I don't know that the threads get so specifically anti money as they get anti nonnormative. Anything that is outside a general norm is bound to offend someone, like the $60M house. Its just easier, and more socially acceptable to be more openly critical when it involves lots of money.

In general I think the KD did you a favor by spelling out what their product is. You can't walk into a Maybach Dealership (they call them "Studios") and not spend $300K + on a car. It's what they offer, and they can't really offer you anything else. I don't think she said "And you can't afford it" at the end of the sentence, did she? :)

i know a lot of people with serious money and let me just say, none of them have a $400K kitchen. it's really not hard to imagine though, since they must look exactly like a $150 or $200K kitchen -that has been marked up to the heavens.

palimpsest - you said what I was thinking. Which is why I had asked the OP how she came to that particular KD. You know if you are walking into a Maybach dealership that you're not looking for a kia. or even a lexus for that matter.

I feel like there is a double standard here - There have been threads recently about how non-judgemental this forum is and you don't need to spend a lot of money on a kitchen to be accepted here. I wholeheartedly agree with that. But I also think that if someone choses to spend $400,000 on a kitchen renovation, it is not our place to judge them either. (not that I have actually seen a $400,000 kitchen here).

One explanation might be that the costly and extensive renos involve a hybrid dual kitchen concept containing commercial catering style or "restaurant clone kitchen" as well as separate area top of the line items from residential kitchen appliance, cabinet, and materials suppliers for daily use by the homeowners. Complying with building codes alone would mandate the employment of several high cost professions for extended periods before a general contractor could even start the infrastructure portion of the project. Such complications would quickly escalate costs well beyond the "his, her, and the caterer's SubZeros" kind of expenses.

I have an important question- do people that have 400,000 to spend on a kitchen actually cook? Is the chef included in that price?

I think I walked into that showroom last January when I visited Maryland. When a sales woman (not the designer) saw me looking around, I said I wanted to browse, she never came back. Since the downturn in the economy, I've come to expect 20 questions from people on the sales floor, trying to drum up any business. I'm sure she took one look at me and figured I'd never be able to afford their services and didn't even bother. That's fine with me. I was a tourist and was able to enjoy the eye candy without the chit chat.

When I think about places like this, I remember interesting insights from books like The Millionaire Next Door or The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley. Most people who are truly wealthy don't spend excessivly or conspicuously. They live in nicer average neighborhoods, drive average cars, use coupons, buy shoes that can be resoled and cut their hair at home. They often live way below their means. Large and/or expensive purchases are generally well researched and planned and paid for in cash. If you've never checked these out, they're very interesting. DH had these on audio book, so he forced me, I mean, graciously shared these with me on our drive when moving from CA to TX. ; )

Warren Buffett comes to mind as an example of this type of person, a billionaire who lives like a blue collar worker.

(side note to boxerpups...Hi! I moved from GF in 2004 to a town further west of DC. I remember those birthday parties very well! Haha! I lived back off of Colvin Run in the Van Metre homes. Do you know the area?)

I think there are people at all socioeconomic levels who care a lot about certain things, and those who don't care very much about the same things.

I know two families in the $Bil. category , and a few in the self-sustaining-wealth $Mil. category. (what is it now $10M?, $15M?)--I don't know the billionaires well enough to have ever been in their houses.

However, one $Baire is very low key, doesn't care what she wears much, doesn't care what she drives, doesn't care what her teeth look like, and although she has a number of houses, she is concerned about their locations and general amenities, and not so much what they look like. I cna't imagine her spending more on a kitchen than what was necessary to make it work for her.

My other $Baire acquaintance just spent $100ks on a kitchen addition and then decided a post-and-beam barn they had recently constructed was too close to the house and had the whole thing taken down and put back up a bit further away.
He also knows the person who bought the $7M Garvan Carver table personally. He is also generally a low key person, though.

I have noticed that at EVERY price point, from tens of millions, to thens of thousands in the real estate listings that there are people who are very house proud and those who aren't. I have seen gigantic but poorly and randomly furnished mansions--essentially undecorated, and beautifully decorated 400 sq foot houses.

