A kitchen remodel in Los Angeles costs $45,000 to $75,000 at the modest end, $75,000 to $130,000 for a full mid-range gut, and $150,000 to $300,000-plus for high-end work in Brentwood, Hancock Park or the Palisades. Cabinets and labour dominate every one of those budgets — together they usually account for 55 to 65 percent of the total. The line items that blow budgets are rarely the ones homeowners worry about. It is almost never the countertop. It is the wall you wanted removed, the panel that could not carry an induction range, and the plumbing you found under a 1948 slab.
What each budget tier buys
**$45,000 to $75,000 — the working refresh.** Same layout, no walls moved. Semi-custom cabinets, quartz counters, mid-tier appliances, new flooring, new lighting, new sink and faucet. Plumbing and gas stay where they are. This is the right tier for a kitchen with a functional layout and tired finishes.
**$75,000 to $130,000 — the full gut.** Everything above plus a reconfigured layout, a relocated sink or range, an island with power and possibly plumbing, upgraded electrical, new windows, and better appliances. This is where most Los Angeles kitchen projects land.
**$150,000 to $300,000-plus — high end.** Custom cabinetry built to the room, slab stone with waterfall ends and full-height backsplash, professional appliance suite (a 48-inch range alone is $12,000 to $22,000), integrated refrigeration, structural work to open the kitchen to living space, custom millwork and specialty lighting.
Square footage matters less than you would expect. A 180 sq ft galley in Silver Lake and a 320 sq ft kitchen in Sherman Oaks can cost within 15 percent of each other, because the cost sits in the appliance wall, the plumbing wall and the cabinet run.
Pro Tip
Decide your tier before you start selecting finishes. Mixing a $130,000 appliance package into a $60,000 project is the most common way budgets break.
Line items on a $105,000 mid-range gut
For a roughly 220 sq ft Los Angeles kitchen, fully gutted with a modest layout change:
- Design, drawings and permit: $4,500 to $9,000 - Demolition and disposal: $3,000 to $5,500 - Framing and any structural modification: $3,000 to $14,000 - Plumbing rough and finish: $6,000 to $12,000 - Electrical rough and finish, including new circuits: $7,000 to $14,000 - HVAC modification and range hood ducting: $2,000 to $6,000 - Drywall and patching: $3,500 to $6,500 - Cabinets, semi-custom, 22 to 28 linear feet: $22,000 to $42,000 - Countertops, quartz, 55 to 70 sq ft plus island: $6,500 to $14,000 - Backsplash tile and installation: $2,500 to $6,500 - Flooring across kitchen and adjacent circulation: $6,000 to $14,000 - Appliance package, mid-tier: $12,000 to $25,000 - Sink, faucet, disposal, pot filler: $1,800 to $5,000 - Lighting — recessed, under-cabinet, decorative: $3,500 to $8,000 - Paint, trim, hardware, final details: $3,000 to $6,000
Add 12 to 15 percent contingency on top. On a pre-1970 house, use 15.
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Where money is well spent and where it is not
**Worth the money:**
- **Cabinet construction.** Plywood boxes, full-extension soft-close hardware, and drawers instead of lower doors. This is the part you touch daily for twenty years. - **Layout and structural work.** Moving a wall or relocating plumbing is disruptive and expensive, so it only ever gets done once. If the layout is wrong, fix it now. - **Ventilation.** An undersized hood makes a beautiful kitchen unpleasant to cook in. - **Lighting design.** Layered light — recessed, under-cabinet task lighting and decorative fixtures on separate switches — transforms a room for $3,500 to $8,000.
**Usually not worth it:**
- **Exotic slab on every surface.** Quartz on perimeter runs with one statement stone island gets 90 percent of the effect at 50 percent of the stone cost. - **Built-in refrigeration in a $70,000 kitchen.** A $14,000 integrated fridge in a project at that budget starves the rest of the room. - **Pot fillers.** They cost $900 to $2,200 installed and most people use them twice. - **Trend-heavy tile.** Backsplash is cheap to change later; cabinets are not. Take risks on the tile, not the boxes.
Timeline and living through it
A full mid-range gut runs 8 to 14 weeks of on-site work, plus 4 to 8 weeks before that for design, selections and cabinet lead time. Custom cabinetry alone is often 8 to 12 weeks from approved drawings.
The realistic sequence: demolition (week 1), rough framing and structural (weeks 1 to 2), rough plumbing, electrical and HVAC with inspections (weeks 2 to 4), insulation and drywall (weeks 4 to 5), flooring (week 5 to 6), cabinet installation (weeks 6 to 8), countertop templating and fabrication — a hard two-week wait after cabinets are set — then backsplash, appliances, plumbing trim, electrical trim and paint (weeks 9 to 12).
The countertop gap is unavoidable. Stone cannot be templated until cabinets are installed and level, and fabrication takes 10 to 14 days. Plan for it rather than being surprised by it.
Set up a temporary kitchen before demolition: refrigerator in the garage or dining room, microwave, kettle, a folding table. Families who skip this eat out for three months and add several thousand dollars to the real cost of the project.
Pro Tip
Order cabinets and appliances before demolition day. A kitchen sitting open waiting on a back-ordered range is the most expensive kind of delay.
Final Thoughts
Most Los Angeles kitchen remodels land between $75,000 and $130,000, with cabinets and labour taking the majority of it. Set your tier first, then select finishes to fit. Investigate the panel, the drain lines and the presence of asbestos before you sign anything, because those three findings account for most of the budget overruns we see. Spend on the layout, the cabinet boxes, the ventilation and the lighting. Everything else is negotiable.
Frequently Asked Questions
A modest refresh keeping the existing layout runs $45,000 to $75,000. A full gut with a layout change runs $75,000 to $130,000, which is where most LA projects land. High-end work with custom cabinetry and a professional appliance suite runs $150,000 to $300,000 and above.
Cabinets and labour, which together typically account for 55 to 65 percent of the budget. Semi-custom cabinets for a 22 to 28 linear foot kitchen run $22,000 to $42,000. Countertops, which homeowners often worry about most, are usually only 6 to 10 percent of the total.
If the wall is non-bearing, $1,500 to $4,000. If it carries load, you need an engineer, a beam and a continuous load path to the foundation. In a single-storey house that might be $4,000 to $9,000. In a two-storey home requiring a steel beam and new footings, $14,000 to $35,000.
Eight to fourteen weeks of on-site work, plus four to eight weeks beforehand for design, selections and cabinet lead time. Custom cabinets alone often take 8 to 12 weeks. There is also an unavoidable two-week gap after cabinet installation while stone countertops are templated and fabricated.
Yes, for anything involving electrical, plumbing, gas relocation or structural change, which covers nearly every gut remodel. A like-for-like cosmetic refresh with no system work may not require one. Permits protect you at resale and are required for the inspections that verify the work was done correctly.
