Most kitchen projects that go badly were decided badly before anyone picked up a tool. The budget was a guess. The scope was never pinned down. Nobody worked out who was responsible for booking the electrician. The design was chosen before anyone knew what could be afforded.
None of that requires a contractor to fix. It requires a few evenings of honest thinking at the kitchen table, and it is the highest-value work you will do on the whole project.
This guide covers the groundwork: setting a budget that survives contact with reality, defining what you are actually doing, working out your priorities before someone else does it for you, and deciding how the project will be run. It stops where the quotes begin.
Written from over 20 years of kitchen renovations across Jersey, including plenty where the planning had been done well and a few where it had not.
Step one: decide what kind of project this is
Before any numbers, establish which of three jobs you are doing. They are wildly different in cost, disruption and complexity, and conflating them is the commonest planning error.
| Refresh | Replacement | Full renovation | |
| What changes | Doors, worktop, handles | All units, same layout | Layout, services, possibly structure |
| Carcasses | Kept | Replaced | Replaced |
| Services moved | No | Minor or none | Yes |
| Other trades | Minimal | Two or three | Four or more |
| Typical cost | £8,000 to £18,000 | £20,000 to £40,000 | £35,000 to £75,000+ |
| Room unusable | 1 to 2 weeks | 2 to 4 weeks | 4 to 10 weeks |
A refresh is dramatically underused. If your carcasses are sound and the layout works, replacing doors, worktop and handles transforms the room for a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the disruption. Before assuming you need a new kitchen, open a base unit and look at the carcass. If it is solid, square and dry, you may not.
Be honest about which you need. People frequently plan a replacement and end up doing a full renovation because, once the room is stripped, moving the sink “only three feet” becomes tempting. That decision made mid-project costs far more than the same decision made at planning stage.
Step two: set a budget that will survive
Almost every kitchen budget fails the same way: someone takes a cabinetry quote and treats it as the project total.
Cabinetry is roughly a third of a full renovation. That single fact, understood early, prevents most budget failures.
Building the number from the bottom up
Work through this rather than picking a figure:
| Element | Share of total |
| Cabinetry | 30 to 40% |
| Worktops | 8 to 15% |
| Appliances | 8 to 15% |
| Installation | 8 to 12% |
| Electrical | 4 to 8% |
| Plumbing | 3 to 6% |
| Plastering and making good | 3 to 6% |
| Flooring | 5 to 12% |
| Decorating | 2 to 4% |
| Strip-out and disposal | 1 to 3% |
| Contingency | 10 to 15% |
The quick method: decide what you can spend in total, take 35 percent of it, and that is roughly your cabinetry budget. If that number feels too small for the kitchen you want, your total is too small, not your cabinetry allocation.
The contingency is not optional
Hold back 10 to 15 percent in a modern property and 15 to 20 percent in an older one. Not as a comfort blanket but as a working assumption.
What it gets spent on:
- Damp behind units on an external wall
- Rotten floor structure beneath an old sink or dishwasher leak
- Electrics that will not take the new load
- Walls too soft to take fixings
- Missing lintels over openings
- Asbestos in older floor tiles or textured coatings
- Pipework that should be replaced while accessible
Most projects use some of it. A project in a granite or period property that uses none is unusual.
If you cannot afford the contingency, you cannot afford the project. Scale back the scope rather than proceeding without it.
Four budget questions worth answering
Where is the money coming from?
Savings, a loan, equity release, or a mix. If borrowing, get the figure confirmed before designing, because a design costed at £45,000 and a budget of £30,000 wastes everyone’s time.
What is the ceiling, as opposed to the target?
These are different numbers and you need both. The target is what you plan to spend. The ceiling is the point at which you would stop.
What is the kitchen worth relative to the house?
A rough guide is 5 to 10 percent of the property value for a kitchen you will use, and toward the lower end if you might sell within a few years. Spending 25 percent of a house’s value on a kitchen is unlikely to come back.
How long will you be here?
Under three years, spend less and prioritise what shows. Over ten, spend on what lasts.
Step three: separate needs from wants
Do this before anyone shows you a brochure, because it is much harder afterwards.
Write three lists.
Non-negotiables. Things the kitchen must do or the project has failed. Usually shorter than people expect. Genuine examples: somewhere to eat breakfast, a bin that is not across the room, enough worktop to prepare a meal, storage for a specific set of pans, space for two people to work.
Strong preferences. Things you would be disappointed to lose but could live without. An island. A particular worktop material. A larder cupboard. A double oven.
Nice to haves. Everything else. Integrated lighting, a boiling water tap, a wine cooler, specialist internal fittings.
Why this matters: when the quotes come in above budget, and they usually do, you will be making cuts under pressure. Having decided in advance what is expendable means those cuts are considered rather than panicked. Without the lists, people tend to cut whatever the designer suggests, which is often the wrong thing.
A useful discipline: if your non-negotiable list has more than five items on it, some of them are strong preferences in disguise.
Step four: understand where money buys the most
Not all spending returns the same value, and knowing this shapes where you compromise.
