Geographic info and finishes would be super helpful If you comment :)

I spent $28,500, but I reused my appliances (except for disposal - had to get a new one), reused my countertops, and already had hardwood floor in the kitchen. I also had had pot lights and under cabinet lights put in the kitchen several years before and was able to reuse them as well. I used Shiloh cabinets.

We spent around what Anglophila had spent. I think. Plus-minus.

Then it's a bit hard to calculate precisely because we gut remodeled, and electricity, plumbing, floooring, etc were all part of much bigger job.

It's a small kitchen with few upper cabinets. Cabinets were custom. We saved on appliances -some were on sale, some were open box..the hood, I won on eBay..etc.

First, define "renovating". It's not a bit of paint on the walls and new counters.

Renovating involves things like electrical, plumbing, framing, drywall. Things that require expert contractor involvement. Anything involved requires updates due to changing codes. Renovations are can of worms waiting with a sharp edge to cut the unwary and unknowledgeable.

The better question is how much DIY had to be contributed to get the low budget efforts to happen. A LOT is the answer. A kitchen has a lot of electrical. Older kitchens will need all of that brought up to modern standards. If you don't have a larger budget, or good DIY skills, the project needs to be put on hold or downgraded until one or the other is increased.

Add in all the things that Anglophilia did in phases over time, and that project was 50K+. If not more, due to inflation. Just the cost of that range alone in modern dollars would be up around what a modern Wolf or Viking would be.

I'm taking a break from applying polyurethane coats to the plywood we will be cutting to size and assembling into our new cabinet carcasses. Call me (way) under $10,000 even with the new router bits and biscuit joiner.

Even if you are not building them yourself, Bob Lang's "The Complete Kitchen Cabinetmaker" is a good source to read about cabinet construction.
https://www.rockler.com/bob-langs-the-complete-kitchen-cabinetmaker-revised-edition-book

We are getting ready to start our renovation. We are changing the layout, but it doesn't require any major plumbing moving or walls being taken out. Our kitchen is small-ish. Ordered Shiloh Maple Sable cabinets (this was something I really wanted and didn't want to budge on! We could have gone cheaper but since this is our forever home I refused) We are going with a granite counter top. Vinyl plank flooring. Our house isn't a high end house, just a general run of the mill ranch. We probably over spent on our kitchen vs our house value BUT this is our forever home. Total we are looking at about 20-21K. $10K of that was cabinets alone. We are not replacing appliances other than the microwave as we have done that in the last few years. The first estimate we got was $25K and that contractor wanted to use lower end cabinets and other supplies. We found a contractor who gave us a labor quote and we are buying all supplies and deciding what we want and how we want it. Ended up with semi-custom cabinets and still ended up saving money! We start March 18th!

I live in an over 55 community where the houses(small ranches) top out around 280,000. So it would have been ridiculous for me to spend over $25,000 on the kitchen since that was about 10 percent of my home’s total cost. It was a complete gut job, and the first estimate we got was $32,000, for pretty basic cabinets and granite. I also moved a doorway, took down half a wall and moved a refrigerator. My kitchen is fairly small, 11.5x17. House was built in 1986 and electrical was upgraded, so no additional costs there.

I spent $21,500, broken down as follows:

$7,000 for the contractor. He did the demo, moved the door to the side porch, put in the cabinets, did the lights and the backsplash. He also ran new plumbing for a utility sink in our side porch And removed a peninsula.

$7,000 for the cabinets-- Fabuwood, yes cheepchinesecrapola, as Sophie would say. I think they're just fine for this house. Shaker doors, their highest line, in Linen. Crown molding to the ceiling and finished end pieces.

$4,000 for the countertop. It's quartzite, known as Blue Marine in some places, also as Van Gogh. The yard had $100 SF as the price. He dropped it down to $75 before realizing the stone was mismarked. It should have been $149 SF. I already had it in writing so he honored it. It's absolutely beautiful.

$1,000 for appliances. We don't have gas here, so buying a humungous stove that I didn't need or want wasn't a question. Debated about induction, but this is a retirement community. It's better to stick to what's known for older people, should I ever sell. Had a dishwasher and fridge, nearly new, so bought a stove and microwave.

$2,500 for flooring. That's an estimated amount, since we also did the hallway and dining room. I figured half the cost for the kitchen. It's Coretec Norwegian Maple vinyl plank.

$1000 max for new recessed lighting and tile. That's probably way more than we actually spent.