Anyone who goes to Ethan Allen knows that they work on commission, and when a shopper walks through the door, the next salesperson in line gets paged by the receptionist.

My friend who worked there told me of the salesperson who peeked out at the shopper in flipflops and a pony tail and said "She just stopped on her way back from the gym...I don't feel like dealing with a browser, would you take her?", to the next person in line.

Who sold her about $100K of furniture/drapery/and accessories. She had just finished a shore house and wanted turn key design.

I face the triage based upon appearances all the time. A realtor who showed up a bit early to show my place assumed I was a cleaning person.

Palimpsest, I love it! LOL I used to go shopping on weekends, when I was comfortable and in comfortable clothing and would notice a difference in who would wait on me and the attention I would get. It didn't always happen, but I thought it was funny that I often bought more when I was comfortable and had a day than if I went in after work, nicely dressed, and tired. Then you start to look for the person who has treated you well no matter how you are dressed.

I started to post last night and didn't. My kitchen is not large by the standards here -- maybe mid sized and not even quite large enough for a proper island for most of you. We did a complete gut and didn't feel like we skimped putting it back together. In fact, I wound up with more than I ever expected when we bought the house and started talking about updating the kitchen. My DH wouldn't set a budget because he "didn't know what it should cost" and I think he knew that I also wanted the things we valued to be good quality but that I would also look for good value. I was thinking that we would have to do 3 or 4 kitchens to reach that range -- BUT I put in a LOT of time researching, designing and shopping. While a larger home might have twice the kitchen space I have (the butler's pantry, etc.), I can also see that a fair amount would go to someone to do all that design, planning, shopping and overseeing the project that I didn't pay someone to do (other than, in theory, a GC who, in actuality, didn't do any of the overseeing -- but that's another issue). With the many, many hours, I can see where paying for professional experience in all of that plus a premium for top notch labor could push something in the range of twice the materials for my kitchen into 3-4 times the total cost.

I don't get the idea that the designer in the OP was rude, maybe a tad abrupt, but upfront about what a person could expect from them. I wish my GC had been as honest. ;-)

Mom2fourkids,
Yes, Yes, Yes I do know that area.
We lived in a neighborhood near Georgetown Pike and the
GF Elementary school. My oldest child was in the
Japanese/English program.

One of my boxers (the ill one) used to run with me all
over River bend. Just this weekend my husband asked me
if I would like to move back there when out youngest goes
to college. Maybe, I think I want to be back near DC. I
miss it and love the warmer days. I miss those cherry
blossoms.

Where are you now? I am north of Boston. It is beautiful
here but the snow is starting to annoy me.
~boxer

enmnmn,

We were 'fired' by a kitchen designer at our second meeting when we brought up our budget. She looked at us and said, "I don't think this will work out, if you have to stick to a budget." We were shocked--doesn't everyone have a budget? And ours was certainly a reasonable one.

I guess she was busy enough that she didn't need our business, as plllog said. And honestly, I think she was afraid we'd insist on cheap ugly materials, and she didn't want her name attached to any kitchen that wasn't 'perfect' by her standards. So she insisted on either an open-ended budget, or an enormous one, from her clients.

Better that we let those KD's alone, IMHO.

It is really better if everyone gets along and is on the same page at the beginning of the process. There are enough unpleasant surprises from unforeseen circumstances along the way that there will be stresses along the way in even the best of relationships.

I have had potential design clients that I just did not think I would be able to do what they wanted and they were not going to be happy with Me. (Nor I with them, but they are hiring me.) Sometimes the parameters of the project are not correct, sometimes its a taste issue...there are particular types of tastes that I don't like and it may be difficult for me to do a project like that, honestly. Not that I share or like every client's taste entirely, but I have to be given some flexibility to express myself and give the client My Take on their wishlist. The least of my worries has generally been budget--I have done things for people with virtually no budget, if I think it is something that can be done. If I only took clients who would spend the money on certain things the way I did, I would have no client but myself.

As a healthcare professional by day, I don't generally have the opportunity to choose not treat a patient, unless it is a procedure that I feel someone else does better, so in my design life I find it nice to be able to set that parameter.