Worth prioritising:
- Carcass quality and construction. Determines whether the kitchen lasts twelve years or twenty-five, and it is the one thing you cannot upgrade later without starting again.
- Layout. A well-planned kitchen in modest materials beats a badly planned one in expensive materials, every time.
- Worktop. The most used and most visible surface in the room.
- Electrical work done properly. Redoing it later means pulling the kitchen apart.
- Moisture resistance and sealing. Invisible, cheap, and the difference between a kitchen that survives twenty years in a humid coastal property and one that swells at the edges by year six.
Safe to trim or defer:
- Appliances. Mid-range models do the same jobs as premium ones, and they can be upgraded individually later.
- Integrated lighting. Nice, and addable afterwards if the wiring is run now.
- Specialist internal fittings. Carousels, pull-outs and dividers can be retrofitted.
- Splashback material. Paint or simple tile serves until budget allows.
- Handles. The cheapest thing in the room to change.
- Decorating. Do it yourself.
The general principle: spend on what is structural, hidden or hard to change. Save on what is surface, visible or swappable.
Step five: decide how the project will be run
This is the decision most people never consciously make, and it has more effect on how the project feels than almost anything else.
The two routes
| Managing it yourself | One contractor | |
| You book | Every trade individually | One company |
| Cost | 10 to 20% lower | Includes a coordination margin |
| Scheduling | Your responsibility | Theirs |
| Gaps between trades | Your problem | Their problem |
| If something goes wrong | You establish who is at fault | One party responsible |
| Your time commitment | Substantial, most days | Occasional decisions |
| Best suited to | Refreshes, simple replacements | Full renovations |
Managing it yourself
What it genuinely saves: the coordination margin, typically 10 to 20 percent of the project cost. On a £35,000 renovation that is £3,500 to £7,000, which is not trivial.
What it actually involves:
- Sourcing and vetting five or six trades
- Sequencing them correctly, since each depends on the one before
- Being available to let people in, answer questions and make decisions, most working days
- Chasing when someone does not turn up
- Ordering all materials and having them on site at the right time
- Resolving disputes when one trade says another’s work is not right
- Absorbing the delay when one trade slips and the next has moved on to another job
Who it suits: people who have done it before, people with flexible working arrangements, and people doing a refresh or a simple replacement with two or three trades involved.
Where it goes wrong: the gaps. A plasterer finishes on Wednesday, the flooring fitter cannot come until the following Thursday, and the kitchen fitter has taken another job in the meantime. Nobody is at fault and the project has lost two weeks.
Using one contractor
What you pay for: somebody else owning the schedule, the sequencing, the trade relationships and the problems.
The practical benefits:
- Trades that work together regularly and will fit around each other
- One phone number when something needs deciding
- Nobody able to blame another contractor
- Materials ordering coordinated with the schedule
- Discoveries handled without you having to find a specialist
Who it suits: full renovations, structural work, older properties where discoveries are likely, and anyone who works full time.
What to check: that “supply and fit” means what you think. Some quotes cover cabinetry and installation only, leaving you to book the electrician, plumber, plasterer and flooring fitter. Others cover the entire project. Both are legitimate, and the price difference between them is large. Ask explicitly what is inside the price and what sits outside it.
The middle route
Common and sensible: one contractor for the kitchen and the trades that touch it, with you handling the peripheral work like decorating and flooring at your own pace afterward. It captures most of the coordination benefit while saving on the parts that are genuinely separable.
Step six: work out your timing
Two separate questions: when to start, and how long you can cope without a kitchen.
Working backwards from a date
Most kitchen projects run eight to fourteen weeks from survey to finish, with three to six weeks unusable. Allow a further one to two weeks to get a survey booked.
| If you want it finished by | Start the conversation |
| Christmas | Late August |
| A summer event | March |
| Before a baby arrives | 5 months ahead |
| Before moving in | As soon as you have keys |
| Before going on the market | 4 months ahead |
Add three weeks of personal buffer beyond whatever you are quoted.
Choosing when to be without a kitchen
If the timing is flexible, some periods are easier than others.
- Spring and early autumn are the most comfortable, since barbecuing and eating outside are options and plaster dries reasonably.
- Winter is the hardest. Plaster dries slowly, outdoor cooking is unavailable, and being indoors around a building site for six weeks is wearing.
- Avoid running into Christmas. A project scheduled to finish in mid-December will finish in January if anything slips, and everything slips in December.
- School holidays work for some families and are impossible for others. Decide which you are.
Plan the survival arrangements now
Three to six weeks is longer than people picture.
- Where will the fridge go?
- Where will you wash up?
- What will you cook on: microwave, air fryer, hotplate?
- Where will the kitchen’s contents be stored?
- What is the realistic budget for eating out, often £600 to £1,200 for a family over six weeks?
The single best preparation: batch cook and freeze two weeks of meals before strip-out begins.
Step seven: gather what you need before contacting anyone
Arriving at a survey prepared saves weeks later.
