Most kitchen remodel "cost" articles give you one number and move on. This one opens the invoice. Below is the actual line-by-line breakdown of where the money goes in a Lehigh Valley kitchen — every trade, every material, with local installed ranges — so you can see how a full midrange remodel adds up to roughly $30,000–$60,000 and, more usefully, which lines you can move.
The bottom number is easy to quote. Knowing which lines you can move is what actually saves you money.
The full line-by-line breakdown
These are installed ranges for a typical 150–200 sq ft Lehigh Valley kitchen — labor bundled into each trade, not billed as a separate mystery line. The low column roughly sums to the $30,000 floor and the high column to the $60,000 ceiling.
- Design, permits & project management: $2,500–$4,000. Drawings, selections, the local building permit, and the person who keeps the trades sequenced. See when a permit is required in PA.
- Demolition & disposal: $1,500–$2,500. Tear-out, dumpster, and hauling the old kitchen away.
- Cabinetry: $9,000–$18,500 — the single biggest line, about a third of the budget. The stock vs. semi-custom vs. custom choice moves the total more than anything else on this list.
- Countertops: $3,500–$7,000 installed, depending on material and edge. See quartz vs. granite vs. quartzite.
- Appliances: $3,000–$7,500. The widest-swinging line — a builder-grade suite versus pro-style ranges and paneled refrigeration is thousands apart.
- Plumbing: $2,000–$4,000. Rough-in, the sink and faucet set, disposal and connections — more if you relocate the sink or run a new line.
- Electrical: $2,000–$4,000. Code-required circuits, outlets, under-cabinet and recessed lighting — and often a panel that needs attention in an older home.
- Flooring: $2,500–$4,500 installed, from luxury vinyl plank up through tile and hardwood.
- Tile & backsplash: $1,500–$3,000. Material plus the setting and grout labor where the design shows. More in the tile guide.
- Drywall, paint & trim: $1,800–$3,500. Patching, priming, finish paint and the trim that makes it read finished.
- Sink, faucet & cabinet hardware: $700–$1,500. The fixtures and pulls you actually touch every day.
Add those up and you land at about $30,000 on the conservative end and $60,000 on the high end — before contingency. Want your own number in a minute? Run the kitchen cost calculator, or read the full kitchen cost guide for the per-component detail.
The contingency line nobody quotes
Every honest breakdown needs a twelfth line the glossy ads leave off: a 10–15% contingency.On a $45,000 kitchen that's $4,500–$6,750 held in reserve for what demo uncovers. In the older Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton homes we work in, it's knob-and-tube wiring, out-of-square walls, dated supply lines or a soft subfloor — and the reserve is the difference between a solved surprise and a stalled project. More on that in remodeling an older Lehigh Valley home. If nothing surfaces, you don't spend it.
The three levers that move your total the most
Once you can see the lines, saving money stops being guesswork. Three choices move the number far more than the rest:
- Keep the layout. The moment you move the sink, range or gas line, plumbing and electrical climb and the schedule stretches. Same footprint, new everything, is the value play.
- Right-size the cabinetry.It's a third of the budget, so choosing semi-custom over full custom where the room allows saves more than any fixture swap.
- Spend where you touch, save where you don't. Put money into the countertop, the faucet and the hardware; take the value option on things you never lay a hand on.
Where a remodel earns it back
A kitchen is also the room that returns the most at resale, which changes how you read these numbers — a targeted midrange remodel almost always beats a luxury gut job on return. We break that down in kitchen & bath remodel ROI. And if the number is the only thing standing between you and the project, financing can spread it out — see financing options.
Get a real number for your kitchen
Ranges get you oriented; a walkthrough gets you a price. We'll measure your space, talk through the choices that move these lines, and give you an itemized estimate you can actually compare — no mystery bottom line. Start with kitchen remodeling, or tell us about your kitchen on the contact page.