Initial Budget: $40,000.

Final Cost: $40,000. The client saved $2,750 by keeping the same refrigerator and microwave ($1,800) and by doing all the painting ($950).

Client's Goals:

• Have the kitchen feel more like part of the living area of the house.

• Make more efficient use of existing kitchen, service porch and breakfast nook

• Modernize kitchen fixtures and appliances

• Move laundry area out of the kitchen

• Create more counterspace and enlarge work area

• Create a look that is unique yet does not work against adjacent areas

Designer's Solutions:

• Removed wall dividing kitchen and dining room to create a more open feel and join the kitchen with the rest of the house

• Installed a new header between the kitchen and dining room and added an arch, mimicking other arches in the house

• Used space more efficiently by choosing frameless cabinets and by removing the walls that defined the service porch and nook

• Relocated the water heater

• Relocated the washer and dryer to the storage room, creating space for the refrigerator and microwave

• Added a pantry cabinet to the laundry area

• Installed a new downdraft range, eliminating the need for a hood and maintaining the openness of the new design

• Chose slab doors to maintain the clean lines of the design and not compete with other colors and details

Cabinets: Custom, frameless cabinets with white melamine interiors and laminate slab doors with eased edge. Accessories: Roll-out shelves, adjustable shelves, tip-out shelf, cutlery insert, trash drawer and brushed stainless steel pulls.

Appliances: Thermador dual-fuel range with downdraft and remote blower, GE dishwasher

Countertops: Laminate countertops with a square edge and 4-inch backsplash

Flooring: Laminate

Sink: Kohler self-rimming sink in white, stainless strainer, disposal

Faucet: White Kohler faucet and soap dispenser

Lighting: 11 recessed lights, 3 low-volt lights over bar area, puck-type lights in soffit

Initial Budget: $35,393

Final Cost: $38,691. The following client-selected changes increased the price: Adding a new front door and more trim work, and installing the floor tile on the diagonal, which required more labor.

Client's Goals:

• Organize, organize, organize!

• Bring in more light

• Increase efficiency

• Incorporate ample display space for collectibles

• Create a soft, warm and welcoming kitchen

Designers' Solutions:

• Relocated the appliances and sink to accommodate new layout

• Removed existing closet and replace with new coordinating pantry cabinet

• Bumped out open shelving unit to create visual interest and prominent display area

• Mullioned glass doors on the flanking cabinets provided additional display space

• Used an appliance garage to conceal most countertop appliances

• Replaced double-hung window with an awning window

• Repositioned the sink to establish a better work triangle and more efficient use of the countertop space

• Replaced a fluorescent fixture with 4-inch and 6-inch recessed lights and undercabinet lighting

Cabinets: Option Kitchen stock and semi-custom frameless maple cabinets with a pearl finish. Beaded Shaker doors and glass doors. Dovetailed drawers with undermount glides. Accessories: Roll-out shelves, lazy Susan, recycle bins, tilt-out sink front, appliance garage, stacked moldings. Porcelain knobs with satin nickel back plates.

Appliances: Re-use of existing range. Client purchased Amana refrigerator, GE 18-inch dishwasher and GE Spacemaker microwave separately; cost is not included in budget.

Countertops: Corian in Maui color with full-height backsplash.

Flooring: Provenza tile in the Enigma style and Altamira color; 12-inch by 12-inch, 6-inch by 6-inch, 6-inch by12-inch cut from 12-inch by 12-inch.

Sink: Corian 871 large single-bowl sink in Bisque with stainless strainer.

Faucet: Grohe Ladylux Plus stainless steel faucet with black pull-out spray and stainless steel soap dispenser.

Lighting: 4-inch and 6-inch recessed lights; Sea Gull ambient lighting.

Initial Budget: $38,000

Final Cost: $39,000.