I guess, in fairness, we need to know you said before the kd said what she said.

''I have an important question- do people that have 400,000 to spend on a kitchen actually cook? Is the chef included in that price?''

That's a good question. Every week there's a thread here with someone who's doing a $80-100K kitchen, who has questions about marble, high-end appliances, expensive faucets, etc, who throws out something like ''I don't care if my double ovens have convection, I/we don't cook anyway.''

That always floors me. Why spend that amount of money on something you don't need or enjoy? And I'm not talking about people who are renovating for resale. (Although I seriously doubt most sellers would recoup $100K at resale anyway.) Maybe it's a status thing, but $29 for a cookbook first seems like a better idea.

Well, even if you don't cook, or cook seriously, you still need a good refrigerator, a good DW, a faucet and sink, and nice cabinets to put your stuff in. I am assuming the non cooks who put in the $100K kitchen are doing it to fit the house vs. the Serious cook who spends $100K on their kitchens because it is a central pleasure of their life. They are really two groups of people.

I do know of a couple who live in a consierge-level hotel/condo who do Not have a kitchen. They have a refrigerator, and I am assuming they have a microwave. I don't know if they have a decent sink and DW anymore or not. They turned most of the kitchen into a giant clothes closet.

So there are kitchens for status and kitchens for function, but I imagine the kitchens for status are done somewhat for resale inasmuch as they are in a certian type of status house. I know a couple who is fairly environmentally oriented and they have one car--he takes the train into the city. But they live in a 3-4-car garage development. When they wanted to put in a two car garage, the realtor said..."You will never sell this house if there is another one in the development that has at least three car capability for sale" So, they are a one car family with a three car garage.

Thanks, Palimpsest, for the "anti non normative" explanation. That makes a lot of sense!!

You know, just like some rich folks like to wear old sweats and sneakers because they're comfy, there are also rich folks who cook because they like to cook. If you're really poor, you can stretch your food budget a lot by doing a lot of cooking whether you like it or not (e.g., one large pot of beans and vegetables for the price of one fast food item), but a lot of people who are just comfortably middle class don't "cook". They buy prepared or heat and eat dinners, eat out, buy frozen food, get pizza delivery. They may "use" their kitchens, to store the leftovers and heat things up, pour a bowl of cereal or make a sandwich, but they don't cook. The same kind of personalities, if they're good and rich, can afford a private chef or even a full time cook, and eat better while "cooking" less.

But there are people to whom prices mean nothing because they're wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice, who might never think of checking the price on the blueberries before putting them in the cart, but who like to, and do, cook. I believe I read that in the old Indian caste system, one did not eat food prepared by someone of lower caste. That means that all the high caste mamas were still cooking for the family. There are also filthy rich American mamas (and gentlemen and singletons) who at least make the dinner much of the time.

As Palimpsest said, there are a lot of fabulously wealthy people who are pretty normal. They're not the ones you read about in the magazines, because part of their normality is in not being all that interesting.

For what it's worth, I was at a metal shop for some custom metal fabrication needed for our remodel. They were working on something that was welded I-beams, the kind used for sky scrapers. It was a size of a small truck chasis. I asked what it was and they said that it was a "pot rack". I said "for a restaurant?". They said "No, for a residential house!"

This thing will have to be hauled into the house using some heavy duty equipment.

Extrapolating from what I paid for my measly custom metal work, my estimate for this "pot rack" is in the many multiples of $10,000. You can see how things will click up to $400,000....

I have seen custom doors that cost 5 figures easily. Again, the same for light fixtures where each piece costs many grand.

Imagine commissioning hand blown glass chandeliers by world reknowned glass artists. (I have been in such homes...)

There are so many places where things can be custom, only the sky is the limit.

Like I said earlier, I have been in some truly spectacularly beautiful homes where they have bought the best that money can buy... It must be nice to be able to buy such agonizingly beautiful things.

Ooooh!!! Kaismom, I forwent the hanging fixture in my kitchen, but it never occurred to me that I could have a Chihuly!

With all due respects to the archichoke, I am a Chihuly girl myself.

