Why a kitchen so often ends up costing double the showroom price

The quote handed over on the way out of the showroom said CHF 13,500. The final bill, once the kitchen is installed, connected and equipped, tops CHF 24,000. There's no dishonesty in any of that: the price displayed in the showroom covers the units — carcasses, fronts, hardware — and often nothing else. Installation, connections, the definitive worktop, the appliances and the removal of the old kitchen make up the other half of the budget, the half that never appears on any price tag.

The price of a kitchen in Switzerland: three ranges, three budgets

A flat-pack kitchen from a major retailer, installed by a professional and fitted with entry-level appliances, generally comes in between CHF 8,000 and 16,000 all told. A mid-range Swiss or European brand-name kitchen — standard carcasses, fronts and worktop chosen from the catalogue, brand-name appliances — most often costs between CHF 18,000 and 35,000 installed. A high-end bespoke kitchen, designed by a fit-out specialist or a joiner, climbs to between CHF 40,000 and 60,000, and the very top of the market goes well beyond those amounts as soon as the materials and the appliances follow suit.

Between these complete scenarios lies an intermediate route that's often forgotten: renewing the fronts and the worktop while keeping the existing carcasses and connections, which generally comes in at around CHF 10,000 to 15,000 and visually transforms the room for a fraction of the price of a new kitchen. At the other end, regional gaps play their part too: in the economic centres — Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich, Basel, Zug — the prices charged commonly exceed those of less pressured regions by 10 to 20%, for an identical kitchen.

Half the budget is invisible in the showroom

The amount displayed in the showroom generally corresponds to the units alone. Depending on the retailer, installation is included or billed separately, the appliances are offered as an option, and the worktop appears as a provisional amount — if it's stone or ceramic, it will only be measured, fabricated and priced definitively after the carcasses are installed. Around this base price orbit five items which, added together, often weigh as much as the units themselves.

It's this addition that explains the doubling so often seen between the showroom price and the final bill: CHF 12,000 of units become a CHF 22,000 or 25,000 kitchen once installed, connected, topped with a stone worktop and fitted with mid-range appliances. There's nothing scandalous about the figure — provided you saw it coming before signing, not midway through the works.

Worktop: from CHF 150 to over 1,000 per linear metre

For the same surface area, the worktop is the item where the choice of material moves the bill the most. The gap isn't only at purchase: each material has its own logic of maintenance and ageing, which weighs on the real cost over ten or fifteen years.

• Laminate: from CHF 150 per linear metre installed — the cheapest, perfectly serviceable, but sensitive to standing water on the edges and hard to repair once damaged
• Solid wood: generally CHF 300 to 500 per metre — warm, can be sanded and re-oiled indefinitely, but demands regular care around the sink
• Stainless steel: around CHF 300 to 400 per metre — hygienic and impervious to heat, it shows scratches and carries a distinctly "professional kitchen" character
• Composite quartz: generally CHF 450 to 800 per metre — the look of stone without the periodic sealing, but sensitive to direct heat
• Natural stone (granite): around CHF 400 to 800 per metre — very hard-wearing, needs sealing every few years
• Ceramic: from CHF 700 per metre, often beyond 1,000 — impervious to heat, scratches and stains, the current high end

A Swiss kitchen generally runs to 3 to 5 linear metres of worktop: the same arrangement therefore costs around CHF 600 in laminate and up to CHF 7,000 in ceramic, without a single unit changing. One scheduling point worth knowing for stone and ceramic: the worktop is measured from a template after the carcasses are installed, then fabricated — allow two to three weeks between the two, during which the kitchen runs on a temporary worktop.

Appliances: the item that tips the whole range

A complete set — oven, hob, refrigerator, dishwasher, extractor hood — exists for around CHF 2,500 to 4,000 at entry level, roughly CHF 7,000 to 8,000 for a mid-range European brand, and easily exceeds CHF 15,000 once you move to high-end lines with a steam oven, large-surface induction and fully integrated appliances. One typically Swiss detail to check before any partial replacement: many existing kitchens still follow the dimensions of the Swiss measurement system (55 cm appliances) rather than the European 60 cm standard — the two aren't interchangeable without adapting the carcasses, which can turn the simple replacement of an oven into joinery work.

