Kitchen remodel estimator
What will your kitchen remodel actually cost?
Get a realistic price range for your kitchen renovation based on size, cabinet tier, and region — cabinets, countertops, appliances, and labor included.
Estimated cost
$34,000 – $46,000
Estimate only, based on national contractor pricing data and the inputs above. Actual quotes vary by contractor, materials, and site conditions — use this to plan your budget, not as a bid.
What actually drives kitchen remodel costs
Cabinets are the single biggest line item in almost every kitchen remodel — they're the reason our Stock, Semi-custom, and Custom tiers span such a wide range on their own. Stock cabinets come in fixed sizes from a warehouse and go in fast. Semi-custom lets you adjust dimensions and finishes within a manufacturer's system. Custom cabinets are built to your kitchen's exact measurements by a cabinet shop, with a lead time that can run 8-12 weeks before installation even starts — that lead time is often the single biggest driver of how long a kitchen project takes, independent of labor.
Moving plumbing or gas lines — relocating a sink, moving a range from electric to gas, or shifting an island's plumbing — is expensive for the same reason it is in a bathroom: it means opening the floor or wall, not just swapping an appliance. That's the "Moving plumbing or gas lines" add-on above, and it's one of the few kitchen costs that doesn't scale with the size of the room.
A new appliance package is its own major cost, separate from cabinets and countertops, and it's easy to underbudget: a mid-range range, dishwasher, and refrigerator can run $4,000-$6,000 before you add a hood vent or built-in microwave.
Countertop material has one of the widest price spreads in the whole remodel — laminate runs a few dollars a square foot installed, while natural stone or high-end quartz can run 8-10x that, which is why it's baked into the tier pricing rather than treated as a separate line.
How to read this estimate
This estimate multiplies three numbers together: a national baseline cost per square foot for your cabinet tier (Stock, Semi-custom, or Custom), a regional cost-of-living multiplier, and your kitchen's square footage. Any add-ons — moving plumbing, a new appliance package — get the same regional adjustment and are added on top.
We show a range, not a single number, because kitchens have more moving pieces than almost any other room: cabinet lead times, appliance model and brand, countertop material, and how much of the existing layout you keep all shift the final price without changing the square footage. A 15% swing in either direction from our midpoint is typical even for two kitchens with nearly identical size and finish level.
Two things push kitchen quotes wider than other rooms specifically: appliance allowances (a contractor's quote might include a placeholder dollar amount for appliances you haven't picked yet, and that number can be wildly optimistic) and cabinet change orders once a cabinet shop actually measures your space. Use this range to set a realistic budget ceiling before you start getting real bids — not as a number to hand a contractor and expect them to match.
When to get a second opinion
Kitchen quotes vary more than almost any other room's, for two specific reasons. First, appliance allowances: a contractor's bid might list a flat appliance allowance without specifying brand or model — that number can be based on builder-grade appliances that don't match what you actually want, and the gap only shows up once you're picking out a refrigerator. Second, cabinet lead times and change orders: semi-custom and custom cabinets get measured and re-quoted after a cabinet company's own site visit, and that number can move meaningfully from the original estimate.
Get three quotes, and ask each contractor to itemize cabinets, countertops, appliances, plumbing/electrical, and labor as separate line items rather than one lump sum — a lump-sum kitchen quote makes it impossible to tell where your money is actually going or to compare bids apples-to-apples. Confirm whether the appliance allowance is a real budget for the models you want or a placeholder number.
A quote that's dramatically lower than the other two is usually explained by one of: a lowball appliance allowance, cheaper stock cabinets swapped in without telling you, or cut corners on plumbing/electrical work that will surface as a problem later — not by the contractor simply working for less profit.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a kitchen remodel take?
A minor kitchen refresh — new countertops and appliances, keeping the existing cabinets and layout — can take 1-3 weeks. A full remodel with new cabinets typically runs 6-8 weeks once demolition starts, and that's after a 4-12 week wait for cabinets to be built and delivered, which is often longer than the installation itself. Custom cabinetry and any layout change that moves plumbing or gas lines both add time on top of that baseline.
Can I keep my kitchen layout the same to save money?
Yes — keeping your sink, range, and refrigerator in their current locations is one of the most effective ways to control cost, since it avoids the plumbing and gas line relocation costs covered above and often lets you keep existing electrical circuits in place too. You can still get a completely different look — new cabinets, countertops, backsplash, and appliances — without touching the layout, which is why "keep the footprint, change the finishes" is the most common way to remodel on a tighter budget.
What's the most expensive part of a kitchen remodel?
Cabinets, consistently — they typically account for 30-40% of a kitchen remodel's total cost, more than countertops, appliances, and labor individually. That's why cabinet tier (Stock, Semi-custom, or Custom) is the single input in this calculator that moves your estimate the most, and why it's worth spending time deciding on cabinet tier before anything else in the project.
Should I remodel my kitchen before selling my house?
A full kitchen remodel rarely recoups its full cost at resale and takes weeks you may not have before a sale — but a targeted refresh (paint or reface existing cabinets, update hardware, replace a dated countertop) often earns back a higher percentage of its cost than a full gut renovation, because buyers respond to a kitchen looking current more than they reward specific high-end finishes. If your kitchen is functional but dated, a light refresh is usually the better resale move than a full remodel.
How much does it cost to just replace kitchen cabinets?
Cabinets alone, without touching countertops, appliances, flooring, or layout, typically run 40-50% of what a full kitchen remodel using the same cabinet tier would cost, since you're skipping the demolition, plumbing/electrical, flooring, and appliance costs bundled into a full remodel. Refacing — keeping the existing cabinet boxes and replacing only doors, drawer fronts, and hardware — costs roughly half of full cabinet replacement again, and works well if your existing cabinet layout still makes sense for how you use the kitchen.