Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Lake Forest and the surrounding area
A full kitchen remodel in Lake Forest typically runs $44,000 to $74,000 keeping the layout and $88,000 to $145,000 for a gut that removes a wall, and takes nine to fourteen weeks on site. Permits are issued by the City of Lake Forest Community Development Department, with the Building Review Board involved in any exterior change in the historic district. These are the highest ranges we quote, for a straightforward reason: the service zone being combined is larger than a whole kitchen elsewhere, and the runs back to supply, waste and the panel are much longer.
East Lake Forest was built up through the estate era, roughly 1890 to 1930, and the houses were planned around a working household. The kitchen sits at the far end of the plan, reached through a butler’s pantry and usually a service corridor, with a back stair, a larder, a laundry and sometimes a staff sitting room grouped around it. West of the tollway the stock is newer, 1960s to 1980s, and behaves like a conventional suburb.
In an estate-era house the raw floor area is not the problem. That service zone is often larger than a modern kitchen and family room together. It is simply divided into six small rooms by walls built to keep the work of the house out of sight and out of earshot.
Combining them is a structural project with a long tail of services. Some dividing walls are partitions; the wall separating the zone from the dining room almost always carries the floor above. And because the kitchen is at the end of the house, the runs back to the stack, the water main and the panel are long — which is the real reason a Lake Forest kitchen costs more than the same kitchen in Wilmette.
Lake Forest runs from estate-era houses in the east to conventional suburban stock west of the tollway, and the ranges follow.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890–1930 — estate-era houses, East Lake Forest | A service zone of five or six small rooms at the end of the plan, long runs back to supply, waste and the panel, plaster and original joinery, historic district over the top. | The zone combined into one room with sized beams, services traced and replaced, a service upgrade and fitted cabinetry. | $95k – $145k |
| 1930s–1950s — Colonials and Cape Cods | A compact rear kitchen with a small pantry, a back stair, and a door taking the best run of wall. | Gut with the pantry absorbed and the back door reworked to win a full wall of cabinetry. | $56k – $86k |
| 1960s–1985 — west of the tollway | A kitchen closed off from the family room by a wall that usually carries nothing, dropped soffits, copper supply, basement or crawl below with usable fall. | Open to the family room, strip the soffits, replan around an island. | $44k – $72k |
| 1995–present — newer construction | Open plan already in place, adequate service, engineered joists, finishes near the end of their life. | Finish upgrade, with the island, stone and appliances driving the number. | $48k – $90k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Lake Forest. We price around them rather than discovering them.
Pantry, corridor, larder, laundry, back stair. Which of the dividing walls are partitions and which are carrying the floor above decides the design and the price, and it is the first thing we open a ceiling to establish.
The defining Lake Forest condition. Supply, waste and the electrical panel can all be a long way from a kitchen at the end of a large house, so services are a much bigger share of the job here. We trace the runs before quoting rather than after.
Estate-era houses have been altered repeatedly and carry wiring from several eras. Modern appliances need dedicated circuits and panel headroom, and a service upgrade in a house this size is a project of its own. We check it at the first visit.
Walls are plaster on lath and the joinery around the service rooms is frequently original. We remove and label rather than cut through, refit at the end, and scribe cabinetry to walls that are nowhere near square.
A proper hood over a range or an island needs a route to outside air through solid masonry and past a finished ceiling. In a house of this depth that is a design decision taken early, not a problem discovered when the cabinets arrive.
A kitchen combined inside its existing walls is a straightforward permit. A new window, a rooflight, a rear door or an exterior vent on a house in the historic district goes before the Building Review Board, and that review should be started long before the build.
Ranges, not a single number. Where a project lands depends on the scope, and we say which band we think you are in before you commit to anything.
New cabinetry, stone, backsplash, appliances, lighting and flooring with the services staying where they are. Right where a previous owner has already combined the rooms.
Structural openings with sized beams, the pantry and corridor taken in, services traced and rerun, a service upgrade, and a fitted cabinetry package.
Kitchen, pantry, larder, laundry, back stair and mudroom taken as one project, with plumbing, heating and electrical rerun across the wing. Always priced individually.
Cabinetry is the largest single line in almost every kitchen we build. This is how a full project divides up.
Based on an $116,000 project, the midpoint of what we actually build here. The services share is the highest we see anywhere, for the same reason as the bathrooms here: the distance from the room to the nearest point where supply, waste and power can be picked up.
We look at the wall, at the ceiling below it where we can, and at the electrical panel. You get an honest read on what can move and what cannot.
Including a structural engineer where a wall is coming out, so the beam is sized before the price is set rather than after.
Submitted to the City of Lake Forest Community Development Department. We prepare and lodge it, and we tell you which route your project is on before you commit.
Any beam goes in, services are rerun, and everything is inspected before it is closed. A change to the price happens here, with the wall open, not at the end.
Cabinets set and scribed to walls that are rarely square, stone templated on site after the boxes are in, then appliances, backsplash and lighting.
We walk the room with you, write the list, and close it out before the final invoice.
Tell us about the property and what you want to change. We will walk the space, look at what is behind the walls, and come back with a written scope, a schedule and a price.
Keeping the layout and replacing cabinetry, stone, appliances and finishes generally runs $44,000 to $74,000. A gut that combines the service zone and opens the room to the dining room is usually $88,000 to $145,000. Taking the whole service wing starts above that. The distance back to services, not the finish level, is what puts Lake Forest at the top of our range.
Two reasons, both structural rather than decorative. The room being built is often the size of three or four original service rooms, so there is more of everything. And because the kitchen sits at the end of a large house, supply, waste and the electrical panel are all a long way away, so the service runs are a far bigger share of the job.
Only for the exterior. A kitchen combined inside its existing walls needs a permit from the City of Lake Forest Community Development Department but does not go before the Board. A new window, rooflight, rear door or exterior vent on a house in the historic district does, and that review should be started well before the build.
It depends on how the house is used. A back stair that still serves bedrooms usually stays. A pantry and a service corridor that nobody passes through are the two spaces that, absorbed, turn a Lake Forest kitchen into a room the family lives in.
Usually not without work. An estate-era house that has been altered repeatedly carries wiring from several eras, and a service upgrade in a house this size is a project in itself. We check it on the first visit so it is priced rather than discovered.
Where it is worth keeping, yes. We remove and label it rather than cutting through, and refit it at the end. It adds time, and in a house of this quality it is the difference between a kitchen that belongs and one that was simply installed.
Nine to fourteen weeks for a full remodel, the longest programme we quote. The room is larger, the services run further, and structural openings each add about a week for the beam and its inspection. Cabinetry is ordered before demolition.
Lake Forest is the northern end of our densest area. Highland Park, Glencoe, Winnetka, Northbrook and Deerfield are all regular ground for the same crews.
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Office: (773) 345-6358