Australians spend a whole lot of their dough on kitchen renovations. How much? It’s reported that an average of $24,014 is spent on renovating the Australian kitchen. The average salary is $84,845, so kitchen work is sucking up a big proportion of that income. 

So, Australians love a shiny kitchen. But is it worth it? Quite apart from all the pleasure of swanning around top taps and swanky sinks, will your kitchen upgrade result in a higher value for your home?

What is included in a kitchen renovation? What do you need to consider?

Doing a kitchen remodel can be as extensive or as cosmetic as you think fit. It might be a wholesale replacement of floor, surfaces and wall units, or maybe just a clean-up and repaint. Whatever level of reno you’re considering, you’ll need to think about certain elements before you start. 

Budget

It’s just the same when you’re preparing a meal. Before you get cooking, you need to think about what ingredients you can stretch to. No good planning a lobster and goose banquet if you’re down to your last five bucks. 

When deciding how much you should spend on your kitchen reno, there’s a rule of thumb that it should cost, in total, 2-3% of a house’s overall value. This is of course only a very vague rule and is, as rules tend to be, made to be broken. 

What might be slightly more useful is an idea of how much it costs for a kitchen renovation, based on what level of remodelling you’re going for. 

Cosmetic tart-up

This might include a paint job and new taps, handles and lighting and perhaps a fresh splashback. For this, you’re looking at around $1000-$4000.

Whole replacement – budget

Flatpacked and economy are the order of the day with this option, and it’ll cost you in the region of $2000-$14000.

Whole replacement – mid-range

Here’s where the costs start really mounting. They’ll obviously depend on complications like fancy plumbing and what have you, but you’ll be shelling out something like $20000-$40000. 

Whole replacement – big bucks. 

This is dream kitchen territory, and, with good kitchens and bathrooms, you do tend to get what you pay for. When it comes to getting in high-end units and solid stone surfaces you’re not about to see much in the way of rockbottom bargains. Expect to pay $35,000-$60,000 (or even higher) for one of these babies.

Think about theme

A kitchen’s just like any other room in that it benefits from a cohering theme. You don’t necessarily need to have precisely uniform cupboards and units all by the same manufacturer. But a basic colour scheme certainly helps, and an overall feel. Are we going trad? Or perhaps a little industrial? Or full-on Vegas? It’s in establishing a theme that things can get really exciting so don’t be afraid to be adventurous. But do bear in mind the room’s dimensions. Not every kitchen can accommodate a Great Barrier Reef theme. 

And do think about how you’re going to accommodate the other components of a kitchen, like the laundry area. If you haven’t got a separate utility room, you’re going to need to consider how the washing machine can be positioned most effectively. 

Think about checklists

Make no mistake, when you’re considering how to renovate a kitchen, lists of things to remember just swell up like a particularly extroverted soufflé. For this reason, it’s imperative to have a checklist for renovating a kitchen just like you would have a checklist for renovating a house. It may be a relatively small space, but it’s full of complications. Talking of which…

Think about timescales

When you’re replacing a kitchen, you need to be much more generous with the time allotted than you might at first think. This is because snags invariably crop up, so you need contingency time chucked in. 

One of the most common wrinkles is deliveries not coming when they should, so it makes sense to stay on top of this by keeping in touch with your supplier and asking for updates right up to the day of the delivery. 

And when you want to show it off like you would any home improvements, don’t be inviting your neighbours round for the big reveal until you definitely have the water on, the gas piped, and everything working just the way you want it. 

Does a kitchen renovation increase home value?

So, here’s the rub. You may well be thinking to yourself ‘yes I’d love a new kitchen but will all that investment result in a big boost in the value of my home?’.

The answer is, it depends. A buyer will quickly see through any attempt to do a quick makeover, so the value this kind of reno delivers is minimal. Mind you, any attempt to make your kitchen look a little nicer has got to be worth a go, even on a tiny budget. Better a new tap than a rusty old one, in anyone’s book. 

What a minimal reno might do is to clinch the sale. It may not boost the value much but it certainly won’t scupper the deal. Quite the contrary. A large number of buyers, on moving in, immediately make plans to remodel the kitchen in some form anyway, so it might make sense to stick with the economy end from this perspective. 

The mid-range reno is what adds value to a house in Australia if you do it right. Done well, with attention paid to detail and a nice modular build used, you can spend around $10,000 and see – get this – an increase in value of up to $60,000. Amazing stuff. But you do need to really know what you’re about, or use some great professional help. 

At the pricey end of the spectrum, if you’ve got a superstar-level kitchen that’s the kind of space Beyonce would be at home baking her famous jam roly poly in, then this will undoubtedly soup up the value. 

On top of this, it gives a photogenic room that the agent can perhaps lead with in the house ad. A kitchen like this can turn a ‘I guess the house will do’ into a ‘who cares how much – I want it’

Who can help with your kitchen renovation needs?

It’s been shown that the kitchen is the most influential room in the house when it comes to making a decision to buy, so it makes sense to give it some priority when deciding on which bit of the house to renovate.

However, it also makes sense to renovate for yourself first – it’s you that’s living there. Hit on a design that works for you for starters. Then, if it caters for the tastes of potential buyers, that’s called getting your just desserts. 
Kitchen renovations aren’t always easy though, so you need a reliable partner to help you serve up a masterpiece. This is why contacting the team at VBathroom is definitely worth putting on the menu. They have the expertise and the product range to totally transform your cuisine scene.

For a full renovation, our team can help you realise your dream space in less than 3 weeks thanks to over 20 years of experience – so get in contact with us today.