There is a conversation Denise Jones has several times a month, and it almost always starts the same way.
A homeowner in Basking Ridge or Bernardsville has a number in their head for the kitchen. They got it from a cabinet quote, or from a neighbor, or from a show they watched. Then the real bids come in and the number is not close.
Denise Jones leads J2 Design Studio in Bedminster and has been designing residential projects in this area since 2011. Her answer to what a kitchen costs is more specific than most people expect, and less comfortable.
About This Article
This article is produced by Garden State Circle and is part of our local guide to interior designers serving Basking Ridge, Bernardsville, Bedminster, Far Hills and Peapack-Gladstone.
Garden State Circle is supported by the businesses that partner with us, and J2 Design Studio, Bedminster is an authority partner. This article exists because of that. We sat down with Denise Jones, who leads the studio, and asked her the cost questions homeowners here actually ask. Without that relationship there is no interview, and most of the numbers below are not published anywhere.
What the partnership does not buy is the answer. Denise was asked the same questions we would put to any designer in this market, and where the honest answer was a number people would rather not hear, that is the number printed.
Written by Jake Slowinski, Publisher, Garden State Circle. Figures were provided by J2 Design Studio, Bedminster and reflect this market in August 2026. Renovation pricing changes, and every house is different.
The Number Most People Start With Is the Cabinet Number
In the Somerset Hills, cabinetry for a mid-to-high-end kitchen generally runs from the low $40,000s to around $75,000.
That figure is real, and it is also the reason so many budgets fall apart. It is the price of the cabinets. It is not the price of the kitchen.
A cabinet quote does not include countertops. It does not include the hardware, the faucet, the backsplash, the lighting inside and underneath the cabinets, or refinishing the floor that the old kitchen was sitting on. It does not include permits. And it does not include the licensed electrician, the licensed plumber and the tile craftsman who have to be in the house to make any of it work.
None of that is hidden. It is simply not what a cabinet quote is for.
The Rule She Uses: Double It
Denise’s working rule is straightforward enough to do in your head.
Take what you expect to spend on materials, meaning cabinets, appliances, countertops, fixtures and finishes, and double it. Labor tends to come in at roughly what the materials cost.
For a full kitchen in this area, including structural changes, that lands in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 all in.
Appliances are the line that surprises people most, because the range is enormous. Across two projects running at the same time, Jones has appliance packages quoted at $12,000 and at $90,000. The high end is a Sub-Zero appliance package, a built-in espresso machine, a beverage center, and the rest of the equipment a kitchen acquires when it is being designed around how somebody actually lives in it.
Those numbers are higher than the ones people arrive with, and Denise’s position is that they are higher because they are complete.
A budget built on licensed trades and real permits looks more expensive than one that is not. It looks more expensive because it is the actual cost of the work.
“The Budget Is the Operating Instructions of the Project”
That is Denise’s line, and it is the answer to the question most homeowners agonize over: should I tell the designer what I can spend?
Her answer is yes, and the reasoning is practical rather than moral.
Without a number, she has to invent one. She will superimpose a budget from a similar project and put it in front of the client just to get a reaction, because the reaction is the information. Somebody who flinches has told her something. Somebody who shrugs has told her something else.
That is a slower and less accurate route to the same place. Naming a real number skips it.
The fear behind the question is that the number becomes the price, that saying $60,000 guarantees a $60,000 proposal. Her answer to that is that the budget is not a target, it is a constraint, and constraints are what design is for.
As she puts it, whether it is a Hyundai or a Ferrari, the job is to get creative and resourceful inside the number you actually have.
Three Prices for the Same Kitchen
Rather than one proposal, Denise’s process produces several. The same problem solved at different levels of investment, each with its benefits, its trade-offs and its cost written down.
She describes the tiers the way most people already think about cars. There is a Hyundai version, a Honda or Camry version, and a Jaguar or Ferrari version. All three are real solutions. They are not the same solution with things removed.
The point of showing three is that the homeowner gets to make the decision with the information in front of them, rather than receiving one compressed option and assuming it is the only thing possible.
That matters more than it sounds. Plenty of people would have been comfortable spending more than they did, if anyone had shown them what the extra money actually fixed.
Sometimes the Honest Answer Is to Spend Less
A recent Somerset Hills client came in pre-qualified for roughly $70,000 in cabinetry. After the contractor’s estimate landed and appliances were priced, they wanted to pull back to $50,000.
The project went ahead at the lower number, and the client got the look they wanted for about $20,000 less than the original plan.
That did not happen through a discount. It happened through a series of candid conversations about which trade-offs actually showed and which ones did not.
Not every one of those conversations ends with a smaller number. This one did.
What It Costs to Work With a Designer
Design fees are their own question, and the answer here is unusually specific.
An initial phone call is free, and it always comes first. Goals and fit get established before anyone walks through a private home.
An hour in the Bedminster showroom is free. If you bring plans, that hour includes a trace-paper sketch over them at no charge.
An in-home consultation is paid, on a published rate schedule of $200 to $500 per hour depending on the scope of the project.
For smaller budgets, work is handled by Madison Bayles, the studio’s Design Associate, rather than by Denise directly.
What the money buys is a document. Denise’s own description of the deliverable is blunt: the valuable thing is the piece of paper. It gets drawn, discarded and redrawn until the right solution is on it, and then the homeowner takes it to contractors, who are now bidding on the same defined scope instead of guessing at three different ones.
Common Questions
Should I tell my designer my budget?
Yes. Without one, the designer has to guess at a range and test it against your reaction, which takes longer and is less accurate. A stated budget is a constraint to design inside, not a price tag to be met.
Why is the designer’s estimate higher than my contractor’s?
They are usually not describing the same job. A complete estimate includes permits, licensed electrical and plumbing work, countertops, lighting, hardware, backsplash and floor refinishing. A quote covering cabinetry alone will always be the smaller number.
What should I budget for a kitchen in the Somerset Hills?
Cabinetry for a mid-to-high-end kitchen generally runs from the low $40,000s to around $75,000. A useful rule is to double your total materials budget to estimate the finished project, since labor tends to run close to materials. A full kitchen including structural changes commonly lands between $150,000 and $200,000. Appliance packages in this market have been quoted anywhere from $12,000 to $90,000.
Do I have to pay for a first meeting?
No. The first phone call is free, and so is an hour in the Bedminster showroom, including a sketch over any plans you bring. In-home consultations are billed on a published hourly schedule.
J2 Design Studio is led by Denise Jones, a second-generation interior designer whose early career was spent on commercial and corporate projects in Manhattan before she opened her own studio in 2011. The studio’s showroom is at 262 Somerville Rd., Rear Showroom, Bedminster. J2 Design Studio, Bedminster is a Garden State Circle authority partner, and appears in our guide to interior designers in the Somerset Hills.
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