Kitchen Remodel Cost

A kitchen is genuinely quoted by the linear foot of cabinetry, because cabinets are where a kitchen’s money is - so that is exactly how to price one. The rest of the kitchen - countertops, appliances, a backsplash, an island - stacks on top as its own lines. Almost every online estimate hides all of that behind a single national average, and the average is not about your kitchen. Build the number instead.

Cabinets are the number, and reface-vs-replace is the fork

A kitchen is priced per linear foot of cabinetry. The one real fork the room allows is whether you reface the cabinets you have or replace them, and that single decision moves the total more than anything else.

Refacing keeps the existing boxes and swaps the doors, drawer fronts and hardware - it runs 60 to 75 percent less than replacing, and it is the right call when the boxes are sound and the layout works. Replace when the cabinets are failing or the layout has to change; refacing does nothing for a kitchen whose real problem is where the walls are. Measure the run of cabinetry along the wall in linear feet - that is the quantity every one of these numbers multiplies.

The rest of the kitchen stacks on top

Each of these is its own line, priced separately, because they do not scale with the cabinet run:

Countertops are usually quoted per square foot - about $50 to $150 installed for quartz or granite - and a typical kitchen has 30 to 50 sq ft of them, which is where the band above comes from. An appliance package for a fridge, range, dishwasher and microwave starts around $2,500 and climbs fast into premium territory. An island is a real block of work if it needs plumbing or power run to it, which is why it sits on its own line rather than inside the cabinet rate.

How the price is built

kitchen remodel cost = cabinetry (linear feet) × cabinet tier ($/lf)
                     + Σ add-ons          (countertops, appliances, island…)
                     + permit and design   (not in the cabinet band)

Run yours through the kitchen remodel cost calculator to get a low-typical-high band rather than a single fake-precise number, then price each line locally. Rates move with your city, your finishes and how busy the trades are, so a figure you look up is a starting point, not a quote.

Bands are indicative 2026 US contractor ranges from published cost guides - HomeAdvisor for cabinets and countertops. These figures were compiled in July 2026. Remodeling prices drift with materials and labor, so treat any figure more than a year or so old - here or anywhere else - as a starting point to sanity-check a local quote, not as this year’s number. They are not a quote.

Worked example

A 25-linear-foot medium kitchen, keeping the layout, refacing the cabinets:

1. Cabinets: 25 lf × $120 - $250 = $3,000 - $6,250 to reface. That is the core of the job.
2. Countertops: $2,000 - $6,000, priced on their own line.
3. Appliance package: $2,500 - $10,000, and a backsplash $500 - $1,700.
4. Realistic total: roughly $8,000 - $24,000, before permit, design and contingency.

Now change one decision - replace the cabinets instead of refacing them:

1. Cabinets: 25 lf × $200 - $550 = $5,000 - $13,750 to replace with stock or semi-custom.
2. Everything else the same.
3. The total jumps by thousands, and the only thing that changed is the cabinet line. That is the whole argument for pricing the cabinets first and everything else as add-ons.

How long a kitchen remodel takes

A minor remodel - refacing, new countertops, paint - usually takes 2 to 4 weeks. A mid-range remodel with new cabinets and appliances runs 6 to 10 weeks, and a high-end renovation that moves the layout can take 12 to 20 weeks or more. The long pole is almost always the cabinets: semi-custom and custom cabinetry is built to order with lead times of several weeks to a few months, so the demolition should not start until they are on site. And because a kitchen is the room you cannot easily live without, budget for a temporary kitchen for the duration.

Where kitchen remodel estimates go wrong

• Pricing the room per square foot. A kitchen is a cabinet job with add-ons, not a floor-area job. Price the cabinet run first.
• Comparing a reface quote to a replace quote. They are not the same job, and the 60-to-75-percent gap between them is the biggest number on the page.
• Starting demolition before the cabinets arrive. Custom and semi-custom boxes set the schedule - nothing downstream of a back-ordered cabinet can start.
• Forgetting the permit and the contingency. A kitchen permit is typically $250 to $500, and hold back 10 to 20 percent for what the walls hide once the old kitchen is out.

If a bathroom is also on the list, price it the same way before you commit to either - see bathroom remodel cost, where the money is in the fixtures rather than the cabinetry.