I am MORE than excited to bring this post to you guys.

In this post I’m going to share the costs of our kitchen renovation with you – all the way down to the nitty gritty details.

When I first started writing this post (oh about four months ago…) I wrote “I’m doing this because I feel like a lot of people, myself included, often overlook the small costs that can add up to big costs you didn’t realize would be such a large part of the budget! It’s kind of like when you buy a home and then realize it’s not just paying for your mortgage, but there’s lawn care, snow removal, maintenance, repairs, sewer and water bills, electric bills, oil costs (maybe, )pop up assessments, tax increases, etc.”

Well, after I sat down to my excel spreadsheet and came back to this post to fill in the numbers I realized we spent literally nothing on our kitchen remodel. Like if $5,000 was nothing – our kitchen remodel cost NOTHING. You can scroll down to see the exact figures and the actual total, but guys, the total amount we spent included appliances and brand new cabinets – and we literally started from scratch, you can’t beat it.

The Kitchen Remodel Costs

So in the post, I’m going to give you a detailed break down of the kitchen remodel costs. And hopefully give you a good idea of all that’s involved when remodeling a kitchen. There are a lot of choices to make in each and every category! Color, size, shape, finish… the list goes on and on!

There might be some people out there that think a kitchen remodel is just the cost of the cabinets plus the cost of install. But it’s not. You need handles, you need extra screws, you need washers, you need toe kick and do you want crown molding? Or how about some scribe?

And DO NOT, I repeat do not, forget to purchase a touch up pen and some filler just in case! They charge you an arm and a leg for one marker and one crown/filler, but seriously…. what else are you going to do? And filler can be a lifesaver in some situations! I also like to use those touch up markers to finish the undersides of the cabinets, especially the cabinets on top of the fridge, those raw wood edges really stick out!

Anyway, below I list out each category and what we spent so you can see all that went into our total kitchen remodel cost!

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets were a huge part of the kitchen remodel cost – they ate up 49% of the total spent on the kitchen remodel! I am so incredibly happy with our cabinets and they feel so custom because we didn’t buy them off the shelf at a big box store.

We purchased our kitchen cabinets from an RTA cabinet store which means you buy them un-assembled and it’s up to you to put them together! But guys, they are incredibly easy to put together. Only the larger cabinets require two people but I’ve assembled cabinets all the way up to 42″ by myself! So don’t be afraid to try RTA cabinets if you want to save money.

Head over to this post about why RTA cabinets are a MUCH better value for your money! I’m talking solid wood soft close doors and drawers, cabinet grade plywood boxes (please don’t get mdf, or even worse, particle board cabinets!)

• 9″ Base $108.79
• 9″ x 42″ Wall $90.94
• 12″ Base  $126.64
• 33″ SK Base cabinet $245.64
• 36″ Base $260.09
• 27″ Base Cabinet $198.04
• 27″ Wall (Two 2 of them ) $372.28
• 30″x24″ Wall Cabinet $127.49
• 21″x42″ Wall Cabinet $146.19
• Fridge Cabinet $141.94
• End Shelves (2) $130.88
• Roll out shelf 27″ $45.89
• Roll out shelf 36″ $52.69
• Pantry Cabinet $460.69
• Crown Molding $118.96
• Toe Kick $31.85
• Fillers $88.36

 

Grand Total of Kitchen Cabinets = $2,747.36

That’s 13 cabinets, an 8 foot tall by 2 foot wide pantry, the standard things you need like toe kick and filler and some not so standard things… you might call them fancy things. We got two pull out drawers for pots and pans and beautiful matching crown molding – which we have yet to install but I know it will look fabulous!

The Floor

I’ll let you know right off the bat that the kitchen floors only cost us $62.40 to refinish! Saaayyyyy whhhaaattt?!!

The floor can be a huge expense in a kitchen and we were so lucky to have beautiful hardwood floors throughout the entire first floor, including the kitchen! Here’s how I determined the cost of refinishing the floors since we did the whole house at once.

It’s pretty simple actually. I took the total price we spent on refinishing our floor ($650) and divided it by the square footage we refinished (about 1000 square feet or so) and found that it cost us $.65 per square foot (yes that’s 65 cents) to refinish our hardwood floors. So then that’s easy, we spent $62.40 on the floor in the kitchen because the kitchen is 96 square feet.

I am incredibly grateful that we were able to finish the hardwood floors in the kitchen for so cheap since we did all the entire house at once.