I see million and multi million dollar homes often enough. I am usually not as impressed with their kitchens as you'd think. A house in that price range should have an amazing one and often they are just larger versions of the same ones we see in lower end houses. Sure, the appliances may be different brands, but otherwise, there is little creativity.
You can bet if any of us here had $200k-$400k to spend, our kitchens would be fabulously special! I'd have a gorgeous imported stove, but the tile and counters would be my really huge splurge.

My kids, upon first encountering a Chihuly (bright orange, of course) declared that it was a glorified representation of macaroni and cheese. So maybe they do fit in with the kitchens of the masses, where cupboards are stocked with the blue boxes with packets of cheese powder.

My first thought with either of those lamps was, "I'd hate to clean that thing!" Buyers of $400k kitchens probably don't need to worry about details like that.

There are all kinds of ways that you can spend big. Some lead to just more of the same, or even just too much. But in the right hands -- for example, I went on a tour of houses last June. One was a 20's tudor, with incredible detail and gorgeous woodwork. The owner had a deep interest in restoration. The kitchen and pantry had been totally renovated. The original layout and footprint were not changed but they had spent a fortune to exactly replicate tile and other materials for the kitchen based on the bit of original ones they had unearthed, mainly in the pantry. They used wonderful materials, but the kitchen was still quite small. These same people had built, from the ground up, a "carriage house" to store their many prized old racing autos. They had copies of the original brick, trim, ironwork, leaded windows, right down to the gargoyles, all fabricated from scratch and exactly matching the original structure. They spent a fortune and will likely never recover it. (Was astonished to hear that they are selling the house and have now purchased an orignal FLW house that they are restoring) Nor can you really "see" the money they spent, as was their intention -- it is supposed to look original and in fact it is exactly the same as original. But that takes love, taste, discretion in addition to the deep pockets.

"it's really not hard to imagine though, since they must look exactly like a $150 or $200K kitchen -that has been marked up to the heavens."

ignorance is bliss !

"Warren Buffett comes to mind as an example of this type of person, a billionaire who lives like a blue collar worker."

One of the great myths of this century that he does nothing to dispel. Unless you guys know many "blue collar" types with $40million airplanes and SoCal palaces overlooking the Pacific? He doesn't just live in a modest house in Omaha and drive an older sedan all the time. But, as palimpsest says every economic group has members of all shapes and sizes.

Again, ignorance is bliss - or- what they don't know won't hurt them -and- don't judge a book by it's cover.

BTW - $10 mil isn't self sustaining these days - not even close, especially if you have good taste. Heck, just look at all the lottery winners that have 3x that amount and questionable taste: many are flat broke withing a decade.

Sorry, OT, but idrive, you're right. They must be a pain to clean. We have a Chihuly at work, and apparently in the purchase price/contract, there's a cleaning stipulation. I think they send them out yearly or q 2 years.

Someone came up with a formula that if you had $10M invested and were earning 5% on in you would be making $500K in interest a year, and that would be enough to sustain a lifestyle consistent with "wealth", meaning you could afford a nice house, afford to travel, afford a vacation home, and afford to employ people to clean your house, be a personal assistant, drive you--something like that--without running through everything you have.

It varies with the interest rate. The US government calls you "wealthy" at a much lower number. I think they still want to call anyone with $1M in assets (now excluding primary dwellings since that puts so many people in the category) "wealthy". And my gut feeling on this is that if you have $1M in assets, you are lucky, you are smart, but you still basically have to live like a middle class person. You aren't going to be hanging with the Kardashians.

I know people with combined family incomes in this range ($500K) but it is purely from salary--and some of them do some or all of the above, but the difference is if you stopped working you would be not able to live a certain lifestyle--unless you had these other assets.

But as you can see, the difference between this kind of wealth and the $60M house kind of wealth is vast indeed.

Not to get into a huge debate, but you've slid the scale a bit with the $10m in "investable" money which means you usually have at least as much in real estate and very safe non income producing investments so we're now at a lot more than 10. Also, you'd have to structure your portfolio to "generate" that cash every year as opposed to appreciation which is more favorable tax wise.

