COSTS THAT DRIVE UP YOUR KITCHEN RENO BUDGET

A kitchen renovation is always an investment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate thinking strategically to reduce the overall costs. We work intensively with our clients to bring their vision to life…from finishes to furniture. When considering ways to keep a kitchen budget in check so you can splurge for that dream range hood or your fantasy granite, here are the items that are MOST likely to drive up the cost of your kitchen:

Moving the location of the kitchen / taking down walls. Moving/removing walls often means relocating existing plumbing and/or electrical infrastructure. These can be significant costs, so getting estimates prior to starting renovations is recommended. Moving/removing walls also requires you to look at flooring – you’ll like either need to patch in hardwood and refinish the floors OR you need to account for new flooring throughout. And if we move any walls we have to consider what is load-bearing- will the ceiling require a header, or at a minimum this will need to be patched and repainted?

Layout and Size – If you are increasing the size of your kitchen, you will need to account for more material costs – more cabinets, more stone, more tile, and more flooring.

Finishes and Materials – Tile, stone, and cabinets can all add up. We will work with you to account for where your highest costs are coming from and identify areas where you’d be willing to find budget-friendly options. We always recommend to our clients to stay with good quality cabinets and look for budget savings elsewhere whether that is reducing the amount of material by tweaking the design or finding a more budget-friendly tile/counter material/cabinet hardware. For example? Opting for affordable tile where you have the most amount of it, and saving the more pricey stuff for special spots also helps.

Design Elements – We are guilty as charged. We love adding custom details to our kitchen designs. Sometimes we have to reel things back and take out some of these custom elements in order to meet our client’s budget. Examples of these are arched trim doorways (which become drywall arches) or reducing the amount of elaborate mosaic tile patterns that are more time intensive to install.

Appliances – There is a huge range in cost when it comes to appliance selection. This can easily drive budget costs up. Make a plan about the features that are most important to you and what features you’d be willing to sacrifice.

The thing about budgets is…they are our BEST effort to stay within a range but they need to accommodate for wiggle room. We always recommend to our clients that they should be able to bear a 10% increase to their budget as a contingency for any unforeseen issues with the structure, plumbing, electrical or mechanical, that may come up. These don’t often happen, but when they do, you don’t want to be at your max budget already and have to deal with a stressful repair that needs to be addressed.

Have ALL the kitchen questions and need some guidance? Check out our virtual and in-person design services.