I'm old enough to know that there's no such thing as a "forever home." Life intervenes in a million ways. I also know better than to overbuild for the area. What I did seemed like the right amount to me.

I live in South Jersey. Not an inexpensive area by any means, although not as expensive as North Jersey.

When we remodeled the standard advice was to spend no more than 12-15% of your home's value. Thought that was rather high. We kept it right around 10% and got everything we wanted. A few structural changes improved the work flow tremendously (I swear the original kitchen was designed by someone standing on his head). New cabinets, appliances, countertops and BS. We kept the original wood flooring. It was definitely a balance between getting a better layout (a must for me) but not overdoing it for the neighborhood and comps. We'll be in this house 20 years when all is said and done, and the kitchen is very well-used. But it's not our forever home.

@Momofthree Ma

$10,500, if I remember correctly.

9x10 kitchen. Custom cabs with plywood boxes. New appliances (counter depth fridge, dishwasher, micro hood, gas range) different brands from sales/outlets. Rejuventation light fixtures. Corian counters. Moved a gas line but it was any easy move. Added a range hood. Stainless undercount sink. Wall mounted faucet was the only new plumbing. Water line for the fridge (the ice maker). Tile backspace. Drywall. Paint. Refinished wood floors. Added outlets. Love that kitchen.

Edited to add that we also replaced the garbage disposal and did our own demo (including dump fee for what we demo'd). No designer.

I have experience, so I acted as the designer & general contractor for 17'6" x 9'10" galley kitchen. Cabinets (no uppers) & granite through HD on sale. Bought everything else (sink, oven, cooktop, pulls, lighting etc.) on-line except for fridge. Drove 5 hours one-way to select 3 granite slabs and had extensive input with fabricator. Gut to the studs including ceiling, lots of electrical work, no plumbing change, plank tile floor. Labor & materials approx. $27k...6 weeks start to finish.

Everything except lumber & drywall was on-site prior to start of work (some of it for 6 months). My experience is NOT the norm, most of my tradesmen (known personally) were on-site 5 days per week. This project was "off the books".

I don't know. I think I don't want to know. I know the price of the pieces (appliances, cabinetry, flooring, etc) but I purposely did not add everything up, including my KD costs. I love the results, and it didn't cost so much that it left eating nothing but rice and beans. I took down a wall to combine 2 rooms, closed off one of the doorways, added walls to create a walk in pantry, and replaced all the appliances, floors, counters, cabinets, and lights. My ballpark guess is somewhere between $50K-$90K, which is less than 10% of my home's value in an overinflated real estate market.

30k but we kept almost everything in the same place and didn’t get new appliances. No moving/taking down walls etc. Everything else was redone and no Dyi. It took a little while to find someone who wasn’t giving us a “discount” for the neighborhood we live in.

Thanks everyone! Trying to decide between two plans. One will be about 80 with an ok layout, the other would be about 120 with a much better layout, but involves bumping out the back wall about 4 feet And taking out a wall between our kitchen and dining room. In both cases all the plumbing has to be moved. We are not handy, so all of the work except Demo and painting will be done by professionals. But the house will be worth about 820k when it’s done, so still within that 10-15% window. I’m just shocked when I see anything below 50k for a full renovation...it feels like here in MA, it’s impossible to do even a minimal renovation for less than 50k. Glad to see that some people are still able to do it for more reasonable prices.

" I purposely did not add everything up "-yes..that's what we did with the whole remodel:) Very unlike my husband-probably one and only time in his life he purposedly didn't add everything up. Lol.

I see people mentioning KD. We didn't have a designer, kitchen or otherwise..and looking back- I think I was slightly crazy not to. If was only kitchen then would be ok..it's a small kitchen. Nothing too complicated. Pretty straightforward. (I already renovated, or rather installed, a small kitchen once, managed all the trades myself too, when very young, and all was fine.)

The whole house though..I'd be much healthier now if I had more help. Or maybe not. Never had a designer so maybe it's my wishful thinking "if only".

In terms of neighborhood..this kitchen of ours is for sure less than 10% of the home's value. 5% is more like it, but as I said, some things are hard to break down as the whole house was remodeled at once.

ETA: buehl makes an important point-time, place, and scope of work matter

so the remodel irself started in December 2014, and we moved in December 2016, but it was a whole big gut remodel plus addition, not just kitchen. (blueprints, six inspections, unexpected costs, changing codes, port-a potty outside, you name it, we had it)

We did change plumbing and had to get electrical up to code. The scope was, well, everything because the house was gutted to studs, but we didn't change footprint-we just enclosed a kitchen some more, because previous owners opened it up for resale, which didn't go with the house or our preferences. We did arched the opening (we added a lot of arches to correlate the interior with exteror)-and every arch is 800 $ so there's that. The kitchen is a small U-shaped kitchen. Two big windows so few uppers. We live in Orange County, CA.