Now that 500k will be taxed as income and you'll send +/- 200k to the talking heads in D.C. leaving you 300k to dole out. What do you suppose the burn rate is for a lifestyle of that caliber? Personal asst. with beni's and taxes 30-60k, cleaners 20k + , taxes on your manse ??? - but well north of 10k/yr. We've now burned through 25% of your 500k and we haven't heated or cooled the summer house, gone to the grocer, hired a caterer, paid the stylist, gone to get our hair and makeup done, or bought a pair of Jimmy Choos.

Then there's PAC money to dole out so you can hopefully swing the debate away from having to send more of your $$$ to these same fellas. Then there's the lawyers, accountants, and brokers to pay so you can stay in dutch and get 500k next year too. BIG premium to Chubb so you can rebuild the manse if it catches on fire or a tree falls on it, insurance on the Porsche in case you rearend one of the unwashed and they figure out you actually own the Porsche and are not leasing it and want their lottery winnings.

All this check writing is tiring so you'll need a vacation and it won't be at a place that those normal millionaires go like the Holiday Inn. But................I'm afraid you won't have any of your allowance left for a vacation so you'll have to fire the gardener or sell some IBM to re-charge your NetJets accnt. Good news though - you can use your AmEx points to cover the hotel, but you might have to pawn the diamond necklace to cover your bar and restaurant tab and Bif and Muffy won't be getting a t-shirt this year because " you know kids, there's a recession on and everyone has to cut back"

All kidding aside - 10m/500k/yr is a lot of money to most people - but it all depends on your perspective , and the bigger your budget gets the harder it is to reign in.

Q: What do you get when you give a man $900M?

A: A frustrated billionaire.

Palimpsest - totally agree with your definition. On Wall Street it's called " f u" money. The amount you need to walk away. As you can imagine, as you get closer to pulling the cord, the number grows. And btw, it's pretty darn hard to earn 5pct aftertax without putting the 10mn at risk.

Steve - that's only be temporary because next year (s)he'll have pushed over the hurdle.

dux- quite true @ the 5% but that's another disussion in and of itself. A few I know reached their walk away # long ago but still can't. Why? They'd miss the action, influence, the juice, ect... the money is simply a way for them to keep score / measure up at that point - kinda like some people get on a scale in the AM to check their weight.

antss,
I know ALOT of people that have reached their walk away $ many years ago. I would say only the minority has walked away. The rest is still in IT, funding venture capital, managing private equity firms, starting yet another enterpreneurship, keeping the adrenaline level up. Most of these don't work for other folks. So the threshold of walking a way is pretty high, I guess...

One guy, we heard a rumor that he was "quitting" because the work was cutting into his vacation time. I just read in the paper that he started yet another company!

A friend makes about 5 mil$ (I didn't ask her, it was in the paper) a year as an employee (the CEO of her company, but still an employee) and she says that she is NOT in the category of "really" wealthy people.... meaning, she can't quit and sustain her lifestyle!

The difference between the haves and have nots is REALLY BIG. Their kids will inherit the 1 mil plus lifestyle for many generations to come... The way our economy has gone, the percentage of $ that is controlled by the wealthy keeps on going up and up in our society...

What an interesting thread! Decades ago, I worked for a home design magazine, where I remember being aghast at $20,000 kitchen remodels. They seemed so extravagant. Here I am 20 years later, sitting upstairs while lead-abatement demolition takes place in our kitchen downstairs. We're embarking on a renovation that promises to be many many times more expensive than I ever dreamed. We're doing mostly mid-range appliances, semi-custom cabinetry, and trying to avoid fancy bells or whistles, but the project includes a small extension, foundation work, reorienting our basement stairs, and a new powder room. Our construction costs, with an admittedly pricey but meticulous and reliable contractor, will dwarf everything else. Can't believe I'm actually typing this, but maybe $200,000 isn't completely out of line, depending on the scope of the project and prevalent costs in your area. Eeek!

Posted by warmfridge

''I have an important question- do people that have 400,000 to spend on a kitchen actually cook? Is the chef included in that price?''

This is a truly fascinating thread. It just shows one standard does not fit all.

