How long does a home renovation take with Key Interiors?

Timelines vary with scope. A kitchen or bathroom renovation typically takes 3-6 weeks, while a complete home renovation can span 8-12 weeks, with every detail managed professionally for a seamless result.

Do I need council consent for my renovation?

Only for structural or plumbing changes. Key Interiors will help you navigate all necessary approvals if required.

Can I live in the home during the renovation?

Yes, in many cases. Key Interiors works to minimise disruption, and your dedicated project manager keeps you updated throughout.

Do you provide fixed quotes?

Yes. After your design phase, we provide a transparent fixed-price quote with a clear scope, materials and timeline before any building begins.

What does a renovation cost in Auckland?

As a guide: bathroom renovations from $25,000, kitchen renovations from $35,000, and complete home renovations from $150,000. We work with your budget to deliver the best value.

Kitchen renovation in Belmont, Auckland: Merani Street kitchen with sage green cabinetry, stone island, dark green vertical stack-bond tile splashback and retained timber floor

Merani Street, BelmontKitchenSame footprintDesign and build

Kitchen Renovation in Belmont: Merani Street

A full kitchen renovation in Belmont, Auckland. The room did not change shape, the walls did not move and the timber floor stayed. Everything else came out.

This is the page to read if you are trying to work out whether you need a bigger kitchen or just a better one. Key Interiors designed and built it start to finish.

Where it started

Nothing was wrong with it, and that is the hard part

White cabinetry, a dark benchtop, an island with bar stools, stainless appliances and a rangehood. Tidy, functional, and about fifteen years old.

There was no leak, no rot and no fault to point at. That makes the decision harder, not easier, because you cannot justify it with a problem. You have to justify it with what you get.

Merani Street kitchen in Belmont before renovation, white cabinetry with a dark benchtop and island — Before. White cabinetry, dark benchtop, stainless everything.

Old Belmont kitchen before renovation showing the island and dark benchtop from the living side — The same room from the living end. Perfectly fine, and completely of its decade.

The decision

We did not move a single wall

The obvious instinct with a dated kitchen is to open it up. Take a wall out, extend, reconfigure. It is also where most of the money goes, and on this job none of it was necessary.

The layout already worked. The island was in the right place, the run had the right length, the light was good. What was wrong was every surface and every colour in the room.

Same footprint, same floor. The colour did the work.

Keeping the footprint means no structural work, no consent, no re-routing the services, and no rebuilding the ceiling. That budget went into joinery, stone and tile instead, which is the part you actually look at.

Belmont kitchen stripped bare during demolition with the timber floor exposed and protected — Stripped out. Same room, same shape, floor protected and staying.

The build

How the Merani Street kitchen went back together

Kitchen wall taken back to substrate and masked during the Merani Street renovation, Belmont — Walls back to substrate, masked, drop sheets down.

Plastered kitchen walls before painting in the Belmont renovation — Plastered and sanded, waiting on paint.

White cabinetry carcasses being installed in the Merani Street kitchen, Belmont — Carcasses in. No fronts yet, and this is where the setting out either works or does not.

Rangehood extraction ducting dropping through the ceiling into the cabinetry, Belmont kitchen — Extraction ducted properly, through the ceiling and out. Nobody photographs this.

Kitchen window fully masked and prepped for painting during the Merani Street renovation — Masked for paint. The tedious hour that decides how the edges look.

Built-in window seat carcass being installed in the Merani Street kitchen, Belmont — The window seat, built in rather than bought.

Back to substrate, then plaster. Old splashback and linings off, walls made good, sanded and prepped. A gloss tile shows every undulation behind it, so a flat wall is not optional here.

Then the carcasses. Cabinetry goes in as boxes before any fronts, and this is the stage that decides everything downstream. If the boxes are not level and square, the benchtop will not sit, the doors will not line up and the tile will not run true.

Then the services. Extraction ducted up through the ceiling and out, not recirculated into the room. In a kitchen that opens onto living, that is the difference between cooking and everyone smelling it all evening.

Then paint, tile, stone and fit-off. In that order, because each one is harder to protect than the last.

The tile

The green is the entire decision

Dark green vertical stack-bond gloss, run from bench to underside of the uppers. It is the one thing in the room doing any talking, and it is the reason the kitchen reads as considered rather than replaced.

