- Kitchen
What Real Vancouver Kitchens Cost: 10 QUAY Projects and Their Budgets
- By QUAY Construction
Price ranges are useful, but most homeowners really want to know what a kitchen like theirs cost someone else. Below are ten kitchens QUAY has completed in Vancouver and North Vancouver, each with the budget, time on site and scope published on its project page. For the full planning ranges and what moves them, start with our kitchen renovation cost guide; every project here also has photos in our kitchen renovation projects gallery.
Quick answer. The nine complete kitchens below came in between about $43,000 + GST and about $80,000. The one partial update, which kept the layout, upper cabinets and appliances, came in at $24,000 to $28,000. That lines up with QUAY’s published planning range of $40,000 to $80,000+ for most complete kitchens. Larger, premium and highly customized kitchens can exceed $100,000.
Every figure is quoted the way its project page publishes it. Where the page says “+ GST”, so do we. The Dunbar figure is QUAY’s estimate of what that 2021 kitchen would cost to build today. Your own kitchen’s price depends on its size, scope and finishes.
The ten kitchens at a glance
| Project | Home | Budget (as published) | Time on site | What drove the cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown Vancouver loft | Two-level loft in a converted heritage building | About $80K, including appliances and the custom pantry door | Not listed | Bulkhead removed, custom sliding pantry door, full-height quartz |
| Yaletown open-concept | Condo in a concrete high-rise | About $80K | Not listed | Wall removed, quartz waterfall island with sink, engineered hardwood |
| Shaughnessy | Shaughnessy home | $70K to $80K | 3 weeks | Fully custom cabinetry, island with gas rangetop, dry bar |
| Kitsilano | House | About $70K | Not listed | Custom maple cabinetry, kitchen extension, new patio doors |
| Dunbar | Dunbar home | $60K to $70K (estimated cost today; built 2021) | About 3 weeks | New cabinets, granite, pantry wall and cork flooring on the same layout |
| Kitsilano condo | Top-floor condo | About $60K | Not listed | New cabinets, quartz, appliances and engineered hardwood |
| West End condo | Condo, kitchen within a full renovation | About $60K + GST for the kitchen | About 7 weeks for the whole condo | Custom cabinetry, quartz waterfall island, panel-ready Bosch appliances |
| Downtown condo | Condo, kitchen within a full renovation | About $56K + GST for the kitchen | Mid-May to July 2024 for the whole condo | Painted shaker cabinets, full-height quartz backsplash, Bosch appliances |
| Yaletown condo expansion | Condo | About $43K + GST | 17-working-day plan for the kitchen and a bathroom | Bulkhead removed, peninsula, tall pantry; range, fridge and dishwasher kept |
| Moodyville (partial) | North Vancouver home | $24K to $28K | 10 days | New lower doors and fronts, quartz, slab backsplash; layout, uppers and appliances kept |
Around $80,000: condo kitchens that changed the room
Downtown Vancouver loft, about $80,000. This two-level loft sits in a converted heritage building. The kitchen was rebuilt with matte black cabinetry, Bianco Gioia quartz countertops and backsplash, a white Silgranit undermount sink and a rift-cut white oak sliding pantry door, and the old bulkhead came out. The project page puts the kitchen at about $80,000, including appliances and the custom pantry door. Whether a bulkhead can come out depends on what runs inside it, so it was checked before the design was finalized. See the Downtown loft project.
Yaletown open-concept, about $80,000. In a concrete high-rise, the original kitchen was enclosed and couldn’t see the views. QUAY removed the wall between the kitchen and the living room and added an island with a sink and a wine fridge, plus new cabinets, a quartz waterfall island, quartz countertops, a textured tile backsplash and custom engineered hardwood over an acoustic underlay. It was completed in 2023. See the Yaletown project.
Why these two sit at the top. Both went beyond new finishes: a wall or bulkhead came out and the room was replanned. As the cost guide puts it, moving islands, sinks, ranges or walls can trigger plumbing, electrical, framing and finishing work.
$70,000 to $80,000: custom cabinetry in a house
Shaughnessy, $70,000 to $80,000, 3 weeks on site. This kitchen kept its footprint and its tile floor, yet still landed at the upper end. The money went into fully custom white shaker cabinetry with glass-front uppers, a new island with deep drawers, a professional-style gas rangetop in the island under a stainless hood set into a new ceiling bulkhead, a tall oven and microwave wall, and quartz countertops with a matching backsplash. A custom dry bar with a beverage fridge replaced the old desk niche, and a custom waterfall dining table got a new pendant. See the Shaughnessy project.
Kitsilano house, about $70,000. The homeowners had a dark kitchen with cherry-stained cabinets, speckled granite and a raised peninsula, and wanted something lighter and more traditional with more storage. QUAY built custom natural maple shaker cabinets on plywood boxes with soft-close hardware, white quartz counters, a quartz island with a built-in maple wine rack, a kitchen extension and a custom dining table, along with new patio doors and fresh paint. It was completed in 2021. See the Kitsilano project.
Why custom work costs more. The cost guide notes that cabinetry and millwork are frequently among the largest parts of a kitchen budget. In Shaughnessy, the layout stayed the same and the custom millwork and appliances carried the cost.
