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Measure book — the sequence

Our 12-step kitchen renovation process

A kitchen renovation is not one job. It is twelve stages that each hand something to the next: a figure, a decision, a flat wall, a fixed cabinet. This page sets out all twelve in order — what happens on site, what you decide, and what has to be settled before the following stage can begin. The same sequence runs whether the work is a complete renovation or a shorter makeover; the makeover simply skips fewer stages than people expect.

Start at stage one: book a measure and quote

Read how the design stage works

Twelve stages, four groups

01–04 Design
Consultation, Measure, Design, Quote

05 Supply
Materials

06–08 Build
Demolition, Preparation, Cabinetry

09–12 Finish
Benchtops, Splashback, Finishing, Handover

Each stage is only as accurate as the figures written down before it.

Reference photograph: plastic sheeting and brown paper taped down over new cabinetry and bench surfaces, with a work ladder left standing in the middle of the room — a kitchen covered rather than opened, which is what protection looks like once joinery is in and finishing trades are still working overhead.

Group one — Design

Stages 01–04.
Nothing is ordered.
Nothing is removed.

This group turns a room into figures somebody can price.

Consultation, Measure, Design, Quote

01 Consultation. We talk about how the kitchen fails you now — where the cooking actually happens, what never gets used, which wall the bin is behind, whether the problem is the layout or only the finishes. You decide the direction of the scope. What is locked: a written brief, including what stays.

02 Measure. Wall lengths taken at three heights, fall across the floor, ceiling height, window reveals, door swings, and the positions of waste, water, gas, power and the switchboard. In older Moorabbin and Bentleigh houses these rarely agree with the original plan. What is locked: the dimensions and service positions every later stage is cut to.

03 Design. Layouts are worked against the measured footprint, not a showroom ideal: bench runs, appliance positions, clearances, and the cabinetry configuration behind each door. You choose between the options. See Kitchen Design for what this stage produces. What is locked: layout, appliance schedule and cabinetry configuration.

04 Quote. The agreed design is priced line by line — cabinetry, benchtop, splashback, tiling, trades and making good. Anything excluded is named as excluded. What is locked: scope and inclusions, before a single item is ordered.

Group two — Supply / Stage 05

Materials

One stage, and the one most often left half-finished. Every selection is confirmed here so that the build sequence is never waiting on a decision. Stone is templated later, on the installed cabinets, but the slab itself is chosen now — benchtop material and edge profile change both the price and the carcass detail beneath.

A selection still open is a stage that cannot start.

Confirmed at this stage

Door finish, colour and handle — see Kitchen Cabinets

Any made-to-measure joinery items — see Custom Cabinetry

Internal fittings, drawer runners and pantry systems — see Kitchen Storage

Benchtop slab, thickness and edge

Splashback material and extent — see Kitchen Splashbacks

Floor and wall tiles, grout colour — see Kitchen Tiling

Sink, tapware and appliance models, with their cut-out dimensions

Group three — Build / 06

Demolition

The old kitchen comes out, services are made safe and isolated, and the room is stripped back to what is actually there. This is where the measure gets tested: soft floorboards, a patched wall, an old chimney breast, a waste in the wrong place. Anything found is reported before it is covered again.

Locked before the next stage: the condition of the walls, floor and services, recorded.

Group three — Build / 07

Preparation

Rough-in and making good: plumbing and electrical moved to the design positions, walls patched and brought flat, floors levelled, waterproofing to the wet zone, and noggins fixed where heavy joinery or a rangehood will hang. Almost none of it is visible at handover and all of it decides how the finishes sit.

Locked before the next stage: flat, dry, square surfaces and final service positions.

Group three — Build / 08

Cabinetry

Carcasses are set out, packed, levelled and fixed, then doors and drawer fronts are hung and adjusted to an even gap. From this point the room stops being a drawing: every measurement that follows is taken from the cabinets as installed, not from the plan.

Locked before the next stage: cabinet heights and runs, ready for templating.

Group four — Finish / Stages 09–12

Benchtops, Splashback, Finishing, Handover

09 Benchtops. The top is templated on the fixed cabinets, fabricated with its cut-outs for sink and cooktop, then fitted and joined. Nothing is cut from the design figures alone.

10 Splashback. Measured off the finished benchtop, so the plane meets the bench cleanly and reads level against the window reveal, rangehood and outlets.

11 Finishing. Plumbing and electrical fit-off, appliances installed and tested, kickboards, scribes and trims cut in, silicone lines run, paint touched up, doors given a final adjustment and the site cleaned.

12 Handover. We walk the kitchen together against the agreed scope, note anything to be corrected, and hand over the care advice for your surfaces and finishes along with appliance documentation.

Reference photograph: a finished compact kitchen at the point where bench, splashback and joinery all line up — the result of the last four stages being measured in order.

Stage one

Every kitchen we build starts with the same conversation

Tell us where the kitchen is, what the room is now and what you want it to do, and we will arrange the measure that the other eleven stages are built on. If you would rather read first, Planning a Kitchen Renovation Step by Step covers the decisions worth making before stage one, and Complete Kitchen Renovations shows the full scope this sequence delivers in Moorabbin, Highett, Bentleigh and the surrounding bayside suburbs.

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Margin note

Twelve stages, in this order, every time — the only thing that changes is how many of them your kitchen needs.

Related: Kitchen Design, Small Kitchen Renovations, Kitchen Remodelling.