Budgeting for a kitchen renovation

Planning a kitchen renovation is always a financial balancing act. The real question is, how do you spend within your budget without compromising the style, quality or functionality of your kitchen? Thankfully, the kitchen genie has made its way out of the bottle, and it’s here to give you some handy tips.

Renovation Budgets

It’s helpful to set parameters on your budget before you dive headfirst into a renovation. Kitchen renovations range from $10-15,000 to upwards of $45,000+. Your standard renovation is somewhere in the middle, at roughly $20,000.

 Setting such parameters will help you dictate where to splash out and where to save. For example, if your budget’s a little lower, it might be worthwhile spending a larger percentage on reliable appliances while finding cheaper alternatives for things like cabinet handles and shelving materials. Omega has a premium selection of high-performance kitchen appliances to suit a wide range of kitchen styles.

Design

There are a number of ways to make elegant statements in your kitchen design without blowing the budget. Splashbacks are a great example.

Instead of spending money on expensive tiles, you can find cheap and affordable ones just by shopping around. You can also re-use old parts of your kitchen to complement your new design, whether that’s old cabinetry that needs a fresh lick of paint or old appliances that still have life in them. Because why throw the baby out with the bathwater, right? Omega appliances are highly durable and will last you for years.

Labour

It’s tricky to figure out how much your kitchen renovation will cost, because it can depend largely on how much labour will be required. For example: if you’ve upgraded to a larger fridge, paying for a carpenter to rejig the space and create room between your benchtops will come with its own costs. That’s why surveying the space before buying the appliance is always handy.

Hardware and Material Costs

Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Your hardware and material costs. Consider which features of your dream kitchen you want to spend on. Exhibit A – benchtops. Your kitchen benchtop will take a greater beating over its lifetime than a pinata at a 10-year-old’s birthday party. That’s why you want good quality materials that are stain, heat and water resistant. Marble granite is one example of a high-quality surface.

However, if you’ve splashed out on your benchtop, you might want to consider a more affordable material for your cabinetry to balance out the budget. Timbre veneers, for example, give off the elegance of solid wood without the price tag.

Where can you save

Fortunately, there are a few extra loopholes to help make your kitchen renovation that extra bit cheaper.

Consider easy ways to make visual impacts and where you can save on hidden or low-cost visual items. Rangehoods are one example. Omega has a range of rangehoods, in particular, the canopy rangehood, which is an affordable way to imbue your kitchen with style, elegance and functionality.

Door handles, hanging lights and fruit baskets are also simple decorations that give your kitchen cake some affordable icing. You can pick up stylish kitchen door handles for as little as $4 a pop.