$56,000 to $70,000: complete kitchens, mostly on the same layout
Kitsilano condo, about $60,000. This top-floor condo kitchen was stuck in another era, with white laminate cabinets, a mauve tile backsplash, pink floor tile and white appliances. It now has white shaker cabinets, white quartz countertops, a stainless double undermount sink, new stainless appliances (French-door fridge, range, dishwasher and microwave) and engineered hardwood over an acoustic underlay. Completed in 2022. See the Kitsilano condo project.
West End condo, about $60,000 + GST for the kitchen. The kitchen was part of a whole-suite renovation: a custom white kitchen with an appliance garage and twelve hidden drawers, a quartz waterfall island and panel-ready Bosch appliances. The whole condo came to about $199,000 + GST with approved changes, with about seven weeks on site, and was completed in May 2024. See the West End project.
Downtown condo, about $56,000 + GST for the kitchen. Another whole-suite renovation, built around a white shaker galley kitchen with custom painted cabinets, quartz counters, a full-height quartz backsplash and new Bosch appliances. The whole condo was about $178,000 + GST; construction ran from mid-May to July 2024. See the Downtown condo project.
Dunbar, $60,000 to $70,000 estimated today, about 3 weeks on site. The layout worked for the family; the finishes didn’t. QUAY replaced the cabinets, countertops, backsplash, sink, cooktop, pantry wall and flooring, and turned a corner desk into a breakfast counter. Finishes include cream painted shaker cabinets, Branco Delicatus granite, a white gloss subway tile backsplash, a gas cooktop under a stainless hood and 6 mm glue-down cork flooring. The kitchen was finished in 2021, and the page gives QUAY’s estimate of $60,000 to $70,000 to build it today. See the Dunbar project.
About $43,000 + GST: a condo kitchen that kept its big appliances
Yaletown condo expansion. The original kitchen was tucked behind a wall and a bulkhead, with only a small pass-through to the living room. QUAY removed the bulkhead, added a double-sided peninsula, and built custom L-shaped millwork and a tall pantry with built-in outlets along the back wall. A new sink, wine fridge, hood fan and lighting went in, with quartz counters, a full-height quartz backsplash and laminate flooring over an acoustic underlay. The existing range, fridge and dishwasher were kept. The kitchen came in at about $43,000 before GST under the signed contract, as part of a kitchen and bathroom renovation that started in November 2024 on a 17-working-day plan.
The building shaped the job too. The strata required laminate flooring with an acoustic underlay rated IIC 73 and STC 72, and elevator use was limited to four-hour bookings between 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., so deliveries and debris removal were planned around those windows. See the Yaletown condo expansion.
$24,000 to $28,000: a partial renovation
Moodyville, North Vancouver, 10 days on site. The oak lower cabinets and black quartz made this kitchen feel darker than the open living space around it. QUAY kept the layout, upper cabinets and appliances, and changed what made the room dark: new lower cabinet doors and drawer fronts in a light woodgrain finish, white quartz countertops with a waterfall end on the peninsula, a full-height white slab backsplash, new cabinets on the back of the peninsula for storage, under-cabinet LED lighting, recessed pot lights in place of the track lighting and a new pendant over the dining table. See the Moodyville project.
This is the only project here below QUAY’s $40,000 starting point, and the reason is scope: the $40,000 to $80,000+ range is for complete kitchens, and Moodyville was a partial one. If you are weighing a similar update, our checklist on whether your cabinets can be saved helps you decide.
What these ten budgets have in common
- Scope sets the price more than size. The cost guide is direct about it: square footage does not determine kitchen cost by itself. The $43,000 Yaletown condo and the $80,000 Yaletown open-concept kitchen are both condo kitchens.
- Custom millwork moves you up the range. Shaughnessy and the Kitsilano house both put fully custom cabinetry at the centre of the project.
- Taking out a wall or bulkhead adds work. Both $80,000 kitchens did one or the other.
- Keeping what works saves money. Moodyville kept its layout, uppers and appliances; the Yaletown condo kept its range, fridge and dishwasher; Dunbar kept its layout.
- Condos bring building rules. Strata flooring specifications and elevator bookings shaped the Yaletown condo schedule, and the cost guide lists strata approvals, elevators, restricted work hours and plumbing shut-downs among the things that affect condo logistics.
How to turn these numbers into your own budget
Find the one or two projects closest to your home and scope, then check them against the planning ranges in the cost guide: kitchens of about 100 sq ft or less are commonly planned around $40,000 to $55,000+, and complete condo kitchens commonly fall around $40,000 to $75,000+. Most standard kitchens take about 15 working days on site once construction starts, and QUAY’s kitchens come with a 365-day workmanship warranty. For what happens from the first visit to the final walkthrough, see how QUAY plans and builds a kitchen.
Two related guides help with the rest of the planning: the kitchen renovation timeline walks through each step on site, and our kitchen renovation FAQs answer the questions homeowners ask most before they start.
Sources: QUAY project pages for Downtown Vancouver, Yaletown, Shaughnessy, Kitsilano, Dunbar, Kitsilano condo, West End condo, Downtown condo, Yaletown condo expansion and Moodyville; the kitchen renovation cost guide; and the kitchen renovations page.
