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Costs of Kitchen Remodel

Today, I want to be completely transparent in sharing the costs for our kitchen remodel. I feel like the cost of a kitchen remodel is this massive secret that people don’t really talk about and I hate that! How can someone make an education decision if no one is actually sharing the financial side of projects? When you research the costs of kitchen remodel, you’ll find websites that provide you with a range from $11,000 to $76,000. I don’t know about your financial situation but that’s a really big price range for me to try to work with. We’re big Dave Ramsey fans so we want to budget accordingly before we dive into any project. We spent almost a year planning and saving for our kitchen remodel.

When you’re looking at the breakdown of costs, these are 6 things to keep in mind.

1. Our kitchen remodel was a DIY project so we were mostly paying for parts (no labor). The more workers/contractors you hire, the greater your expenses will be. To cut down on costs, try to do as much of the work as you feel comfortable doing. I recommend trying to do it all, just take it one project at a time. You can find all of our DIY Kitchen Projects here.
2. You may not need to replace all of the items we replaced. Our kitchen was 40 years old and needed a lot of love. We had to gut our entire kitchen and basically started from scratch. Hopefully you don’t have to do all of that; maybe you just need to update your cabinets and lighting. I’ve broken down the price of each project and item so that you can be fully educated before you start your kitchen remodel.
3. Your location will determine the price of items. We live just outside of Austin Texas but the price for wood and supplies can vary with your location.
4. The size of your kitchen will also effect the cost of your kitchen remodel. The amount of cabinets, the size of your countertops, the overall square footage, etc. all effect the price of your kitchen remodel. I would say our kitchen is average size, average amount of cabinets, and average amount of countertop space.
5. We built our dream kitchen so we focused on high quality products/materials. You can definitely find cheaper products (countertops, doors, cabinets, drawer slides, drawer pulls, lighting, etc.) if you don’t mind settling on quality. The goals for your kitchen remodel might be completely different from our goals and that’s totally fine.

Cost of Updating our Kitchen Cabinets $9,760

• Cabinet Doors $3,500
• Cabinet Drawers $800
• Upper Cabinets $2,600
• Wood for Kitchen Island Update $120 (read about our DIY Island Makeover)
• Wood for Refrigerator Cabinet $200 (read about our DIY Refrigerator Cabinet)
• Raised Cabinet $75
• Repaired Damaged Cabinets $110 (read about our process for updating old cabinets)
• Added Spice Cabinet $220
• Drawer Slides $300
• Drawer Slide Jig $35
• Drawer/Door Pulls $275
• Pull Jig $30
• Rubber Door Bumpers $10
• Drawer Organizers $40
• Paint Stripper $20
• Bondo $50
• Sand Paper $40
• Spackle $15
• Paint Sprayer $320
• Paint Equipment (triangles, tarps, etc.) $160 (read about our process for painting cabinets)
• Primer & Paint $410
• Shelf Liners $120
• Crown Molding & Molding Jig $360

Cost of Raising the Ceiling and Removing Load Bearing Wall $2,375

• LVL Beams (including delivery) $520
• Wood and Screws for Temporary Wall $300
• Drywall Equipment (drywall, pre-mixed mud, tape, mixer, sander, etc) $410
• Hired Company for Wall Texturing $350
• Ceiling Insulation $310
• Rewiring Kitchen Electrical (new outlets, new wires, junction boxes, etc) $260

Other Kitchen Costs $6,590

• Dumpster Rental $450
• Backsplash (tile, tile saw, adhesive, spacers, grout, saw, caulk, etc.) $540
• Sink $450
• Faucet $320
• Light Fixtures (recessed and accent) $310
• Dimmable Light Switch $45
• Baseboards/Door Trim $175
• Hired Company for Granite Counters $4,300

TOTAL COST OF KITCHEN REMODEL (DIY): $18,725

Looking back at everything, the biggest expense was definitely our cabinet order (replacing cabinet doors, replacing cabinet drawers, and replacing upper cabinets). Crazy to think that cost us almost $7,000 and we didn’t even replace the lower cabinets! I can’t image the price if we would’ve replaced all of the kitchen cabinets!

I hope this post helps you in planning your kitchen remodel. Be sure to check out all of our DIY Kitchen Remodel posts here to learn more about our process.