After my youngest child was born, I spent a few years catering privately for various parties/events. I was asked to cater a New Year party and the hosts wanted me to make omelettes to order for the guests. The kitchen was huge and had every modern appliance you could imagine. The hosts were just delightful people but you could tell that the kitchen had never been used. They literally stood around marveling at me as I made the omelets as if they were seeing a made to order omelet for the first time.

In contrast, a family member has acquired a great amount of wealth and when it comes to remodeling... he puts large sums of $$ into construction and the architecture of his homes but when it comes to the kitchen he makes sure it is functional and he works it on a tight budget. Always a big eat in kitchen with large table for seating. He is a phenomenal cooks and does all the cooking in the house.

I must admit I do admire the Warren Buffets and the Mike Bloombergs of the world. I hear that Bloomberg has just 2 pairs of shoes. One black one brown. Sounds like an ok kind of billionaire to me...lol.

This talk is the kind I try to avoid but as predicted, I've just read the thread and it started my imagination a-going. Voyeurism plain and simple. I just resolved to go look at some of the priciest places on my end of the Twin Cities for the Parade of Homes next weekend. Thus far I've only had time to fly into four, the top one at $350,000 whose kitchen was a faux wood-floored nuthin' on one end of a dull multipurpose living-dining room. But you would be able to watch the t.v from everywhere, little lady. I suspect the "designer" was the builder, sitting smugly on the sofa bragging to me. Another house had custom cabs in dark red wood that looked great on outside but were all shelves on inside (even in corners) with weird splices and glue glops on the MDM innerds; the 5-foot square island lacked any storage on 3 sides.

Best one was an empty nester compact freestanding house on slab in a community-pays-fee neighborhood. Formica countertops in soapstone type pattern, nice looking cabs, tasteful lighting, good traffic flow, and sit-down eating area that could be honestly used for a dinner party. Had much better taste in decor than the others, would not require an immediate make-over. (Did not open the cabs to evaluate.) $169,000 half an hour north of St. Paul with views of a wetland.

Next time, the $1.5 mil baby gets my inspection.

One of the things that makes a discussion like this so difficult on a national forum like Gardenweb is something that Florantha said in the post above: "priciest places for the Parade of Homes ... $350,000"

$350K is "a steal" in my neighborhood and either indicates a medium sized house that needs to be rehabbed completely, or a tiny house rehabbed at relatively low quality. And I do not live in the priciest area in my city.

We aren't really comparing the same thing in different locales.

palimpsest, I am sorry I wrote so poorly. I saw lower-end homes on Sat. while on errands but have vowed to go out an see the higher end just to satisfy my inner voyeur. Left out an important sentence.

I was surprised by how dull the $350,000 house's kitchen-dining area was, although I think it had an efficiency award for energy use. Some of the lesser ones had kitchens at least as good. Last year I went to one high-end house that had the ridiculous mega-island I've referenced in a few postings. Multi-million house, or so they claimed and as far as I can tell, still unsold. Now there was a screwy kitchen thought up by an arrogant builder without input from real kitchen users.

Thanks for helping clarify.

I understand now, but even so where I grew up houses are super cheap, (Lumber and Coal baron mansions for the price of a 2 bedroom condo apartment here) and even in parts of this city, you can buy a beautiful, large Tudor Revival or Colonial Revival for $350K if you don't mind living on the edge of the hood or having to travel for a decent grocery store.

But I was also kind of thinking of general regional commentary about everything on Gardenweb...for every person who says X,Y, or Z is ridiculously overpriced, there is someone who thinks its reasonable. For example the labor cost multiplier for some types of contracting in my area is 1.6 the nat'l average, while in some other parts of the country it may be .85 so my labor might be double someone else's.

Yes, definitely misunderstanding. I moved from Boston to Minneapolis a few ago....real estate in the Minneapolis area is NOT cheap. ( Maybe condos, since the market is saturated.) I have been told that the Edina zip code is one of the wealthiest in the nation. This is not a verified fact, but my former boss (a magazine publisher, author, and former U of M professor) also referenced this. Sure, some of the burbs are more affordable, as are some of the areas surrounding but not within Boston proper. $350,000 wouldn't get you anything in Edina, Minnetonka, or any of the neighborhoods surrounding the lakes.