Keeping or changing the layout: the decision that weighs most

As with a bathroom, the heaviest cost factor is neither the fronts nor the worktop — it's the position of the water supply, the drainage and the electrical connections. As long as the sink, the hob and the appliances stay where they are, the existing pipework is reused and the works stay focused on the units and the surfaces. As soon as the kitchen changes wall, opens onto the living room or gains an island, the drainage has to be redone with the required fall, the screed or the walls often have to be opened, and a new high-power (400-volt) line has to be run for the hob and the oven: depending on the scale, this technical work alone commonly represents CHF 5,000 to 15,000.

The island concentrates all of this logic on its own: a sink or a hob in the middle of the room implies drainage crossing the screed with the required fall, an electrical supply arriving through the floor and a hood whose extraction has to be resolved at the ceiling or through recirculation. It's feasible — but it's a small structural project, not a piece of furniture you add. A purely storage-and-worktop island, with no water and no cooking, avoids most of that extra cost.

Kitchen studio, joiner or interior architect: who does what

The kitchen studio — a specialised retailer or a major store with a design service — sells standard ranges, plans in 3D and has its own teams handle installation: it's the shortest route for a replacement within the existing layout, with framed prices and short lead times. The joiner builds bespoke: allow roughly CHF 18,000 to 45,000 excluding appliances for a kitchen designed and made in a workshop, an investment that makes sense when the room presents a genuine constraint — a sloped ceiling, an alcove, an unusual ceiling height — or when durability and repairability matter more than the purchase price.

The interior architect operates at another level: they sell neither units nor installation, but settle the questions that come before the choice of supplier — should the layout move, should the kitchen open onto the living room, where should the work zones go — then coordinate the kitchen studio or joiner with the electrician, the plumbing installer and the tiler. For a simple like-for-like replacement, they're superfluous; as soon as the project touches the layout, the walls or several trades, their fees are often partly recouped through better-framed quotes and the layout mistakes you never have to pay for twice.

How long without a kitchen?

It's the question that weighs most on daily life, and the answer depends almost entirely on the layout. For a replacement without moving the connections, the real deprivation is generally limited to one to two weeks between the removal of the old kitchen and the commissioning of the new one. If the layout changes — screed opened, pipework redone, tiling refreshed — allow more like 3 to 5 weeks, drying times included. The project's real timeline, however, plays out upstream, in fabrication.

• Design, choice of materials and comparable quotes: 3 to 6 weeks before placing the order
• Fabrication and delivery: generally 4 to 8 weeks for a catalogue kitchen, 8 to 12 weeks for a bespoke workshop kitchen
• Installation: 3 to 5 days for a replacement with the layout unchanged, 1 to 2 weeks as soon as the connections are modified
• Stone or ceramic worktop: measured after the carcasses are installed, delivered and fitted 2 to 3 weeks later — a temporary worktop bridges the gap
• Survival tip: keeping the old refrigerator plugged in elsewhere, with a portable hob and an accessible water point, makes the kitchen-less period considerably more liveable

Tenant or condominium (PPE): two checks before you commit

In a rented home, the kitchen belongs to the landlord: replacing it at the end of its life is the landlord's responsibility, and a tenant who wants to change it at their own expense must obtain the landlord's prior written consent (art. 260a CO), failing which they expose themselves to reinstating the premises at their own expense when they leave. In a condominium (PPE), the kitchen sits within the private unit and the decision is yours — but as soon as the works touch the shared stacks or pipes, for example a relocated drain that connects differently to the waste stack, the condominium's administration must be involved before the works start, even when no communal permit is required.

Before signing the quote: what to check in black and white

A kitchen should be priced like a small building project, not like a piece of furniture: what costs the most isn't what you see in the showroom, it's what connects it to the building.