Kitchen remodel budget bands: paint the boxes, replace the kitchen, or move the walls

A kitchen remodel is not one product. Painting the doors you have is a weekend and a spray booth. New boxes, new counters, and new appliances in the same footprint is a different invoice.

Moving the sink, opening a wall, or hanging an island with water in it is a third building that happens to share your floor. If Bid A is $12,000 and Bid B is $55,000, they are not arguing quartz. One left the plumbing where it is. The other did not.

This is a hire. You are not moving a gas line, sistering a header, or tying a dishwasher drain into an old trap from a Saturday kit. The useful work this week is naming which of those three jobs you want, then putting that name on three comparable bids.

Stay here when the kitchen you have still has the right walls and you are arguing money.

Extra two feet of counter is a bump-out, not a nicer faucet. A counter you can actually sit at is work height and pull-outs. A missing toilet on this floor is adding a bathroom.

What are you actually buying?

HomeGuide’s 2026 kitchen page is the cleanest three-band table, because it says what each band includes.

Same layout, cheaper surfaces. Paint, reface, new hardware, maybe counters or a floor, some fixtures, the sink stays. HomeGuide calls this basic or small: $60 to $150 per square foot, or $4,000 to $18,000 total.

Cabinet paint on that ecosystem is $900 to $3,800. Refacing a 100 to 200 square foot kitchen is $5,000 to $13,000. You still cook in the same triangle. You bought new faces.

Full remodel, same footprint. New semi-custom cabinets, counters, backsplash, lighting, appliances. The walls and the stack stay.

HomeGuide’s average full job is $15,000 to $50,000, or $150 to $250 per square foot. Angi puts a typical remodel at $10,000 to $50,000, most homeowners around $26,754, also $150 to $250 per square foot.

Houzz’s 2025 kitchen study, which is what homeowners said they spent, put a minor remodel around $15,000 and a major around $55,000. Those are not the same microphone as a contractor table, but they land in the same neighborhood.

Layout change. You move plumbing, electrical, or gas, you open a wall, you add an island that needs water or power, or you go custom. HomeGuide’s high-end band is $50,000 to $70,000+, or $250 to $350 per square foot, plus $500 to $2,500 of demo.

Angi calls a major remodel $30,000 to $60,000+. This is the job people describe as “just a little more open” and then discover the soil line.

HomeGuide: kitchen remodel cost

Angi: kitchen remodel cost

Houzz: 2025 U.S. kitchen study

A 10-by-10 (100 square feet) on HomeGuide’s size table is $6,000 to $15,000 small, $15,000 to $25,000 average, $25,000 to $35,000 high-end. A 12-by-12 (144 square feet) is $8,600 to $21,600, $21,600 to $36,000, $36,000 to $50,400.

Measure the floor you actually have before you fall in love with a 20-by-20 Pinterest kitchen that HomeGuide prices at $60,000 to $140,000 in the two upper bands.

Why cabinets eat the bid

HomeGuide’s breakdown puts cabinets and shelving at about 25% of the job. Installation and labor about 15%. Appliances 15%. Counters and backsplash 10%.

Their cabinet page, which we already use for the work-height article, is $4,500 to $15,000 to replace boxes in a typical kitchen, or $15,000 to $30,000 custom. Stock or RTA is $100 to $400 per linear foot installed. Semi-custom $150 to $700. Custom $500 to $1,200.

If you keep the boxes and change the doors, you are in refacing ($5,000 to $13,000) or paint ($900 to $3,800).

If you throw the boxes away because you want a 34-inch seated stretch, you are in the aging layout conversation, and you should price that as new cabinets, not as a hardware swap.

Counters are the next loud line. HomeGuide puts an average kitchen’s new tops at $1,500 to $6,000. Backsplash $500 to $1,700, or $10 to $50 per square foot.

An appliance package (dishwasher, microwave, range, fridge) $2,500 to $6,800 installed if the hookups stay. Individual units with existing connections run fridge $750 to $2,700, dishwasher $600 to $1,700, range $700 to $1,600.

None of those numbers move a sink.

What makes the number jump?

The sink moves. New plumbing pipes on HomeGuide are $450 to $1,800 per fixture. Angi, on the remodel page, has put moving plumbing in the $1,500 to $5,000 neighborhood.

An island with a sink, disposal, or dishwasher is not a furniture island. HomeGuide’s island without wet work is $3,000 to $5,000 installed. Add water or a cooktop and you bought a second kitchen.

