Tips for keeping kitchen reno costs down

[memenee]

We’ve been saving for a while now to reno our kitchen.

We have the cash and we are getting ready to move forward but are having second thoughts.

Our bids have been in the 66k - 75k range (NYC suburb - HCOL) and when we think of handing over that amount of cash we get gun shy. Like maybe we should be spending closer to $45k and taking awesome family vacations with the rest.

Mentioned this to a friend and she said there are probably a lot of ways to bring the price down so I’ve been asking around for tips and have been told things like: do an IKEA kitchen, hire an architect or kitchen designer to layout then be your own GC, things like that.

I’m hearing one of the biggest line items is cabinets and that IKEA ones are great.

Does anyone have any input or tips they can share?

[dr.girlfriend]

We love our IKEA kitchen. It was small, and not that many cabinets, but the cabinets themselves were about $3500, and they are great -- soft close drawers, wipe-clean finish, etc. Here's some of my kitchen posts if you want to take a look -- there's a budget partway down the first one, and probably more posts with more details:

pandce.proboards.com/thread/350182/girlfriends-mega-kitchen-reno-thread
pandce.proboards.com/thread/452843/final-kitchen-pics-pip-heavy

I honestly don't know why anyone would do fancy custom cabinets given the amazing options IKEA has.

Otherwise, you can definitely get deals on some of the components. We got our sink from online (I think Homeclick?), got our pendants as an Open Box deal from LampsPlus, etc.

[sandandsea]

Be careful with your choices. You may fall in love with a pricey whatever so be sure you look within your limit to avoid budget creep. Overspending a little in a few areas adds up quickly. That goes with everything.... faucets, cabinets, appliances, tile, countertops, lighting, sinks, hardware, cabinets, etc. Don’t look above your price range or if you do, know it’s off limits and go for a similar look within budget.

ETA. A create a detailed line item budget. Every little thing adds up quickly so budget it all out. There are so many pieces. And remember for countertops you often have to buy a whole slab even if you don’t need it all. So try to minimize excess as much as possible.

[bullygirl979]

Currently researching/planning my own remodel so I can't add much but here's my two cents that I've found helpful.

1) Plan ahead. Even if it seems silly. We aren't doing our remodel until next fall and we are already shopping/planning. Why? So we can hit the sales. We want to get an idea of what we want so I can keep an eye on prices. So if that fabulous light fixture goes on sale, I can pounce. I don't mind having things sitting around for a while if it saves me a bunch of $.

2) Try and be flexible with your choices. We are still trying to pick out countertops. The quote for Cambria was over 11k. The quote for "value" granite (i.e. not a lot of choices and grade A) was $6,300. That's a HUGE difference.

As for Ikea cabinets, I've heard people who regret it and people who love their choice. I read a great article (which of course I can't find) of a woman who was trying to do a budget remodel and she purchase Ikea cabinets. Instead of putting them together themselves, she had her contractor do it. Because she had to pay for his labor, the cabinets ended up costing MORE than if she had picked out a cheaper line of semi-custom cabinets.

I would also advise you to really think about if you are going to be happy with your choice to go cheaper. I have two friends who did Ikea (or something similar) cabinets. Neither kitchen looks perfect (too many filler pieces, wood looks wonky in an area, etc.) One doesn't care and is super happy with her choice because she didn't see the value in spending all that money. One totally regrets her choice because she's slightly OCD and every time she looks at blemish, it makes her crazy. I don't think either choice is wrong, just really make sure you are good with your choice. The cost of our remodel makes me want to vomit, but we are both pretty OCD and I've always dreamed of having my "dream kitchen" so in the end, I'll fork over the money (and then drink a lot of wine and cry, lol).

[froggy76]

Ikea cabinets are really great... for the price. We put an Ikea kitchen in our last house and we were happy with it. It's not what I plan to choose this time around because I would really like solid wood cabinets and we hope to stay in this house forever. Ikea is really awesome quality and features for what you pay. We had some water damage in one Ikea cabinet and because it's particle board, the cabinets don't fare well with water (or other spills like oil). You also have to like the small range of door styles they offer (very few of which are solid wood), or else you'll be paying more to get different doors from another company.

