Licensed, Bonded & Insured · Serving Winnetka and the surrounding area
A full kitchen remodel in Winnetka typically runs $40,000 to $66,000 keeping the existing layout and $78,000 to $130,000 for a gut that removes a wall, and takes seven to eleven weeks on site. Permits are issued by the Village of Winnetka Community Development Department at 510 Green Bay Road. The decisive question in almost every Winnetka kitchen is what to do with the butler’s pantry and the back stair: absorbing them is what turns a 1920s service kitchen into a room a family lives in, and it is usually structural.
A Winnetka house built between 1910 and 1935 was planned with the kitchen at the back, deliberately separated from the dining room by a butler’s pantry, with a service stair running up beside it and a rear porch beyond. It was a working room and it was never meant to be seen.
That plan is the reason the kitchens feel small in houses that are not. The floor area is usually there; it is simply divided into three or four compartments by walls that were put in to keep cooking out of sight. Absorbing the pantry alone often gains more usable kitchen than any extension would.
The work is therefore structural more often than it is decorative. The wall between the kitchen and the pantry is frequently non-structural and comes out easily; the one between the pantry and the dining room usually carries the floor above and needs a sized beam and an engineer. Which is which is established with a ceiling open, and it is the difference between the two price bands above.
Winnetka is not one housing stock, it is four, and the kitchen problem is different in each.
| Era and style | What we find on site | What the project becomes | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900–1929 — Colonial Revival, Tudor, Prairie | Kitchen at the rear behind a butler’s pantry, a service stair beside it, cast-iron waste, plaster on lath, and an electrical service never designed for this. | Gut with the pantry absorbed, a sized beam to the dining room, a service upgrade, and a room that finally opens to the rest of the house. | $82k – $130k |
| 1930s–1940s — smaller Colonials and Cape Cods | A compact rear kitchen, no pantry to absorb, a single window and a back door that takes up the best run of wall. | Gut in place with the door or window reworked to win back a full wall of cabinetry. | $46k – $72k |
| 1950s–1960s — ranches and split-levels west of the Metra | A kitchen closed off from the family room by a non-structural wall, dropped soffits hiding ducts, and copper supply already in place. | Open the wall to the family room, lose the soffits, and replan around an island. Usually the best value in the village. | $40k – $64k |
| 1990s–present — teardown rebuilds | Open plan already there, adequate service, engineered joists with room for services, finishes that have dated. | Finish upgrade. The island, the stone and the appliances drive the number. | $44k – $80k |
These are the conditions that decide the schedule and the contingency on a job in Winnetka. We price around them rather than discovering them.
Almost every Winnetka kitchen project turns on which of the two walls is carrying the floor above. One usually comes out as a day’s work; the other needs a sized beam, posts to a bearing point and an engineer’s letter with the permit.
A kitchen designed around one light and an icebox will not carry an induction hob, a double oven, a dishwasher and a microwave. In houses that have never had a service upgrade the panel, not the kitchen, is the constraint, and we check it at the first visit.
The sink sits under the window because that is where the original waste run goes. Moving it to an island means a new run with a proper fall inside the floor, which in a 1920s joist bay is possible more often than not — but it is checked from below before it is drawn.
Walls are plaster on lath and the kitchen floor has usually been re-covered two or three times. Cabinetry has to be scribed to walls that are not square and set off a floor that is levelled first, which is slower than it looks.
A proper hood needs a duct to outside air, and in a brick or stone house the route is not obvious. Recirculating hoods are what get fitted when nobody plans this. We set the run at design stage, not when the cabinets are going in.
Work inside the existing footprint is a straightforward permit. A new window over the sink, a rear door or an exterior vent takes the project into village zoning review, and in the older lakefront blocks that review takes longer than 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 sink, range and refrigerator staying on their existing services. Right when the room already works.
A structural opening to the dining room with a sized beam, the pantry taken in, services rerun, a service upgrade where needed, and a full-height cabinetry package.
Kitchen, pantry, service stair, rear hall and often a mudroom taken together, with the plumbing and electrical rerun for the whole floor. Priced after an engineer has been.
Cabinetry is the largest single line in almost every kitchen we build. This is how a full project divides up.
Based on an $96,000 project, the midpoint of what we actually build here. The structural share disappears if the pantry wall turns out to be non-loadbearing, and the same kitchen then lands in the $50,000s. That single finding is the biggest swing in the job.
Work completed by Revive 360 Renovations in this area. Every project links to its own page and photos.
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 Village of Winnetka Community Development Department at 510 Green Bay Road. 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 existing layout and replacing cabinetry, stone, appliances and finishes generally runs $40,000 to $66,000. A gut that absorbs the butler’s pantry and opens the room to the dining room is usually $78,000 to $130,000. Taking the whole rear of the house together starts above that. The structural work and the electrical service separate one band from the next, not the finish level.
It depends what you use it for. If it is genuinely serving as a bar or a second prep area, keeping it can work. If it is storing things nobody reaches, absorbing it is the single change that transforms these kitchens — it usually gains more usable room than any addition, at a fraction of the cost.
Usually, but it needs checking. In a 1920s Winnetka house the pantry wall is often non-structural while the one behind it carries the floor above. Removing a bearing wall means a properly sized beam, posts down to a bearing point and an engineer’s letter with the permit. We arrange the engineering inside the scope so the cost is known before you sign.
Yes. The Village of Winnetka requires a building permit for any kitchen work altering plumbing, electrical or structure. Applications go to Community Development at 510 Green Bay Road and the work is inspected at rough-in and at completion. We prepare and lodge it.
Often not, in a house that has never been upgraded. An induction hob, a double oven, a dishwasher and a microwave need dedicated circuits and headroom in the panel. We check the service on the first visit rather than discovering it at rough-in, because a service upgrade is a cost you should know about before you choose appliances.
Usually yes in a house of this era. The original waste run is under the window because that is where it was easiest in 1925, not because it has to stay there. A new run needs fall inside the joist depth, which these houses generally have. We confirm it from the ceiling below before it goes into a drawing.
Seven to eleven weeks for a full remodel. A structural opening adds roughly a week for the beam and its inspection, and cabinetry lead time is the other main driver, so that order is placed before demolition. We can usually set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house.
Yes. Winnetka sits in the middle of our densest area — Wilmette, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest and Evanston are all regular ground for the same crews.
info@reviverenovations.com
Office: (773) 345-6358