Reference photograph: a kitchen part-installed and still sheeted. By this stage every decision that moves a figure has already been made on paper.

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Measure book — guide, planning and cost

What drives kitchen renovation costs in Melbourne

Two kitchens of identical size, in the same Moorabbin street, can land a long way apart — and rarely because one trade is dearer than another. The distance sits in how many metres of joinery are being made, what the benchtop is cut from and how often it is joined, how far the sink and the power have to travel, and whether the room is being refinished or genuinely rebuilt.

This guide sets out where cost gathers, how the three scopes differ, and why a figure offered before anyone has put a tape on the wall is a guess with a decimal point attached.

See what a complete renovation covers

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Field note — where the money gathers

Four lines carry most of the total; the rest is a long tail of small figures.

Cost concentrates in four places

A kitchen quote is never one price. It is four substantial figures and a long tail of smaller ones, and the substantial figures land in the same places on almost every job.

Cabinetry: quantity first, finish second

Joinery is priced by the metre before it is priced by the door. Each additional cabinet is a carcass, a front, hinges or runners and a length of scribing against a wall that is rarely straight. Drawer banks cost more than cupboards because the hardware carries load, and a pantry or an island multiplies both. Finish then sits on top: laminate, painted board, veneer and two-pack each move the same run of cabinets to a different level, and anything made to measure for an awkward corner is drawn and built once.

Benchtops: material, edge and every join

The slab matters, but the plan drawn over it matters just as much. An island adds a second run and a second template. Mitred edges are fabrication hours. Every join, every sink and cooktop cut-out, every waterfall end is work done in a workshop before anything reaches the house. Comparing benchtop materials only tells half the story until the layout is settled.

Appliances: the line you control most

Specification is the one decision that is almost entirely yours, and it moves further than most people expect. Integration is the hidden part: an integrated dishwasher or fridge needs a matching panel, a precise cavity and tight tolerances, so the appliance choice quietly rewrites the joinery drawing as well.

Services: how far the sink and the power move

Relocating a waste, a gas point or a circuit is where a renovation becomes a build. Walls or floors open, trades attend twice — rough-in, then fit-off — and everything opened has to be made good, levelled and re-sheeted before cabinetry can be fixed. Holding the wet zone where it already sits usually saves more than any finish decision, which is precisely the sort of trade-off the design stage exists to test.

Reference photograph: timber fronts, a dark benchtop, a mosaic splashback and integrated appliances — the material and appliance choices that move a figure further than any trade rate does.

Field note — scope

Three scopes, three different sums

Most budget disagreements are really scope disagreements. Makeover, remodel and complete renovation are used loosely and mean very different amounts of work, so the sums they produce are not comparable until the word is settled.

The same six questions are put to each scope below, in the same order, so the three columns can be read straight across.

Scope A — least disturbance

Makeover

What is disturbedSurfaces only. Walls, floors and carcasses stay closed.

Where cost concentratesThe benchtop and the fronts — two lines, and little behind them.

Services movedNone. Sink, gas and circuits hold their existing positions.

CabinetrySound carcasses kept; new doors, drawer fronts and handles.

Benchtop and splashbackNew top templated off the cabinets you are keeping; splashback renewed behind it.

What the design stage producesA finish schedule and a set of door and benchtop sizes.

Kitchen Makeovers

Scope B — the plan moves

Remodel

What is disturbedPart of the room: some wall and floor opened where the plan changes.

Where cost concentratesRelocation, and making good after the trades have been.

Services movedSome: a waste, a gas point or a circuit repositioned to suit the new plan.

CabinetryNew joinery in a reworked footprint — a bank moved, an island added.

Benchtop and splashbackNew top over the new plan, often with a join or a return the old layout never had.

What the design stage producesA revised plan, elevations and a service set-out to price against.

Kitchen Remodelling

Scope C — back to bare walls

Complete renovation

What is disturbedThe whole room, stripped back to bare walls and floor.

Where cost concentratesJoinery volume, and the trades that attend twice — rough-in, then fit-off.

Services movedSet out fresh; the wet zone and power go wherever the design puts them.

CabinetryThe full run drawn and built new, to the ceiling where the design asks for it.

Benchtop and splashbackBoth specified early, then templated and installed in sequence after cabinetry is fixed.

What the design stage producesFull documentation — plan, elevations, joinery and finishes — priced as one scope.

Complete Kitchen Renovations

Why a meaningful figure follows the measure

A number can be produced from a room size in about a minute. It will be wrong in one direction or the other, and the correction always arrives later, once walls are open and the slab has been ordered. A measure and a design exist to remove that correction.

What an estimator is actually reading on site is narrower than people assume: the true dimensions rather than the remembered ones, how far the floor falls and the walls lean, where the waste, gas and circuits genuinely sit, whether the existing carcasses are sound enough to keep, and what you intend the kitchen to do once it is finished. Those five readings decide the scope, and the scope decides the figure.

Tell us the suburb and something about the kitchen you have, and the measure is arranged from there — start a quote enquiry or send a question through contact.

Field note — page four

A figure given before the tape comes out is a figure someone will later have to take back.

Moorabbin, Highett, Hampton East, Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, Cheltenham, Mentone and Heatherton share a housing record, so the footprints repeat — but the services behind them almost never do.

Measure book — before you ask

Six things to settle before you ask for a number

Answer these and two quotes become genuinely comparable. Leave them open and every quote is priced against a different kitchen.

01 Is the layout staying or moving?
The single largest fork in the road; everything else follows it.

02 How many metres of joinery, and how tall?
Overheads to the ceiling change both the quantity and the install.

03 Drawers or doors below the bench?
A storage decision first, a hardware cost second.

04 Which benchtop family, and how many joins?
Material and fabrication are two separate lines on the same page.

05 Freestanding appliances or integrated?
Integration adds panels, cavities and tolerance to the cabinetry.

06 Splashback: tile, stone or glass, and how high?
Full height to the underside of the overheads is a different job to a band. See splashbacks.

Index — read next

Where this guide leads

Cost is the sum of decisions made elsewhere. These are the decisions.

Planning a Kitchen Renovation Step by Step — the order decisions should be made in.

Benchtop Materials Compared for Real Kitchens — how each surface behaves once it is in daily use.

Kitchen Layouts Explained: Galley, L-Shape and Island — what each footprint allows before cost enters it.

Choosing Kitchen Cabinetry: Doors, Finishes and Hardware — the finish level that sits on top of the quantity.

Small Kitchen Ideas for Bayside Units and Galleys — getting more from fewer metres of joinery.

Measure book — closing the page

Scope first, finishes second, figure last

Cabinetry quantity, benchtop fabrication, appliance specification and how far the services move — those four lines carry a kitchen renovation in Moorabbin and across the bayside suburbs. Settle the scope, then the finishes, and the figure stops being a range and becomes a quote you can hold someone to.

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