How Much Does Kitchen Design Cost?
The honest answer: anywhere from a few hundred dollars for a quick online layout to five figures for a full-service local studio. The useful answer is knowing what drives the price — and what you should get for it. Here is how kitchen design pricing actually works, with our own numbers included.
The three ways designers charge
| Model | Typical range | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Commonly $75–200/hr in the US | The total is open-ended — revisions add hours, and you learn the real cost at the end. |
| Percentage of project | Often 8–15% of the renovation budget | The fee grows with the budget, which rewards more expensive choices, not better ones. |
| Fixed price per room | Set before work starts | You compare like with like. The scope has to be written down — read it. |
None of these is wrong. But for a kitchen — one room, a known scope — a fixed price is the model where the client carries the least risk. That is why we use it.
Our fixed packages
| Package | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Space planning & organisation | from $1,000 per room | Measured layout options, storage planning, and a dimensioned plan you can hand to any contractor. |
| Full kitchen design | from $1,500 per room | Layout, 3D renderings, materials and appliance coordination — the complete picture before you commit to anything. |
| Custom cabinetry design | from $3,000 per room | Everything above plus shop-ready drawings and specifications a cabinet maker builds from directly. |
The price is agreed before we start and does not change with your renovation budget. We work online with clients across the US — measurements and photos from you, drawings and video calls from us.
What actually drives the price up
Three things, in every studio: custom cabinetry (each unit is drawn and specified individually), structural changes (moving plumbing, walls or openings pulls in more coordination), and revision rounds (the reason hourly projects drift). A galley kitchen with stock cabinets and a straightforward layout sits at the bottom of any range; a full custom kitchen with an island, panel-ready appliances and millwork details sits at the top.
Why online design costs less
A local studio’s fee carries showroom rent and site visits. Online, you pay for design time only. What you give up is someone standing in your kitchen with a tape measure — so the process leans on your measurements and photos, and on a designer who checks everything twice. Every appliance in our drawings is verified against its installation manual, and open questions are marked on the drawings themselves, not left in an email thread.
How to compare quotes
Ask three questions. Is the price fixed or open-ended? Exactly which drawings do I receive — a mood board, or dimensioned plans a contractor can build from? And who coordinates appliances, plumbing and electrical against the cabinets? The cheapest quote that answers all three well is usually the right one.
See what the deliverables look like. Our packages and process for homeowners: online kitchen design. A real 12-sheet drawing set, published openly: the sample set.
Send a photo of your kitchen and a rough plan — we will tell you which package fits and quote a fixed price: get a quote.