We also did most of the work ourselves in our last kitchen and I don't plan to do that again. So it really depends on how much hassle you can deal with yourself and if this is your forever home and you want to splurge or if you're looking to do a lower-cost renovation.

I've looked at Cliqstudios cabinets online and they are not too much more expensive than Ikea and are solid wood. I think a couple posters on here have had good experiences with them but I don't have any first-hand knowledge.

I think cabinets and labor are the biggest expenses so those are the places to look for savings.

ETA: If you do decide to go with an Ikea kitchen, assembling them is so ridiculously easy I would recommend doing it yourself. I did all of ours in one evening while watching TV. Installing them is also pretty easy if you want to try to do some of the work yourself to save money. But if you really want the installation to look perfect, let a contractor do it because getting things perfectly level and aligned can be tough.

[mrsukyankee]

We decided against IKEA cabinets as they wouldn't have been a good selling point in this house if we decided to sell (which we are) or last as long as the medium priced solid wood cabinets that we found and love if we had decided to remain in the house for years. I'd think about what you want to do and what would work for you in the long-run.

[Violet]

Dec 12, 2018 4:34:20 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

We decided against IKEA cabinets as they wouldn't have been a good selling point in this house if we decided to sell (which we are) or last as long as the medium priced solid wood cabinets that we found and love if we had decided to remain in the house for years. I'd think about what you want to do and what would work for you in the long-run.

This is my advice too. Do what is best for you and resale! While I love the look of IKEA cabinets, it would ding us on resale because other homes in our neighborhood all have completely custom cabinets. It's about the happy medium.

I don't have any great money saving tips besides try not to buy things through the contractor if there is a markup. I picked out 90% of our finishes (tile, faucets, switch plates, sink, hood vent, appliances) and shopped deals. The only downside is I had to have every piece before the contractor would start (so we didn't slow down his timeline) which meant I had to store a lot of stuff for months.

[mrsukyankee]

Dec 12, 2018 9:44:47 GMT -5 Violet said:

Dec 12, 2018 4:34:20 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

We decided against IKEA cabinets as they wouldn't have been a good selling point in this house if we decided to sell (which we are) or last as long as the medium priced solid wood cabinets that we found and love if we had decided to remain in the house for years. I'd think about what you want to do and what would work for you in the long-run.

This is my advice too. Do what is best for you and resale! While I love the look of IKEA cabinets, it would ding us on resale because other homes in our neighborhood all have completely custom cabinets. It's about the happy medium.

I don't have any great money saving tips besides try not to buy things through the contractor if there is a markup. I picked out 90% of our finishes (tile, faucets, switch plates, sink, hood vent, appliances) and shopped deals. The only downside is I had to have every piece before the contractor would start (so we didn't slow down his timeline) which meant I had to store a lot of stuff for months.

Same. We sourced everything, and I mean every single thing in our house, ourselves and it saved a lot of money even if it did take a lot of time.

[k3am]

Going through our contractor for purchases actually saved us money - they had preferred brands/stores that they worked with, or you could source your own. We shopped with our designer, and every single store that we went to offered a discount because they purchase in such volume with them. We tried seeing if we could source the same or similar style/quality items ourselves (different stores, online shops, etc), but it just wasn't happening, so letting the contractor handle everything cheaper for us. And 100 times more convenient.

We were able to get semi-custom cherry wood cabinets for not much more than IKEA cabinets and I loved them.

We didn't have the time, know how, or desire to commit to being our own GC. We may have been able to save money by goign that route, but it wouldn't be worth it.

[felicity]

I wouldn't do Ikea cabinets again. We put them in our last house, and after 8 years they were not holding up very well. They always just felt so cheap poorly made to me. I know Ikea is less expensive, but our current house has beautiful Kraftmaid cabinets that are about twice as old from the previous owners, and they are still in fantastic shape. They look and feel so much nicer.