It’s amazing, but the design you settle on for your kitchen will make a big difference to your enjoyment of your entire home life and can be an unconscious incentive to do a lot more or a lot less cooking and/or entertaining at home. This point can be expanded to mean that if you’re happy with your kitchen, you will naturally use it more often, and over time this tends to save you a fortune in dining out or takeaway costs. So my tip is to take the design, which includes the colours and minor features, very seriously and your new kitchen will be the gift that keeps on giving!

There is a very wide range of kitchen styles and some will tend to cost more than others. Some materials or features also change costs remarkably, but you will always have the choice to scale up or down as you see fit.

Kitchens are normally put into two categories, ‘renovations’ or ‘new’ and this label is an important factor for both the designer and builder. Renovations include all alterations to an existing kitchen, as long as the existing electrical and plumbing fixtures are unchanged. A new kitchen will obviously include a kitchen in a new home (in which case the kitchen builder will most likely also need to liaise with the home builder) and also a total demolish and rebuild of an existing kitchen, including changes to fixtures. But don’t be fooled! Renovations can be just as expensive as new kitchens. It depends on how much you really want to change, which obviously depends on your reason for the renovation in the first place (there are ways to be savvy about renovations, which I’ll be talking about in another article soon).

There are some rough guides as to the kind of things that determine what budget you will need to account for.

1. Firstly, if you’re going to be living where you’re building for only a short term, such as only a couple of years, a smaller budget would probably be wiser – that is, between $5,000 and $15,000.

The least you’d be looking at is a new laminated benchtop, of which there are a huge variety of styles and finishes, or at the high end of this price range, you might even go for a granite overlay, which implies that there is a benchtop already there and you are perfectly happy with the positioning, so it won’t need to be demolished – the 7mm layer of reconstituted granite is basically laid over the top of the existing top.

Another tip that you might try if you’re a renovator is to only replace the cabinet doors, drawer fronts and gables – not the carcasses themselves. This way, you just give the cabinet carcasses a really (often REALLY) good clean, as this can make a massive difference to how the cabinetry looks and might reduce the necessity or amount of replacement carcasses you’ll need. Of course, as with the benchtop overlay, this probably won't help if you’re going to be changing the layout anyway.

At this price range, the point is that where possible try to use the existing framework, plumbing and electrical points, as that will save money. But keep in mind, it does need to be a workable kitchen layout, or the savings you make by not moving things might not cover the loss of sale price you’ll probably get for an impractical kitchen.

Another area to look at for replacement is normally the appliances, as these can make or break a kitchen. So, we don’t recommend keeping really old looking things unless they work perfectly well (or unless they’re funky and that’s the style you’re going for with your kitchen – but they still need to work well).

Lastly, you will most likely want to change the hardware, for example the handles, possibly drawer runners and hinges, and tapware as these can transform a kitchen from old to new very easily.

2. The second budget range is from approximately $15,000 to $30,000 and would be a target budget for those looking to stay in the home for about 3 – 6 years. This is by far the most common range for Queensland homes, both renovators and new homes.

At this range, you would not be looking to recycle carcasses or laying granite over an existing bench. Here, the layout will be a major element of the kitchen and there will be a strong focus on best use for all areas, in addition to the use of highly stylish and good quality features.

This kind of kitchen will become more of a primary area in entertaining, so I would start to think about adding features that allow and encourage others to be around the host as meals are prepared. Installing an island bench wherever space allows is often a great way to share the cooking experience and really draw out a great atmosphere through the whole event, from preparation to yes, even clean-up. Now, you’ll want to ensure that the benchtop is far more sturdy as you’re bound to get more usage and spills, so naturally the costs go up as the quality goes up. But with quality comes a very attractive finish as well, with solid granite tops, or CaesarStone, Corian or Roxx tops all being very good choices. Opening up the kitchen to allow the features to blend into a lounge or dining room, even enveloping the entertainment centre or coffee table also adds an element of classiness that is always noticed.

Other features can be added to spice up the bench as well, because the range of sinks available now that are a feature unto themselves is very large, so why not check some out. These can include using raised basins, or providing small food preparation tubs within an island bench, for instance, well away from the main sink, and also you could consider filtered water outlets. These are some of the many ways to make a focal point out of the bench or servery area, and this is quite good for adding that little something that makes a kitchen stand out without going overboard or becoming quickly dated.

On that last point I will add that you’ll probably not want to splurge too much on trendy colours as you don’t want to have to change anything again when you’re considering selling the home, even though that’s a few years down the track. Funky colours, especially, date very quickly so if you’re not trying to divert attention away from other less than ideal elements of your kitchen, for example, if it’s extremely small, then my advice is to stick with the more neutral tones to get more potential buyers interested when that time comes.

Lastly, as before, the hardware you choose will totally change the look by itself. So for a kitchen in this range, you’ll need to go for the latest stuff and go for the mod-cons, such as soft-close drawers and even soft close doors, corner cupboard lazy-susans and roll-out pantry doors and bins. This kind of thing adds so much to a kitchen’s feel of luxury and to your enjoyment of it, I can’t overstate it.

3. The final budget range of about $30,000 and over is really only suitable for those expecting to live there for 6 years and over. This is the total luxury kitchen, so all your dreams should be achieved without concern for the potential next owners’ preferences.

A natural benchtop, such as solid granite will be used and the kitchen’s layout will be opened right out and you will look to be extending the colours, and finishes of the benchtop and the cabinet doors into adjoining entertainment areas, so that there’s flow through the home.

The cabinet doors, drawers and gables are major contributors to the style of a kitchen, so for a kitchen of this calibre, you won’t want to do anything that looks cheap or ingenuine, or that won’t last in a wet area. A good option for a cottage look is Farmer’s Doors, or for the modern look, 2-Pack is very popular, with metallic 2-Pack now a favourite in many kitchens, giving different colours as light hits it from various angles.

Obviously, the hardware and accessories you choose will be very high quality and with cutting edge features, such as Blumotion drawers and Blum doors, specialised tray sets and cupboards with double door pull-out pantry and storage sets, worktop waste bins and carousels, blind corner pull-outs etc. The big difference here is a ‘luxury mindset’, so give yourself all the convenience you could dream of. After all, that’s what this hardware was designed for, so why shouldn’t you have it? In the same vein, installing only the best brandname appliances, such as Kleenmaid or Miele, is important.

At this kitchen level, you should also really give yourself 'specialist' accessories and appliances, in much the same way as almost every Australian home seems to have a dedicated fridge for beer, you can have multiple sinks – dedicating one for preparation, another for dirty dishes and one to incorporate a beverage centre, with a good quality esspresso machine, filtered water tap, boiled water tap, etc.

A lot of research should be done at this budget level as you want to know what is available before making any decisions and possibly missing out on a very new convenience that you would really want.

In all, it is widely known that the Australian housing industry is on the up and up, and the price of housing is also fast becoming totally unaffordable. Fortunately the cost of kitchens has not followed the sharp price rise closely and so is, comparatively, even more affordable than before. No matter the budget you’ve set for your kitchen, there is no evidence to suggest that the money you invest will be lost on sale – in fact, the opposite is nearly always the case, therefore clever value adding features should always be considered to increase your return even more, while barely changing your outgoings. It is just a matter of doing your research and/or ensuring that the kitchen builder you’re dealing with knows his business and cares about your wants and goals. All the best with your kitchen.

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