How to Budget for a Luxury Kitchen Remodel

How should you split a luxury kitchen remodel budget?

We do not hand out percentage formulas, because a kitchen with a 60-inch range and a walk-in scullery spends very differently from one built around an integrated refrigerator wall. What we do is rank the categories by how hard they pull on the total and ask owners to set priorities in that order.

Our luxury kitchen remodel projects start with this ranking so that a dream appliance does not quietly eat the cabinet budget halfway through design.

What does the high end look like in national surveys?

Houzz Research's 2026 kitchen trends survey reports spend at the 90th percentile, meaning the top tenth of homeowners in the survey. For a major remodel, where at least all the cabinets and appliances are replaced, that line sits at $150,000 nationally for kitchens of 250 square feet or more and $120,000 for smaller kitchens. The same study puts the overall major-remodel median at $55,000.

Those are national figures from Houzz users, not adjusted for inflation and not specific to Michigan. They are still a useful signal: a genuinely high-end kitchen sits in a different band from a typical full remodel, and planning as if it does not is where luxury budgets go wrong.

Why cabinetry decides a high-end budget

Cabinetry design is Nick's specialty, and it is the line where luxury kitchens differ most from standard ones. The same study found that 46% of renovating homeowners who replaced cabinets chose custom and 33% chose semicustom, which matches what we see in larger homes: owners want sizes, finishes and interiors that a catalog line cannot deliver.

• Construction. Inset doors, face-frame or frameless boxes and furniture-grade joinery change both cost and lead time.
• Sizing. Custom widths and heights let cabinetry run to the ceiling and around windows without filler strips.
• Interiors. Drawer organizers, appliance garages, spice pullouts and lighted glass uppers add up quickly.
• Finish. Stained rift oak, painted glazes and specialty colors each sit in different price tiers.

If cabinetry is where you want to spend, our custom kitchen cabinets page explains how Kitchen NV specifies and orders cabinetry directly.

Appliances, stone and the hood: where luxury plans drift

The three most common sources of drift we see in high-end budgets are appliance upgrades made after the cabinets are drawn, slab selections that require extra seams or a different edge, and hoods that need larger ductwork than the house was built for. Each one is solvable when it is decided early and expensive when it is decided late.

Large estate homes in Brighton Township and older properties in Ann Arbor raise different issues. Newer homes often have the panel capacity and duct routes a big range needs, while century-old houses may need structural or electrical work first. High-capacity hoods can also bring makeup-air questions, so ask your building department what applies before choosing a blower.

Which luxury features carry infrastructure costs you cannot see?

The price tag on a high-end appliance or fixture is rarely the whole cost. Many premium features need wiring, gas, water, ductwork or structure that has to be designed and priced before the cabinet order goes in. The table pairs common luxury choices with the work hiding behind them, with code points taken from the NKBA's Kitchen Planning Guidelines, which cite the International Residential Code that Michigan's residential code is built on.

None of this is a reason to skip the feature. It is a reason to put each item on the electrical, plumbing and ventilation drawings before pricing, so the partner contractor quotes the real job instead of the brochure.

How much should design fees take in a luxury kitchen?

Design is a small part of a luxury budget and the part that protects the rest. Our work begins with a long conversation about how you live, and only after a design retainer does Nick start exploring layouts. Plans, elevations, 3D views and installer-ready drawings all exist before anyone sees a pricing presentation, and help choosing tile, faucets, light fixtures and pulls is priced either hourly or as one package fee.

That sequence is what lets the kitchen remodeling budget hold. Every appliance cutout, hood dimension and slab layout is drawn before anything is ordered, so the purchase agreement reflects the kitchen you will actually build.

Owners at this level seldom go it alone. In the 2026 Houzz study, 98% of homeowners spending $50,000 or more on a kitchen hired at least one professional, 60% hired a general contractor and 34% worked with a kitchen designer, compared with 22% of renovating homeowners overall.

• ✓Every appliance model, with its cutout and installation sheet, is attached to the drawings.
• ✓The hood size, blower capacity, duct route and any makeup-air plan are drawn, not assumed.
• ✓Slab layout, seam locations and edge profile are agreed with the fabricator.
• ✓Cabinet interiors, lighting and outlets inside cabinets appear on the elevations.
• ✓Allowances for tile, faucets, lighting and pulls are written into the scope of work.
• ✓Lead times for cabinetry and appliances are listed so the build schedule starts from real dates.