This Is What a $150,000 Kitchen Renovation Looks Like — And Yes, It’s All That

Linda Jayne’s mid-’90s ranch-style home in West Palm Beach served the family well for more than 20 years as she and her husband raised their three kids. During that time, they barely did any renovation work inside, focusing instead on barns for their horses! But after two decades, Linda decided it was time for an update. For her new kitchen, she wanted a polished, classic look and she entrusted interior designer Heather Weisz of HW Interiors to get it done. 

Heather and her team developed a plan to rebuild the kitchen from scratch and create a warm and welcoming space with clean lines. The renovation took three months and cost around $150,000 to complete, but Linda says it was worth every penny. “I was blown away,” she says. It was everything she hoped for, “and then some.”

Once Linda signed off on the design plan, the contractors came in and tore everything down to the studs. (The demo alone cost $9,000, in case you’re wondering.) Next, they expanded the laundry room and added a sliding door to keep the area separate.

Back in the kitchen, they installed gleaming new engineered hardwood floors (vital in Florida’s humid climate!), custom cabinets, and a new island with waterfall countertops to create a modern foundation.

They also installed new appliances, including a gorgeous 36-inch Wolf induction stove. Linda says getting the oven was one of her best decisions — and it almost didn’t happen. When she was looking at appliances, she recalls saying, “I don’t need much of an oven. I’m not a very good cook.” Her husband pointed out that they were making a beautiful kitchen, so “Why would you just have a little oven?” 

Choosing the bigger, chef-grade oven turned out to be fortuitous because they finished the kitchen not long before the pandemic began. With so much time spent at home, “I ended up cooking so much more and now I enjoy it so much more,” Linda says. “I love to cook there and if I had done what I was going to do, it probably wouldn’t have been near as nice.”

As for paint, Heather chose Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy to lend the island a pop of sophisticated color against the clean, crisp Chantilly Lace on the cabinets, and framed the range hood in the same blue. (Side note: Punching up the kitchen with an accent color on the island or some other detail is a smart move that can be replicated in any size renovation budget.)

Brushed brass accents and hand-blown light fixtures also pop. (And hardware changes like that are another way to ratchet up the drama without the corresponding bill!)

• Hired HW Interiors
• Signed off on the kitchen design
• Contractors tore everything out down to the studs
• Enlarged the laundry room (adding a sliding door to keep it separate)
• Put in new, engineered hardwood floors
• Installed custom cabinetry and the even bigger island
• Installed appliances
• Installed new lighting
• Painted
• Installed Italian porcelain counters from SapienStone

The end result is just as stunning as you’d expect. “I remember thinking when we were all locked down during COVID, how blessed are my husband and myself to be able to be … in this home,” she says. “It was just so, so nice and I constantly would say thank you so much, I would text [the designers] and say thank you.”