For everyone in the middle, add it up at the end. I know what I thought I was going to spend. 30K I went over budget and spent 45K, by the time I added it all up. I forgot to budget for some things that I wanted. The pulls. The lighting. And the labor was twice as expensive as I thought it was going to be. Electrical

was a shock!

Then there was the things that I didn't know had to happen. Leveling the floor before laying the new floor was something I had no idea that needed to happen. I wanted better lighting. That meant tearing up drywall in the ceiling to run new wires. So, I went ahead and had them scrape the popcorn. That's why I did a tile backsplash too.

A thousand here and there, and the end was 15K over. I'm not griping. I have what I want and I didn't have to do any part of it. But I had no idea when I started that it would cost that much.

Now my KD and I are planning a master bathroom. It's not going to be a lot cheaper than the kitchen. I want to be able to not have to move from this house. That means making things handicap accessible. It's still cheaper than assisted living. You can't take it with you.

We bought a foreclosure house with an original 1933 kitchen, complete with original cabinets, dysfunctional layout, DIY electrical and tile and the contents of the cabinets too. When doing a whole house, it is difficult to apportion costs to specific rooms so I am guessing at these numbers. Plus, I didn't want to know the total but getting a discount on the house price meant no worries about being able to sell for more than amount spent, if we decided not to move after all. Even making careful choices, reusing items, avoiding splurges and lots of blood, sweat and tears took $10K.

I spent $400 on the dumpster and probably $500 of demo labor went on removing the existing kitchen, down to the subflooring and studs. Moving the doorway and matching an existing arched shape, $400. Spray foam insulation, $600. Electrician labor $500, materials $350. HVAC guy for adding heat duct, $400, moving gas line $150, drywall, tape and paint $1,000. Flooring materials and refinishing supplies $350. Plumbing labor $450, materials $350. Cabinets, countertops and fridge, $2500. Granite recut and install $600. Slide in stove $400, DW $125. If I add up the other miscellaneous materials and labor paid to or traded with friends, I am probably just sliding in under $10,000.

Realistically, if I was to have called a licensed, insured contractor who handled everything, I could have had a new kitchen installed for $25,000 to $30,000 but that would have been ordinary basic grade materials and appliances. Instead I spent probably $10,000K in real money and at least that much in DIY labor to get a kitchen that would not be found in some other house. I saved money with used appliances; spent $825 instead of $5,000 for comparable new models. Buying an existing kitchen from a demo sale cost about $2200, $1200 for kitchen and $1,000 in removal and transport expenses. Reusing granite saved me the cost of buying two slabs for a material which I like but these aren't my dream counters either.

My biggest issue with spending $50,000 on a really nice kitchen would be that I would have to use it extensively to justify the cost. I do not like to cook! If the previous owners had not "improved" the kitchen, I probably would have just used the existing one and spent the money eating out and getting takeout

Those who are posting #s, include where you live --and-- the extent of your remodel (Kitchen size, scope of work).

These two items are a BIG component of cost! For example, a $50K Kitchen in the mid-west could easily cost over $100K in California, NYC, or the DC-metro area.

In addition, when you remodeled comes into play.

Without the above information, numbers are meaningless!

" My biggest issue with spending $50,000 on a really nice kitchen would be that I would have to use it extensively to justify the cost. I do not like to cook! "

Yeah, spending a lot on a kitchen wouldn't make much sense for someone who doesn't like to cook.....for some people, they'd rather spend money on a workshop, bathroom, or back yard. I like cooking and will do it for fun/as a pastime in addition to just for meals, but spending a lot on my landscaping (back when I had a house and yard) never made much sense to me.

My remodel was in 2013; central Ohio, in a 12'9"x 9'6" space.

It all came to about $17k. I was aiming for $15k but decided to replace the stove and refrigerator along with the dishwasher, and upgraded the counter material.

The layout was changed with the stove and refrigerator moved to other walls; the dishwasher moved on the same wall; cabinets added to 2 walls; and a window that had existed originally but had been removed restored (although with a smaller one).

Layout help was gotten here and Ikeafans (no longer in existance).