The wall comes out. That is structure, a header, maybe a beam, and a permit. HomeGuide says layout, plumbing, or electrical changes typically need permits, and kitchen permits run $500 to $1,500. Labor on a remodel is $2,300 to $7,500, at least 15% of the total, more when several trades stack.

Gas and 240-volt. A range swap on the same circuit is an appliance line. A new 40-amp run or a relocated gas stub is an electrician and a plumber.

HomeGuide lighting on existing wiring is $80 to $350 per fixture. Six new cans are $700 to $1,650. Electrical work is in their 5% lighting bucket until you move the panel or add a sub.

You live here. HomeGuide’s average kitchen takes 6 to 9 weeks. Layout changes, custom boxes, and rerouted pipes often take 3 to 5 months once you count permits and lead times. If this is the only cooktop, the bid needs a temporary kitchen or you will eat takeout for a quarter.

A bump-out pretending to be cabinets. Two extra feet of counter on a cantilever is HomeGuide $85 to $200 per square foot on the bump-out page, not a line inside a $26,000 remodel. Name it as its own building.

When the cheap band is the honest job

The boxes are sound. The layout works. You hate the doors, the laminate, and the light. Paint or reface, new hardware, maybe quartz on the same cabinets, a floor that is not peeling.

HomeGuide $4,000 to $18,000. Angi minor $10,000 to $15,000. Stay in this band if you are selling in a year and you do not want to wait on custom boxes.

Do not put a moved island in this band. Do not put “open concept” in this band. Those words are the $50,000 column.

When you should buy the full footprint job, or walk away

The boxes are delaminating, the appliances died together, and the triangle still works. Semi-custom cabinets, new tops, new package, lighting, same stack. HomeGuide $15,000 to $50,000. Angi average about $26,754. This is the job most people mean when they say remodel.

If you also need one 30-inch stretch at 34 inches so someone can sit and chop, say that on the cabinet page. Mixed height is usually cheaper than rebuilding every box, and it is still a cabinet order, not a bump-out.

Walk away from a “full remodel” bid that is under HomeGuide’s $15,000 floor and also includes new custom boxes, a moved sink, and an island with a dishwasher. Something is missing, usually the plumber or the boxes.

If the only way the kitchen works is two more feet or a wall gone, you are not in a remodel. You are in a bump-out or a room addition. Price that next door, in the same week, so you can see the real number.

What has to be on the quote?

Three bids, same written scope. Same band. Same “sink stays” or “sink moves.”

Ask for, in writing:

1. Name the band. Refresh (paint/reface, same layout), full footprint (new boxes, same stack), or layout change (plumbing, electrical, gas, or a wall).
2. Show the floor. Length and width, square feet, and whether the island is in those feet.
3. Show the cabinets. Keep, paint, reface, stock, semi-custom, or custom. Linear feet. HomeGuide’s 25% cabinet share is a sanity check, not a discount.
4. Show the wet work. Sink stays or moves. Island dry or wet. Dishwasher hookup. Gas range vs electric. “Owner to handle plumbing” is a different job.
5. Show the power. Existing circuits vs new runs, 120 vs 240, how many new cans.
6. Show the permit. Who pulls it, and whether a layout change is even allowed in this load-bearing wall.
7. Show the calendar. Weeks of no sink, and whether you can live in the house.
8. Show the leftovers. Demo, floor leveling, unexpected rot. HomeGuide demo is $500 to $2,500 before anyone finds a bad subfloor.

If two bids keep the sink and the third is twice the money because it “opens the space,” you are looking at two buildings. Pick one.

How do I decide this week?

1. Measure the kitchen floor and write the square feet, then find that row on HomeGuide’s size table so the Pinterest 400-square-foot kitchen does not set your budget.
2. Decide in one sentence whether the sink and the range stay. If they stay, you are in refresh or full footprint. If they move, you are in the layout band.
3. Put that sentence on three bids, and reject any bid that mixes paint-grade doors with a moved island as one number.
4. Price a bump-out in the same week if the real problem is missing counter, not ugly doors.
5. If someone in the house needs a seated work stretch, add one 30-inch run at 34 inches to the cabinet order instead of rebuilding the whole kitchen for height.
6. Hire the band you named, and keep the takeout budget honest for 6 to 9 weeks.

A refresh is new faces on the kitchen you have. A full remodel is new guts in the same footprint. A layout change is a small addition that still looks like a kitchen. Name the one you want, then hire that.