New Kitchen Estimate Calculator

How square footage turns into linear feet, and linear feet into a total

This calculator's first step is invisible on the results page: it converts the square footage you enter into linear feet of cabinetry, using 18 percent of square footage as the base ratio, then adjusts by layout. A galley kitchen needs less cabinet run for the same floor area (multiplier 0.85) than an open-concept kitchen with an island (multiplier 1.30) — the layout multiplier alone can shift the linear-foot number by more than 50 percent for an identical room size.

From there, cabinets and countertops price off that derived linear-foot number (countertop square footage is estimated at 2.08x linear feet, accounting for standard counter depth), flooring and lighting price off the original square footage, and appliances price as a flat figure by tier — $2,500 basic up to $25,000 commercial-grade. Labor is then added as a percentage of everything above it: 20 percent at the budget tier, rising to 35 percent at luxury, reflecting that higher-end finishes take more skilled installation time per dollar of material, not just more dollars.

The scope decision this calculator can't make for you

The single most useful fact for anyone using this calculator is not in it — it's in the 2025 Cost vs. Value report, and it cuts against the instinct to go bigger. A midrange minor kitchen remodel (new cabinet fronts, hardware, countertop, sink and faucet — no layout change) costs $28,458 nationally and recoups 113 percent of that at resale, meaning it returns more than it costs. Step up to a major midrange remodel — new cabinet boxes, layout changes, all-new countertops and appliances — and the cost more than doubles to $82,793 while resale recoup drops to 51 percent. Go upscale major at $164,104 and recoup falls to 36 percent.

Put in this calculator's own terms: moving from something like the minor/cosmetic tier toward the major/custom tier multiplies the price several times over, but per the JLC report, resale value grows far more slowly than cost across that same range — about 1.8x more value for 5.8x more spending, comparing the minor and upscale-major benchmarks. If resale is any part of the reason for the project, that argues for staying closer to a standard-tier, non-structural scope like the worked example above rather than pushing into premium or luxury with structural changes, unless the kitchen is being redone purely for the owner's own long-term use.

One caution on comparing numbers directly: this calculator's own scope tiers (minor/cosmetic, midrange, major/custom) and the JLC report's remodel categories are not measuring identical projects, and the two shouldn't be treated as interchangeable price points for the same job — they're two independently sourced estimates of similarly named but not identical scopes. The relationship worth trusting is the shape of the JLC curve — cost accelerates faster than resale value as scope grows — not a claim that this calculator's dollar figures and JLC's dollar figures describe the same remodel.

What changes when you move up a quality tier

Quality tier does more work in this calculator than just picking pricier materials — it also changes the labor and variance percentages applied to the whole project. Labor climbs from 20 percent of the component total at budget to 25 percent at standard, 30 percent at premium, and 35 percent at luxury, while the result's variance widens from ±25 percent to ±30 percent at the luxury tier alone. That means the same set of component choices produces a wider, and proportionally more labor-heavy, total simply by moving the quality-tier selector, independent of any single material swap.

Appliances are priced as a flat figure per tier rather than a rate multiplied by anything — basic runs $2,500, midrange $5,500, premium $12,000, and commercial-grade $25,000 — so unlike cabinets, counters, and flooring, the appliance line does not scale with kitchen size at all. In a very small kitchen, appliances can be a larger share of the total than cabinets; in a very large one, the reverse is true.

Labor market and material cost context

Cabinet installation, the largest single trade task in most kitchen rebuilds, is carpentry work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 670,090 carpenters nationally (SOC 47-2031, May 2025) at a mean hourly wage of $31.55, with a 10th-to-90th percentile range of $19.43 to $48.03. That range is a meaningful share of why this calculator's labor percentage — applied as a flat rate by tier rather than a wage lookup — can under- or over-shoot the real local cost: the same 25 percent labor share means something very different in a $20/hour market than a $45/hour one.

On the material side, the Producer Price Index for wood kitchen cabinet and countertop manufacturing stood at 288.048 in July 2026 (base June 1984 = 100) — a single tracked signal for the direction of factory-gate cabinet and countertop pricing, though not a number that converts directly into this calculator's per-linear-foot or per-square-foot rates.

What a full estimate like this typically misses

• ·Structural changes. Moving or removing a load-bearing wall, relocating plumbing stacks, or extending the room's footprint are not modeled here — they are major/custom-tier work with their own permitting and engineering costs.
• ·Design fees. Many major and upscale projects bring in a kitchen designer or architect, billed separately from the construction trades this calculator prices.
• ·Temporary kitchen setup. A gut remodel typically displaces cooking for weeks; a temporary kitchen setup (hot plate, mini-fridge, utility sink) is a real cost most estimates never itemize.
• ·Change orders. Once walls or flooring are opened up, discovered problems — old wiring, water damage, out-of-code plumbing — are the single most common reason a final bill exceeds an initial estimate like this one.