THE KITCHEN MIGHT be the heartwarming center of the home, but calculating the cost of remodeling it can quicken your ticker, especially when you consider return on investment. Home-construction research firm Zonda estimates you’ll recoup about 96% of a $27,000 renovation that replaces cabinet fronts, range, fridge and flooring. But the more you spend, the less you’ll ever see again. A major upscale remodeling, which averages about $159,000, will return only about 38% when you sell, says the research.
But are you really looking to flip your house? Most people aren’t, says Todd Tomalak, a principal at Zonda. He reports that people are staying in their homes twice as long today as they were 25 years ago. “Now they are more focused on the durability of the product and how much they will like it,” he said.
The homeowners behind the three high-end projects featured here fit that profile, and spent from $64,000 to $226,000 getting what they wanted. Here’s where the money went.
A Reuse Boost: $150,000
As Lisa Schwert considered renovating her 1990s kitchen in Fairfield County, Conn., she realized it had a lot going for it: a good layout, with plumbing fixtures and appliances in the right places and well-built cabinets by Indiana’s Dutch Made—in good condition, if outdated. “A primary goal was to repurpose as many high-quality materials as possible,” said Schwert, an architect and interior designer with local firm Innate Studio. “We were able to reuse approximately 90% of the cabinetry.”
Still, a 385-square-foot kitchen with a 10-foot-long island houses a lot of cupboards. Plumbing and electric came in at a relatively modest $7,000, but after Schwert upgraded the cabinet boxes with new drawer fronts and new doors (some glass-front, for visual variety), cabinetry and hardware cost $34,000. And that’s before the $9,500 it cost to paint them.
Counters and backsplashes, also ample given the room’s size, ate another chunk of budget, $31,500. Says Schwert of the expensive, porous counter stone—Olympian Danby marble—“I love to use it day in and day out. You have to embrace the patina.”
Though she saved a little money by keeping the existing wall ovens and warming drawer, Schwert traded her combination refrigerator-freezer for a Sub-Zero refrigerator and separate freezer, at $9,350 each, that flank the sink area. Other high-end appliances and the sink brought that total to $42,300. Schwert moved older, still-serviceable appliances to other areas of the house—the old fridge lives in the basement, and the dishwasher was moved to the laundry room to handle overflow.
Aesthetic goals came with more-reasonable price tags. “The house is in a secluded area surrounded by woods, and I wanted the light and view to be the main feature,” said Schwert. She made the space brighter and airier with a new picture window ($5,250) and upgraded her other windows at no cost by simply removing the fussy grills. The marbles and Benjamin Moore paints (Fatigue Green on the island and Classic Gray on the other cabinets) also allude to the forest outside. Schwert said she chose the “lighter airy color palette and timeless, natural materials” to highlight and complement the home’s woodsy setting.
Had she created this kitchen for a client, Schwert said, her fee would have been 20%-25% of the project’s total cost.
By:
I The Wall Street Journal I October 25, 2024