Whatever your budget, from small to sky-high, it’s entirely possible to get a gorgeous new kitchen. The key is finding a great designer—someone who has a passion for excellence, an eye for creativity, and the ability to discover what will work best for you. Even projects with extremely high budgets can turn into disasters without a skilled professional to help guide design choices, while projects with more modest funds can have beautiful outcomes with the right help.

Don’t be daunted by so-called “high-end designers,” either. There’s nothing more satisfying than having someone who thinks that they can’t afford design services walk into a showroom and discover that they can redo a kitchen within their budget. Some hard choices might have to be made, and some concessions allowed, but it’s possible to spend the same amount or slightly more money by working with a talented designer as you would shopping by yourself at a big box store and, as a result, get much more bang for your buck!

How is this feasible? Consider the design process. First, a designer might sit down with you and draw your current kitchen on paper. You would talk about your likes and dislikes of your present set-up, as well as discussing a wish list and anything else the designer should know. After working together for an hour, a design plan could be created that would show how your ideal kitchen would function, where the appliances would be located, and which appliances might work best.  After establishing a floor plan, the designer would have an idea of linear footage of cabinets, countertops, and the types of appliances needed. Using all these details, the designer could then work up a project cost estimate with budget limitations in mind.  Once a designer’s services are retained, the final design and price would be set.

If the price comes out too high, the designer can help make choices that bring the expense back within a better range. Take cabinets, as one of the most expensive examples in any kitchen remodel. For a savvy designer, it’s very possible to keep the aesthetic high while keeping costs low by changes such as the following:

1. Switch the wood species and/or finish on the cabinets.
2. Don’t go to the ceiling with all of the cabinets; perhaps use this design feature only above the refrigerator, hood, and pantry for best effect. 
3. Simply take a wall cabinet(s) out and leave that space free for artwork.  Relief from too many cabinets will usually make the kitchen feel more “designed.”
4. For painted finishes, don’t order prefinished crown molding from the cabinet manufacturer; instead, have the contractor provide it and paint it on site.  You’ll get a better finished product this way since the contractor can miter, sand, and fill the corners himself before putting on the finish coat of paint.  In some cases, this can save upwards of $1,000.
5. Rather than an island made of cabinets, buy a table that goes with the style of the kitchen and put in the middle of the room. This can function as extra counter/seating space.  Then if you need more storage in the future, it’s easy to put an island in when you can afford it.
6. Don’t buy pantry cabinets. As an alternative, have the contractor build a wall with a pantry behind regular doors.  A nice touch is to use frosted glass doors so that it adds some architectural interest.
7. Take out an end base cabinet and have the counter extend over that space.  Add some “floating” shelves or bracketed shelving underneath.  This can add visual interest to the room. 
8. Another option is to completely forgo wall cabinets. Instead, put in open shelves for dishes and serving dishes.  Dishes always look neat on open shelves, and since they’re constantly being used and washed, they won’t get dusty. If you don’t like open shelves, you can still eliminate the wall cabinets by using a large bank of drawers for your dishes, which is also more ergonomic. You can get drawers made for this with screw-in dowels to keep the dishes from moving around when the drawers are opened or closed.  Use the top drawer of a cabinet for spices, and for other necessary cooking items (such as olive oil, boxes of pasta, etc.) install a shallow cabinet.
9. Use a higher backsplash (around 7-9”) and then paint the walls instead of tiling them.
10. Don’t use a corner lazy Susan or swing-out cabinets, both of which can be very expensive.  If you can afford to lose the storage space, just leave the corner as-is and it will be covered with the countertop.

A good designer would have a whole host of other cost-saving design ideas up their sleeve that they can share with clients on modest budgets. Other helpful hints? Instead of expensive stone of tile countertops, try laminate. There are some great choices of laminate out now, and the counter is pretty easy to change out later.  Money can also be saved on lighting; try to do without under-cabinet lights and keep the ceiling lighting you already have if it’s decent enough. Keep your wood flooring, or see if there is wood flooring under the existing vinyl floor and if so, refinish it.  

In the end, a knowledgeable designer can be worth their weight in gold. From making informed decisions about which kitchen improvements can be trimmed to save money or helping swap out pricey finish options for just as nice, but less expensive options, to assisting in choice of contractor, there are many ways to trim costs while still creating a wonderful new kitchen. That’s money well spent.