & Dumpsters: $1,291.00
Electrical: $3,425.76
Plumbing: $2,472.90
Knockdown Textured Ceilings: $3,211.87
Drywall, Mudding, Taping: $2,511.12
Flooring: $4,122.48
Appliances: $7,048.96
Cabinetry: $17,612.53
Countertops: $7,800.12
Fixtures: $1,350.84
Backsplash: $5,500
Range Hood: $2,019
Floating Shelves: $388
Lighting: $812.43
Millwork: $672.11
Paint: $300.29
Random Misc. Home Depot Trips: $3,411.12
Grand Total $63,950.63
And like I mentioned, if we would have had to pay for the labor and project management since we put in around 350 hours, this would have been another $15-20K on top of this. At full cost, we would have been looking at an $80K kitchen remodel for our space..
And now, it’s our happy place! One of the biggest things we strive to tell our clients is to do you! You all know one of my favorite quotes…
“Create a space you love and your life will launch off of that.” – Mercedes Austin
Everything in your home should spark Joy, so do what makes you happy!
