What Should a Kitchen Remodel Cost in 2026?
Key takeaways
– A standard shaker-cabinet kitchen remodel, done right, lands around $12,000–$13,000 with a licensed contractor.
– Cabinets are the biggest single material line — a typical 11-box white shaker package costs your contractor about $2,000 before a single door is hung.
– Selections move the price more than size does. Layout changes and wall moves are the real budget killers.
– Get the should-cost number before you negotiate: text a video of your kitchen to (561) 462-9293 for a free itemized estimate.
Ask five contractors what a kitchen costs and you’ll get five numbers that share nothing but a dollar sign. Ask a pricing website and you’ll get a national average built by people who have never hung a cabinet. Here is how the number is actually built, from the price book of a working contractor.
Start with the cabinets — they’re the headline
In a standard kitchen, cabinets are the biggest single material cost, and everything else arranges itself around them. A typical layout — eleven boxes of white shaker, bases, uppers, a blind corner or two, finished panels — costs the contractor roughly $2,000 at wholesale before delivery, before installation, before a single pull is drilled. When a quote shows cabinets at a suspiciously tiny number, the money didn’t disappear. It moved into a line you can’t read.
From that cabinet package, a standard kitchen remodel builds to around $12,000–$13,000 all-in with a licensed contractor: cabinets installed, countertops at the standard installed rate, demo and haul-off, the labor to run it in the right order. That’s the honest middle of the market — not the teaser price, not the luxury price.
Good, better, best is a selections decision
The same kitchen can price three ways without the room changing by an inch:
- Good: stock shaker cabinets, laminate or entry-level stone counters, keep the layout, keep the appliances. This is where the $12,000–$13,000 number lives.
- Better: semi-custom cabinets, quartz counters, new appliances, a tile backsplash that becomes the room. Expect the selections to carry the job well past the base — the labor barely changes, the materials do.
- Best: custom cabinetry, quartzite or marble, pro-style appliances. The sky is the limit, and at this level the honest contractor tells you the price is whatever you pick out.
Notice what isn’t on that list: moving things. The moment the sink crosses the room, a wall opens, or plumbing relocates, you’ve added trades, permits, patching, and time. Layout changes are the budget killers in kitchens — not tile, not handles. If you love your kitchen’s footprint, your wallet will too.
Why the other guy’s number can’t be trusted
A database estimator prices an average kitchen in an average town for an average contractor who doesn’t exist. Your kitchen is a specific room, in a specific ZIP code, with specific selections. Real pricing is built labor-first, materials at your picks, adjusted for where you live — the same kitchen costs more in a premium ZIP because the labor and materials there cost more, and it never discounts below the base rate, because installers don’t get cheaper just because a neighborhood is modest.
Get your number before you negotiate
Record a short video of your kitchen, say what you want done, and text it to (561) 462-9293. You’ll get back an itemized should-cost estimate — labor, materials, demo, line by line — priced from our real price book, free. In Palm Beach and Broward, a free in-home measure follows and the written price is good for fourteen days. Anywhere else in the country, carry the number into your negotiation and make your contractor explain any gap, line by line.
More on how the scan works: the Scan Estimate page. See our kitchen remodeling work in Boca Raton, or start at Onel Construction.
Onel Construction LLC is a licensed general contractor, CGC1511492. Financing is available on kitchen projects with approved credit.
Financing is available on everything we do. Payments start at $120 a month on smaller jobs, and most projects land in the low $200s to $300s a month with approved credit. Rates run as low as 4.49% APR for qualified buyers. Ask at the free measure and we’ll lay the options out in writing, next to the estimate.
Insurance savings vary by carrier, policy, and home — figures shown are ‘up to’ amounts, not guarantees. Grant eligibility, amounts, and funding availability are determined by the program and may change. Financing subject to lender approval; rates and payments vary by credit profile. All financing examples assume approved credit through our financing partner.
