DIY Kitchen building: The ultimate guide + providers to consider

• If you’re paying the experts and tradies to do it you can expect a kitchen renovation to start at around $20,000 for a quick refresh of all surfaces, without moving any services or making structural changes. 

• The average kitchen reno costs somewhere between $30,000 and $45,000. 

• A high end renovation with custom cabinetry, premium materials, and big changes, costs $45,000 to $100,000+. The sky’s the limit!

On the other hand, if you’re doing it yourself your reno can cost a few thousand if you’re reusing fittings and recycling materials. If you’re buying new cabinetry, prices will start at around $2,000 and go up from there, most likely going up above $10,000 if you’re replacing fittings, fixtures and appliances. 

Keep in mind: the main cost of any kitchen renovation is labour, or in other words time. So if you’re DIYing know that you’ll be the one spending the time building your kitchen and putting everything together. You might need time off work, to work weekends and evenings, and you’ll be without a kitchen for at least a couple weeks.

Trust me, your kitchen renovation will take longer than you think. With help from a designer, joiner, builder, plumber, and sparky, it took us around 4 months to design, consent, and build a brand new mid-range kitchen, including custom joinery. 

If you’re DIYing you may be able to do it quicker (or it could very well take longer) depending on how much work you’re doing, how busy you are, and whether you need trades to help with anything. If you’re building something like a Kaboodle Kitchen (probably NZ’s most popular brand of DIY modular kitchens), then you can buy most modular sections off the shelf. Custom cabinetry will usually take at least 4 weeks to order. After that, building and finishing will take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks or more. 

One of the hardest parts of any DIY kitchen renovations is figuring out what you’re capable of doing and what’s best left to the professionals. As a general rule only professionals can do:

• Plumbing (unless it’s very minor).

• Electrical (unless it’s very minor).

• Gasfitting. 

• Any work that requires consent (unless you meet owner builder criteria). 

• Any work critical to a structure of a building unless you have the proper qualifications. 

That means you may be able to do minor plumbing and electrical work, demolition, build cabinetry, install appliances, non-structural building work, paint, tile, lay vinyl, install benchtops, and do other minor alterations. 

All of this stuff requires varying levels of skill, and if you’re reasonably handy the only barrier to learning a skill is time, and practice. Make sure you’ve got plenty of time to watch Youtube videos, speak to experts, and read how-to guides, and get some practice in before you commit to doing anything, especially if you’re doing a tricky job like tiling. 

And if you’re not handy, and (like me) can’t even build kitset furniture, it’s best to know your limits and get the help you need. Maybe stick to your day job!

Every kitchen renovation is different, so obviously the process will depend entirely on what you’re doing. But to give you an idea of the order of everything so you can plan, here’s a rough walkthrough of the order of things:

If you’re fully DIYing your kitchen it’s a good idea to spend lots of time in the design phase and get experts to check your work. If you’d like a little more help brands like Kaboodle Kitchens offer consults, and online tools that can make this bit easier. 

Here’s a great article by Kaboodle covering the basics of design. 

2. Order cabinetry + benchtop and remove existing

As soon as your design is done, it’s a good idea to place an order for cabinetry and benchtop, or buy the materials you’ll need to build it as this can often take up to two months. When you know your cabinetry is about to arrive you can remove your older cabinetry, tiling, fixtures and anything else necessary to get your space ready. You’ll probably need a skip or at least a trailer for this bit. 

3. Complete structural work, move services, install flooring

If you’re doing any building work, like building a butler’s pantry, or adding a window, now’s the time - before cabinetry arrives. It’s also a good time to move plumbing, electrical, or gas services if need be, as it’s easier to do when your kitchen’s bare. 

Lastly, it’s time to install your flooring, if you’re using tiles, hardwood, or glued vinyl (if you’re using a floating floor it may be best to install after cabinetry goes in).

You could build your kitchen custom, from scratch but if you’re not a joiner results may vary, and the work could take several months. A better option for most is to order premade cabinets, that you can then install yourself - here are a few of the most well known providers to consider.

Kaboodle Kitchens

Probably the most well known DIY kitchen seller in the country, as they operate out of Bunnings. The good thing is, they’re affordable, you can buy some modular cabinetry at Bunnings, there’s a relatively short lead time for custom stuff, and they have a fairly useful online kitchen design tool. The bad is, recent reviews have highlighted poor customer service and variable quality.

Cabjaks

Cabjaks are an Auckland based modular and custom kitchen maker, with great online reviews. They offer quick delivery of pre-manufactured components, a handy online kitchen planner, and installation guides if you’re doing it yourself. 

Ezy Kitchens

EZY kitchens deliver nationwide and have showrooms all over the South Island. They have a huge range of pre-manufactured modular kitchen cabinetry, with which you can design your own affordable kitchen. You could go down the custom route with the help of their inhouse designers, or use their online tool to design your own. 

Peter Hay Kitchens

Peter Hay Kitchens have an online design tool that helps you design your own kitchen, then they manufacture all components and deliver within 15 days. Shipping is free for all orders of $4000.00 + GST and above, and there are 40 colour options to choose from, but they don’t do benchtops. Online reviews are generally positive (3.9/5). 

UDUIT

UDUIT reckon they’ve “made it simpler than ever to design, order, and install your own dream kitchen.” This NZ based manufacturer sells DIY, flatpack kitchen kits, dispatched in seven working days, with step-by-step instructions, video guides, and 26 colour options. Their Google reviews are near perfect with 15 reviews and 4.8/5.