My 16 cabinets were made by a local cabinet shop. These included 2 drawer stacks, a spice pullout, and a 2 (upper/lower) cabinet pantry with pullout shelves.

I added trash pullouts under the sink, and later also replaced the upper shelves in the pantry with Ikea drawers.

I sourced and purchased the counter, pulls, sink, disposal, faucet, lights, outlet covers and appliances along with the cabinets. I had also purchased engineered hardwood for the floor, but when we discovered the hard pine under the original linoleum decided to go with that (ended up donating the engineered hardwood to Habitat). I hired the floor refinishers.

The contractor handled demolition, repairing a wall where cabinets were removed, and the ceiling where the old pull-string lights had been, preparing the walls for painting after wall paper removal, wiring and installing ceiling and undercabinet lights, installed the new window, moved the gas line for the stove and a water line for the refrigerator; also added 4 new outlets, one new switch for the UCL, and moved the telephone jack. Lastly, he installed the cabinets and appliances. HIs bill was something in between $12-13K.

The only DIY was the sourcing/purchasing of materials (which I had started well before the job start in order to get the best deals I could find) and the painting of the walls and ceiling.

I had consulted with 3 other kitchen remodeling firms; all offered good quality but estimates started at $25k. I would say my house was worth about $180k - $200k at the time.

Kitchen portion of my remodel was ~$82K in 2017--complete gut, structural work, re-piping, re-wiring, lead-based paint removal, with permits in California. Nothing especially fancy, just old house and HCOLA.

Here's the reveal: https://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4882448/bungalow-kitchen-reveal

still working on a few things, but close and no major expenses left.

$16,800 not including floors (wood floors for first floor was seperate project) or appliances (except for downdraft - rest we had) ..otherwise a gut remodel.
A lot of bargains shopping , compromises, patience and sweat!.
In Connecticut.

pics of old and new:

We spent $7225 on our budget-diy-IKEA-kitchen. We did 90% of the work ourselves over 2 years. The flooring was part of work done immediately after purchase (if you look at the reveal you will see why!), as was replacing the electrical panel for safety reasons.

This was our second kitchen renovation in 2 years, so I've honed my skills. (The earlier kitchen was a whole house reno on a foreclosure.) We were very patient, and relentless in shopping for bargains, purchasing cooktop and wall oven via CL, and sourcing items from Habitat ReStore and elsewhere.

Both homes are in Midcoast Maine, an area feeling some housing pressure as buyers move further north looking for housing. The median home price in the area is $260-270K, and median price of listed homes is in the low $300,000 range, and price per square foot is $160-180.

Debbi SL and Sharon Perkins lovely new kitchens!

Wrapping up our 12 x 14 (ish) kitchen renovation outside of DC. No structural changes but we replaced everything except the wood floors and our oven/mw. Total cost is about $38k. We used IKEA plus Semihandmade for cabinets ($12k), $5k for appliances (Bosch induction cooktop & DW, GE profile fridge, wine fridge from Wayfair), $8k for quartz counters, $1k for subway tile backsplash , $1k for hardware. Our labor cost was very low as we used a family friend who gave us a great deal, but I received several quotes for around $20k. I am VERY pleased with the outcome, though I was hoping to keep our cost closer to $30k. I could have done a few things cheaper (solid surface vs quartz, less $$ for appliances, IKEA doors) but I just didn’t want to. I figured if we were to go through the trouble of renovating over 6 weeks with 3 kids (during Christmas! with a newborn!) we should use materials we loved.

And caligirl5, I just checked out your link. Wowza, gorgeousness!

We are building new and just the countertops and appliances alone will put us over 20k. That does not include cabinets, floors and labor. We renovated our former kitchen before selling and like toronto didnt want to know what we spent, however, we kept our cabinet boxes as they were in great shape and had a cabinet maker make new fronts for all the cabinets and drawers and build us a new cherry island. We bought new appliances and put down new tile flooring and new countertops. That remodel was also over 20k. The home sold for 538k.

It is so hard to really compare. Our “kitchen remodel” included taking down 2 walls, swapping a door and a window and removing another window, closing in the original kitchen entry way, lengthening a stub wall to create a foyer, making a small pantry closet, raising the ceiling (which included re-supporting the roof in one 5’ section by adding a beam in the basement), new flooring in the whole first floor, stairs and the upstairs hallway, new bannisters and railings, changing out all light fixtures, painting the whole downstairs, entry and lower level hallway and painting the main downstairs area twice because we didn’t like the first color. In a higher cost of living area. Using a good, midrange GC and semi-custom cabinets. With all that we came in higher than I wanted but well below $100k (too bad Sophie isn’t still here, she would have priced that list at $150+!). But while I say we remodeled our kitchen, it was clearly much more than that. If you look at our house and another of the same model they look like two completely difference houses on the first floor.

