Kitchen is the most important part of the home. We become who we are, with what is made in the kitchen. We cook our food and spend a great deal of time in there. A well designed and a well made kitchen helps our well being - is energy centre of every family. Given this, while allocating budget for interiors, we allocate a significant share to kitchen. It is be a complex project but worth the effort, once it is ready.

There are a lot of options for getting your kitchen done

(Indicative budgets for 8ftx12ft parallel kitchen. All kitchen fittings, they would cost extra on top of these base numbers)

1. Local modular kitchen with MDF Carcass (factory built & assembled onsite) ( Budget 1-2L)

2. Kitchen built onsite with traditional carpentry (Budget 2-3L) : High Customisability, Durability

3. Websites like Homelane, Urbanladder, who manufacture the kitchen with modern equipment and is assembled onsite. (Budget 3-5L) : Factory Finish

4. Premium kitchens like Nolte, Venita Cuchine which are manufactured abroad and shipped to India (Budget 5-10L+) : Expensive, excellent finish

With a DIY Kitchen, your aim is to get the quality of Option 3 within 1.5L

Steps for a DIY kitchen

1. Design - get a designer to do it or copy a well designed existing kitchen to start-off

2. Carcass & Overhead Cabinets- Use BWR 19mm plywood, laminated on inside and Teak beading on all the edges. OH Cabinets would take additional skill to get the frame right as well as to mount the cabinet body on the wall.

3. Doors - Get the doors factory made after carcass and overhead cabinets are installed. Doors would cost between 250 to 1500 per sqft depending on the material used and the finish desired. This would give a factory finish to the most visible part of the kitchen at an affordable cost.

4. Installation - Fit Doors and Hardware fittings in the carcass and finish. Fix the doors and hardware fittings yourself, using a manual screwdriver. (Avoid powered screwdrivers)

Budgeting:

Reference Price for a factory made Marine Plywood Kitchen(only woodwork) : Rs 1900 psft 1.7 to 2.0L

Material Estimate (for an 84sqft kitchen of wall area)

a. Carcass and Overhead Cabinets : 40K : Making charges if you get a carpenter to do it: 20k

b. DIY Ply Doors : KitPly@115 + Lamination @ 100 + TeakBeading @ 20 = 250 psft ->25K

HDF Doors @ 250 ~ 500 psft, profesional installation @ 250 psft -> 50K (http://nushutter.com )

c. Material Cost incl 10K of hardware fittings : 75K -> 840psft

Additional Hardware fittings of 50K, would take total material budget to 1.25K.

If you are getting the kitchen built by a carpenter, adding 40-50% for labour gets us to Rs 1100 psft.

Planning & Design : Atleast 1 month

Plan everything right down to the last screw and create detailed shopping list. It will save you multiple trips to the market for all the accessories and avoid costly reworks.

Build

Readiness Check : Wiring, Gas Plumbing, Hood Exhaust Core Cutting, Water Purifier Plumbing and Electrical, Granite cutting for Hobs : to be done before the installation of carcass.

Stage 1 : Carcass and OH Cabinets build and installation : 1 week

Stage 2 : Civil Work integration: Electrical Work, Cooktop install, openings for gas hob and install built-in appliances.

Stage 3 : Fit Doors and Accessories : 1 week

This will take atleast 2 weeks to build end to end (longer in a live kitchen).