I think that the average homeowner living within a reasonable distance to a place where they can rent a floor sander, could refinish under 100 square feet of hardwood floors for close to a $100 (we did this flip’s entire 1st floor of hardwoods for $250!) Actually, I wouldn’t even go to the trouble of renting a floor sander for a space under 100 square feet. I’d literally get on my hands and knees and use a palm sander… I’ve done it before. And that my friends, would only cost you the sandpaper, stain and poly.

Speaking of refinishing hardwood floors, did you guys happen to catch in my Instagram stories when we refinished our Fixer Upper’s hardwood floors? Here’s a post all about that debacle!

Grand Total for the Floor = $62.40

Appliances

We went to Queen Appliance in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania because I kept hearing their ads on the radio. I was really excited to have another place to recommend to you guys but truthfully I don’t have lots of nice things to say right now because as I sit and write this post we have already received two dented stoves, three dented drawer warmers, a scratched and dented dishwasher AND we’ve had to have the repair people out twice already for issues with the fridge. The only scratch and dent item we actually meant to buy was the fridge. so all these dented appliances were dumb luck. And to answer an anticipated question, the appliances are Frigidaire.

• Scratch and Dent Fridge: $859.99 
• New 5 Burner Stove: $379.99 (after we mail in a rebate and after $100 refund for receiving three dented stoves)
• New Microwave: $149.99
• New Dishwasher: $279.99

 

Grand Total for Appliances = $1,779.81

Backsplash

I am absolutely in love with our backsplash and it was the easiest thing to install ever! It came in 12″x26″ tiles which made for a super fast installation and made making cuts a lot easier (because you have so much tile to work with.) Everyone that comes over touches it because it looks like stone but it’s not, it’s ceramic!

Did you already peak at the next line and seen how little we spent on the backsplash? It’s because we got the backsplash tile and grout (with sealer already in it) at a ridiculously good price (and we had a 10% coupon to boot), we always save and reuse spacers so we rarely need to purchase them, the OmniGrip was leftover and that’s pretty much all you need to do a backsplash. Wham. Bam. Thank you ma’am.

Grand Total for Kitchen Backsplash: $129.50

Miscellaneous Items

The miscellaneous items always add up so quick don’t they!?! We’re talking drywall for the ceiling, paint, beadboard, caulk, electrical Items, blinds, faucet, sink, etc. Even though I have these things listed under miscellaneous doesn’t mean I’m not in love with them.

I am absolutely in love with the kitchen sink and faucet I chose. We decided to go with a stainless steel and matte black look as finishes throughout the first floor of our fixer upper and I pat myself on the back every day for the decision.

• Kitchen Sink [found on Amazon] $228.91
• Kitchen Faucet [found on Amazon] $134.92
  • With Matching Soap Dispenser [found on Amazon] $11.99

 

Grand Total for Miscellaneous Items: $467.87

Plumber & Electrician & HVAC

The plumber portion was another one that was hard to pull out from the total cost because we basically got the entire house re-plumbed. However, I did ask the plumber what the kitchen would have cost if it was done on it’s own and he said no more than $300 because we didn’t move anything so it was easy peasy lemon squeezy.

The electrician comes in at whopping $0 because our awesome soon to be neighbor lent a hand and would not accept payment.

The HVAC man simply needed to shorten our gas pipe and put a flexible hose on it which ended up costing us another whopping $50.

Grand Total for Plumbing, Electric & HVAC Costs: $350

And that my friends is how we turned an ugly 1970’s kitchen with orange metal cabinets, four layers of laminate flooring, with tile everywhere, into a modern functional kitchen for $5,536.94!

BUT! And this is a big but! (I like big butts and I cannot lie…..)

The point I’m also trying to make with this blog post (aside from boasting about our cost saving DIY kitchen makeover is unless you are willing to get your hands dirty and put some sweat equity into your kitchen remodel, there is almost no way to do a kitchen remodel for under $10,000 – and that’s even cheap! The average homeowner spends around $22,000 on a kitchen remodel!

If we had to pay labor costs which we estimated at about $6,000 the kitchen remodel would be have been $11,536.94. Still not bad when the average American is spending over twenty grand!

Grand Total for Our Kitchen Remodel: $5,536.94

 

So there you have it! The kitchen remodel costs of our fixer upper! Can you tell I’m a numbers girl  Even though I am constantly surrounded by remodels I still underestimate the costs of kitchens remodels from time to time. While I’m not upset AT ALL about what we spent on our kitchen remodel… things still add up so gosh darn fast and I love to see all the number laid out in front me, don’t you?