Vertical stack bond is less forgiving than a standard offset. The joints line up top to bottom, so any drift in the setting out shows as a bent line down the whole wall. It gets set out dry before anything is stuck.

The glaze is uneven on purpose, so the wall shifts between green, teal and near-black depending on where the light is coming from.

Tiler applying adhesive and setting the dark green vertical stack-bond splashback in the Belmont kitchen — The splashback going up. Adhesive on, tiles set one at a time.

Dark green vertical stack-bond gloss tile detail in the Merani Street kitchen, Belmont — The glaze up close. No two tiles read the same.

The fit-off

Stone, then tapware, then done

Cream stone benchtops with a waterfall end on the island, an undermount sink, a brushed gooseneck pull-down mixer and a black glass cooktop. Bar-pull handles on the sage fronts.

The stone goes on after the tile so the splashback lands on a finished edge, and the tapware goes in last because it is the thing most likely to get marked.

Tap and undermount sink being installed against the green splashback, Merani Street kitchen Belmont — Sink and tap going in, splashback already up behind it.

Sage green cabinetry with a bar pull handle and stone benchtop edge, Belmont kitchen renovation — Sage fronts, bar pulls, stone edge.

The bit worth stealing

A window seat costs less than a cabinet run and gets used more

The bay at the end of the room was doing nothing. It became a built-in bench with storage underneath, made from the same carcass stock as the kitchen and finished to match.

It is the cheapest joinery in the room by a distance, it needs no services, and it is where people actually sit. If you have a bay, a nook or a dead corner next to your kitchen, build into it.

Finished built-in window seat with storage beneath in the Merani Street kitchen, Belmont — Finished. Storage under, and somewhere to actually sit.

Materials and finishes

What's in the room

Cabinetry: Sage green, flat panel, bar pull handles
Splashback: Dark green vertical stack-bond gloss tile
Benchtops: Cream stone, waterfall end to the island
Island: Retained position, new joinery and stone
Sink: Undermount
Tapware: Brushed gooseneck pull-down mixer
Cooktop: Black glass, integrated oven
Extraction: Ducted through the ceiling to outside
Lighting: LED strip concealed under the uppers
Window seat: Built in, storage beneath
Flooring: Existing timber, retained and protected throughout
Scope: Full replacement, existing footprint, no structural work

Finished

Merani Street, Belmont

Undermount sink, window and dark green stack-bond splashback, Merani Street kitchen Belmont

Black glass cooktop and rangehood against the green vertical tile, Belmont kitchen renovation

Common questions

Planning a kitchen renovation in Auckland

Do you have to change the layout to modernise a kitchen?

Usually not. Merani Street did not move a wall, did not extend and kept the island where it was. If the layout works and the light is good, the dated feeling is coming from the surfaces and the colour, not the plan. Changing the plan is where the cost and the consent risk live, so it is worth testing whether you actually need to.

Can you keep the existing floor through a kitchen renovation?

Often yes, and it is one of the better savings available. The timber floor here was protected through demolition and the whole build and it stayed. Keeping a floor that is already good means no sanding, no re-coating and no delay while it cures, and the money goes into joinery and stone instead.

Does a kitchen renovation need council consent in Auckland?

Replacing joinery, benchtops and finishes in the same footprint generally does not. Moving walls, altering structure or relocating drainage and gas can change that. We work it out at design stage rather than mid-build. Confirm with Auckland Council for your specific property.

Should the rangehood be ducted or recirculating?

Ducted to outside wherever it can be done, as it was here, through the ceiling and out. A recirculating hood filters grease but returns the heat and most of the smell to the room. In an open-plan kitchen that means the whole living space wears every meal.

What does a kitchen renovation cost in Auckland?

Layout is the biggest lever, then joinery, then stone. A same-footprint replacement and a reconfiguration are different numbers entirely. We have written the detail up separately: see what a kitchen renovation costs in Auckland, or get a tailored figure from the estimator.

Do you work in Belmont and on the North Shore?

Yes. Key Interiors design and build kitchens, bathrooms, laundries and full home renovations across Auckland, including Belmont, Bayswater, Devonport, Takapuna and Milford. See the areas we serve.

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