Client's Goals:

• Update a 20-year-old, builder-quality kitchen

• Create an Old World look

• Improve efficiency of workspace to suit two cooks

• Remove soffits, especially the one over the island

• Replace dated tile floor with new tile in kitchen and entry

• Install new and better lighting

Designers' Solutions:

• Moved refrigerator to more convenient place next to pantry

• Removed soffits to allow for cabinets of varied heights, and to open space visually over island

• Created focal point from family room with large hood and backsplash

• Angled base cabinet to allow easier access through narrow dining room doorway

• Included an 18-inch deep microwave wall cabinet with left end extended to hide kitchen appliances from view of family room

Cabinets: Medallion Cabinetry in maple with a cashew stain and raised-panel doors. Beadboard panels on custom wooden hood and island. Accessories: Roll-out shelves, trash pull-out, appliance garage, full-extension drawer glides, lazy Susan, burnished chrome cup pulls and knobs, undercabinet lights, and crown molding with rope insert.

Appliances: Pro-style stainless steel slide-in gas range. Dishwasher with cabinet panel.

Countertops: Granite countertop on island; laminate countertop with beveled edge on the perimeter.

Backsplash: 4-inch by 4-inch stone-like ceramic tile on a diagonal with sunflower raised decos.

Flooring: 12-inch by 12-inch ceramic tile floor with 2-inch by 2-inch teal deco inserts.

Sink: American Standard apron-front farm sink.

Faucet: High-arc Delta faucet in brushed nickel with separate sprayer and filtered-water faucet.

Lighting: Recessed lights

Initial Budget: $50,000.

Final Cost: $69,250 (cabinetry and cabinet installation). The cost of the kitchen increased by nearly $20,000 when the client selected a different, more expensive style of cabinetry and added a butcher-block countertop. The clients chose not to relocate the kitchen to the home office area because of the expense and difficulty of moving plumbing, electrical and gas lines.

Client's Goals:

• Open up the small kitchen, which was adjacent to a large, dark, unused living room

• Possibly move the kitchen to the space used as a home office, which featured cathedral ceilings

• Keep the space full of light

• Create a kitchen with room to cook and entertain friends

Designers' Solutions:

• Developed a floor plan that expanded the kitchen's footprint without completely relocating it

• Took down a wall between the kitchen and living room

• Opened a doorway between the living room and home office

• Built a banquette with a farm table for meals in the former kitchen

• Moved the cooking, cleanup and prep areas of the kitchen into the former living room

• Turned the former office into a formal dining room

• Installed a seating area by the windows for reading the paper in the morning.

• Designed an island to create a division between cooking and living areas.

Cabinets: Cherry cabinets (on the island) and white painted cabinets (on the perimeter) from the SieMatic Hudson Valley Collection

Appliances: Sub-Zero refrigerator, Wolf range and hood

Countertops: SieMatic butcher block and honed black granite

Initial Budget: $40,000

Final Cost: $47,000. Ultimately the clients chose to remove a wall and open the kitchen to the rest of the house, adding $7,000 to the price of their kitchen remodel.

Clients' Goals:

• Lighten up the dark, U-shaped kitchen

• Create more functional storage space, especially in the corners

• Create more countertop space

• Allow two cooks to work in the kitchen at the same time

• Have yellow cabinets

Designer's Solutions:

• Removed one wall to open the kitchen up to the rest of the house, allowing for a more spacious floor plan

• Added a post for structural support, which helped define the kitchen area

• Raised the kitchen ceiling to open the space to the adjoining family room and its sloped ceiling

• Added taller wall cabinets for more storage space

• Added corner cabinets with an open shelf for easier access

Cabinets: Dutch Mills custom framed maple cabinets with Shaker-style doors and a painted, glazed finish. Accessories: Pull-out can racks, pull-out pantry cabinets, roll-out shelves, cove molding and oil-rubbed bronze pulls and knobs.

Appliances: Dacor cooktop, oven and warming drawer; Fisher & Paykel dishwasher drawer; Jenn-Air cabinet-depth refrigerator; Sharp convection microwave oven and Miele ventilation hood.

Countertops: Giallo Veneziano granite with an eased edge and matching backsplash

Flooring: Teak floors

Sink: Blanco stainless steel undermount double-bowl sink

Disposal: Insinkerator

Lighting: six recessed lights and track lighting over sink