It's an interesting question but ultimately completely meaningless.

Like a few others, I really have no idea what the cost ultimately was - partly because I didn't want to add up all the components and partly because certain elements were not separate line elements - i.e. I had custom cabinets which included bathrooms; extensive desk/wall unit for my office and a custom room divider. Demo included my entire unit; tile work was subsumed in tile work for bathrooms.

Speaking for myself, it's really easy to go down the rabbit hole in terms of design choices - within reason, each choice that is more expensive than one "needs" adds up :-). Since my kitchen is small the incremental cost of each thing wasn't that high - I didn't need four slabs of marble and even with all my cabinetry, it's still probably about as much as a suburban home would need :-). My knobs and pulls were ungodly expensive but are almost my favorite design element - who knew my small kitchen need 30 or so :-). I didn't need the copper ceiling; I didn't need the copper hood; I didn't need the copper farm house sink from Haven's metal or the Artifacts faucet from Kohler LOL; I didn't need paneled refrigerator and dishwasher but they really are beautiful with the same cabinet doors as the rest of the kitchen. The $6000 new electrical panel was a surprise and although it theoretically also sends electricity to the rest of my unit, I only needed it because each appliance under Code needs a separate breaker.

I didn't borrow for the project and I am at a stage of life where I am either leaving in a coffin or moving to an assisted living facility :-) If I were thinking strictly in economic terms I could have made less costly decisions and had a higher return of investment only I don't think of it as an investment - I just thought that there wasn't anything else I needed that portion of my savings for and there really wasn't anything that I wanted more than opting for a home that delighted my senses and fulfilled my specific functional needs. In other words, discretionary savings for my remodel versus a trip around the world :-).

I live in a condo and the kitchens are all more or less the same in layout/size and there has been a LOT of renovation. I don't think any of them are still the original and I can calculate exactly who spent money - layout changed to be more functional and attractive; higher quality cabinetry; lighting changed from fluorescent with plastic drop down inserts; quality of appliances etc.

Interestingly, within reason the quality of the renovation doesn't seem to really impact what units sell for provided the unit looks remodeled. Potential buyers don't seem to focus on details that drive up costs in terms of finishes. So long as the kitchen (and baths) fall within a certain norm, it appears to be all the same in terms of resale value. Anything that looks as if it is 20 years old will have price reflected as people assume it is a remodel. Flipped units generally look on trend but on examination don't have really high quality finishes and the design is not particularly well thought out - e.g. a stove that is next to a wall remains next to a wall rather than moving it slightly so it is centered with counter (and free space) on either side.

We're in the UK (Wales) and are almost done on our kitchen which involved quite major work. A year ago we bought a 400 year old repossession (foreclosure) that had last been renovated in 1999, although the kitchen was upgraded in around 2006.

It's a cottage with smallish rooms compared to what we've been used to and definitely compared to many of the huge homes here on Houzz ;)

The existing kitchen was in a dark back room which we reconfigured to be a cosy 'snug', while the existing front living room and narrow dining room are now our new kitchen, a room of approximately 23' x 17' at the widest point.

This involved structural engineer calculations/drawings, removing two load-bearing walls and a chimney breast, installing steels, moving plumbing and electrics, including all new sockets, lighting etc.

All the demo work DH did himself.

Our cabinets are in-frame, tulip wood that come fully assembled, unpainted - I'm doing that, lol - and DH has been fitting them. He has built the 8' x 4' island himself, utilising extra cabinets and open shelving.

We used our existing Smeg fridge freezer but purchased a new bright red Bertazzoni Pro range and Bosch dishwasher. The range we found on a site with bargain prices due to them being slightly older models. We found a new Belfast sink on eBay and splurged on a Steamvalve Original tap (faucet ;)) that was about $1000.

The perimeter counters are iroko and we'll be using beton cire on the island.

The flooring is the existing - a mix of old black and red quarry tile and floorboards.

Not decided on backsplash yet.

In addition we removed a rusted oil-fired range and had a wood burning stove fitted.

So far, including all the above, we've spent around $30,000 (USD), which even taking into account the amount of DIY, seems ridiculously inexpensive compared to what some of you have spent.... for once I'm glad I live over here, lol!