Measurements. Rough room dimensions, ceiling height, and window and door positions. A contractor will measure properly, but your sketch lets meaningful conversations happen at the first visit.
Photographs. The room from several angles, including the awkward corners, the consumer unit, the boiler and where services enter.
Your three lists. Non-negotiables, strong preferences, nice to haves.
The frustration list. What annoys you about the current kitchen, specifically and practically.
Your inventory. What you own that needs storing, including the small appliances that currently live on the worktop.
Your budget. Both the target and the ceiling. Withholding this from a designer wastes your time more than theirs, because they will design to a guess.
Your timing. Any fixed dates, and how long you can manage without the room.
Inspiration, used carefully. Images are useful for communicating a look, but be aware that most kitchen photography shows large rooms in good light with nothing on the worktops. Bring the images, but talk about what you like in them rather than expecting a copy.
Step eight: know what you are checking in a quote
You are not quoting yet, but knowing what you will be comparing shapes how you brief.
Ask every company to price the same defined scope, and to state:
- What is included and, specifically, what is excluded
- Whether other trades are inside the price or your responsibility
- Whether carcasses are made to your room or standard sizes with filler panels
- Materials and grades, named rather than described as “quality”
- The finish, including method
- Worktop material, and when it can be templated
- Whether appliances are supplied
- Payment stages
- Lead time, separating the wait to start from the build itself
- Guarantee term and what it covers
- Public liability insurance
A quote for an undefined scope is not comparable to anything. Writing a one-page brief and giving the same one to each company is the single most useful hour of the whole quoting process.
Planning for an older property
Jersey’s housing stock changes several of the calculations above.
- Raise the contingency to 15 to 20 percent. Discoveries are the norm rather than the exception in granite and period buildings.
- Add two to three weeks to any timeline. Solid walls, slower plaster drying, more scribing at installation and more discoveries all take time.
- Expect more made-to-fit elements. Rubble walls that vary along their length, floors that fall, and non-standard ceiling heights mean standard units will leave gaps unless something is made to suit.
- Allow for shipping. Anything not held locally has to come across, which affects both cost and lead time. Settle specification early rather than mid-project.
- Budget for moisture resistance. Higher ambient humidity and cold solid external walls make moisture-resistant materials and fully sealed edges a practical requirement.
- Check before assuming a knock-through. It is the single most expensive decision available, and in an older building it brings a structural engineer, a beam, building control and plastering across a much larger area.
A planning checklist
Work through these before contacting anyone.
- Decide whether this is a refresh, a replacement or a full renovation
- Look inside an existing base unit to see whether the carcasses are sound
- Set a total budget, then take 35 percent of it as the cabinetry figure
- Add 10 to 20 percent contingency on top, depending on the age of the property
- Confirm where the money is coming from
- Write the non-negotiables, strong preferences and nice to haves
- List what frustrates you about the current kitchen
- Inventory what you own, including small appliances
- Decide whether you will manage the trades or use one contractor
- Choose a season, and work backwards from any fixed date
- Plan the temporary kitchen and where things will be stored
- Take rough measurements and photographs
- Write a one-page brief and give the same one to every company
Frequently asked questions
What should I do first when planning a kitchen renovation?
Decide whether you need a refresh, a replacement or a full renovation, then set a total budget and work out what that leaves for cabinetry. Cabinetry is around a third of a full renovation, so starting from a cabinetry quote produces a budget that fails.
How much contingency should I allow?
Ten to 15 percent in a modern property and 15 to 20 percent in an older one. Damp, rotten floor structure, inadequate electrics and walls that will not take fixings are all common discoveries once the old kitchen comes out.
Should I manage the trades myself?
For a refresh or a simple replacement with two or three trades, it is manageable and saves 10 to 20 percent. For a full renovation with five or six trades, most of the saving tends to disappear into scheduling gaps, and single-point responsibility is usually worth paying for.
How much should I spend on a kitchen?
A rough guide is 5 to 10 percent of the property value, toward the lower end if you might move within a few years. More important than the figure is that it includes every trade, the flooring and the contingency rather than just the units.
When is the best time of year to renovate a kitchen?
Spring and early autumn are easiest, since outdoor cooking is possible and plaster dries reasonably. Winter is hardest. Avoid any schedule that runs into December, because a slip of a week becomes a slip of a month.
Do I need to decide on appliances before the design?
Yes, before the cabinetry is made. Unit dimensions depend on exact models, and some appliances carry long lead times. Confirming models early is one of the simplest ways to avoid a delay.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation happens once you have done the thinking above. Scope decided, budget set including the contingency, priorities written down, and an honest view of how long you can live without the room. A survey then establishes what the walls, floors and services are actually doing, which is what turns your plan into a buildable one.
Davision Interiors Ltd has carried out kitchen renovations across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, handling full projects from strip-out to snagging including the cabinetry, the fit-out and the coordination of the trades around it, or working alongside trades you have booked yourself if you would rather run it that way. Spray finishing and French polishing are carried out in house. We will tell you honestly if a refresh would serve you better than a replacement. Every project starts with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.