What a Northern Virginia kitchen actually costs in 2026

A homeowner asked me this week if $58,000 for a 220-square-foot kitchen sounded high. The kitchen had stock shaker cabinets, quartz counters, an LVT floor, and a slide-in range. I told her: no, it's exactly average for NoVA in 2026, and you're paying because labor's gone up almost 30% since 2022.

Here's where the $58k goes on a typical job in this range:

Cabinets and installation: $18–22k. Quartz countertops, fabricated and installed: $4.5–6k. LVT plank flooring with prep and underlayment: $3–4k. Plumbing rough-in if you're moving the sink: $1.8–2.5k. Electrical updates including under-cabinet lighting and an island circuit: $2.2–3k. Drywall patch, trim, paint: $3–4k. Backsplash tile and install: $1.4–2k. Mid-range appliance package: $4.5–6k. Demo and disposal: $1.5–2k.

That's $40k–52k in raw cost. Then add roughly 22–28% for our overhead, supervision, and margin — which is what pays for the project manager, the warranty, the daily clean-up, and the insurance. You arrive in the $54k–66k range for a kitchen of this scope.

Custom cabinets when semi-custom does 95% of the job. Adding 8" to an existing cabinet box in a custom line can add $3,000 — for inches no one will notice.

Moving the gas line. If the range stays put, you've saved $1,500–2,500 in plumbing and patching. Reconsider whether the new layout really needs the range to move.

Specifying a six-burner pro range you'll cook twice a year on. A solid 36" gas slide-in covers what almost every NoVA family actually does in the kitchen, and you're $4,000+ ahead.

Drawer fronts, hinges, glides. The hardware you touch every day is where cheap cabinetry shows itself. Spend the extra $400–600 to spec soft-close, full-extension drawers across the run.

Lighting. A $1,800 lighting upgrade — under-cabinet LED strips, two pendants over the island, and three recessed cans on a dimmer — is the single best dollar-per-impact spend in a kitchen renovation, and almost no one budgets enough for it.

A good contractor. The cheapest bid is almost never the right bid. We've been called in to fix kitchens that were 'finished' by the lowest bidder and had to redo plumbing, electrical, and drywall before we could even start. That's a $20k unforced error.