So you’ve finally had it with the Whitewashed Oak cabinets and chipped Formica counters in your 1990’s-era kitchen. It’s time for an upgrade so you go to check out  kitchen remodeling costs at the displays in the ‘big box’ stores. There’s a price tag of $9500 on some nice-looking cherry cabinets on the display. That doesn’t sound too bad, so you sit down with the store salesperson and 27 computer printouts later you start to understand why the average mid-grade kitchen remodeling project cost is $57,494. according to Remodeling Magazine’s 2012 Cost vs. Value Report (The average “upscale” kitchen remodeling cost comes in at an equity-draining $110.938!)

How does the cost get so high, so fast? Just remember the acronym, CASF. (I wish I could make a memorable word out of that). It stands for Cabinets, Appliances, Surfaces (counters, floors and backsplashes) and Fixtures (sink, faucet, lighting, etc.).

Let’s start with the cabinets. The price on the display at the Big Box is for an ” L” shaped 10×10 kitchen, with about 16 lineal feet of cabinetry.  Unfortunately,an average-sized kitchen is closer to 200 square feet, with about 30 lineal feet of cabinets, with an island or a peninsula. The nice cabinets on the display will actually cost 18,500 for your kitchen. And that price means the cabinets are sitting in boxes in your garage, uninstalled.

Next come the appliances. The stark white refrigerator, cooktop, dishwasher and oven looked okay with the old oak cabinets. Not so much with the new cherry. You don’t need a huge “restaurant grade” range – (who does?) but you want some quality appliances in stainless. $7000 later, you’re all set, with appliances befitting your new kitchen.

You’ll want to top those new cabinets with a solid surface countertop. You opt for a quartz top with a bullnose edge and a finished sink cut-out for an undermount sink. Total cost: $5500.  Taking up the ceramic tile floor and having hardwood professionally installed tacks another $5000 to your ‘surfaces’ cost.

Finally you have the ‘fixtures’. Stainless steel undermount sink, single-handle brushed nickel faucet, pendant lights over the island plus the labor to install them: $2000.

So our kitchen remodeling costs come out to:

Cabinets: $18,500
Appliances: $7000.
Surfaces: $10,500
Fixtures: $2000.

Total: $38,000.

That’s a lot of money, but we got it done for a lot less than the national average. Except for one thing…our cabinets are still sitting in boxes in the garage.

Cabinet installation, including moldings, end panels and toe kicks add about 50% to the cost of the cabinets. Even more if you have existing cabinets in place that need to be removed and discarded. Adding a few pullout shelves, a couple of glass doors and, of course, the cabinet hardware, put the installed price of the cabinets at 28,500. Quite a jump from the 9500 on the store tag.

So including installation of our new cabinets, our project cost for a nice mid-sized kitchen overhaul comes in at $48,000. All this assumes that our kitchen remodeling project doesn’t have any expensive surprises. ( “Ma’am, the subfloor under the refrigerator is pretty well rotted.)

But let’s not end this on a discouraging note. There are ways to make your kitchen an asset and still be able to send your kids to college. I’ve become a big fan of solid wood cabinet refacingto keep the kitchen remodeling costs under control.

In addition, in my experience, coordinating your kitchen  project with a smaller cabinet shop instead of a big box will usually result in better service and, maybe a little surprisingly, lower costs.

-JP