This is possibly one of the funniest threads I've ever read on GW. The description ants gives of the lifestyle...dh and I nearly died laughing!

I am doing a historical restoration as was discussed above. I would expect I'll push some frighteningly high numbers to do right by the house. I still clean my own toilets and am restoring the plaster in the parlor next week....myself. I shop for the best deal. My husband is a wonderful cook. Our kitchen is used. :). I'd never waste money on a private assistant but I live the idea of the 20 k in cleaning :o). I shop covered with dust from the plaster more than I should...I wish I could live up to the stereotypes written about here.

People with 400k budgets still have budgets. They still like stuff the guy with a 40k budget likes...ie to make a great meal for family and friends. To assume differently is silly. I have friends with fourty k kitchens and those with four hundred k. I find the higher level tend to be the better cooks frankly but that's just a cooinky dink I'd guess. Judge not shall we? Or we just look silly.

"Warren Buffett comes to mind as an example of this type of person, a billionaire who lives like a blue collar worker."

Not so true....I just his apartment in a design book a friend was showing me this past friday, which was fabolously designed and furbished with furniture, artifacts (and yes a high end kitchen) with pieces that you and I have never heard of much less seen. Warren Buffet may look like his suit cost 100 bucks from sears but trust me it didnt.

I think people have the terms wealthy and rich confused...yes, wealthy people, people who's money makes them money, spend money....it may not be where you and I spend money but these high end designers are obiviously getting their clients somewhere. True, wealthy people may not boast about what they spend their money on (usually, they arent the ones actually out spending it, their assistants/personal shoppers are) but they do spend on items or things they deem necessary..just cause one looks average does not mean their shoes did cost a thousand bucks, its probably just that you and I just dont know their shoes cost a thousand bucks

I think rich people, people who still have to work for their money, are probably more likely to mull over high ticket items versus a wealthy person...there's a difference.

Ive worked with both...I've had wealthy people give me the key to their home and say "have at it". Ive also had rich clients who often watch the bottom line like you and I. And I've had middle class people such as myself that go either way...I think its more about what you value and those are the things that you spend money on.

I think that if someone can afford a 400k kitchen then its their right to spend that much and not for you and I to judge. This is a kitchen forum and I believe the OP just wanted insight about what a 300k kitchen would look, yet the discussion turned into ridicule about why or why not someone should spend 400k on a kitchen and how wrong that is....and yes, some people who spend 400k on kitchens do actually cook in them!!

I agree with plllog....it seems some people on here are anti money or better yet, anti-norm (well said) yet most of us go to work everyday to save our pennies to buy that expensive calatta marble top for our kitchens knowing that it costs a small fortune and WILL etch but we just have to it...its the same thing just on a different scale.

I didnt find the designer rude at all....she/he was up front with the service they provide letting you know up front. I think if it were a person who was planning on spending 400k for their kitchen, then he/she would not have been offended by the designer in the first place and some people on here would not have went into that direction instead of answering the OP's question...
"Please, if anyone out there has a $300,000 kitchen can you show me what it looks like?"

My kitchen was about $300,000...but that's in pesos, not dollars.

Archnista, you remind me of a fine furniture store near me. The dining sets, for instance, have absolutely exquisite craftsmanship... and look just like the ones at the everyman, high volume, made in China store. The products at both stores are based on the same traditional designs: Federal, Stickly, etc. You can see the quality of the $12K table, though the $1200 table isn't made of cardboard, and it's not rickety or anything. Just unfinished on the bottom, may have staples, you might be able to feel where the leaves meet, and the grain isn't perfectly matched. It's an okay table. Like builder grade cabinets. Classic look. Okay construction. Not made to last a lifetime the way its more expensive cousin is.

You can make the difference between a $40K kitchen and a $400K kitchen on quality and craftsmanship alone, and have them looking quite similar in the end.

My kitchen/powder room/playroom remodel isn't that large (kitchen is about 15X20)but will cost around $80,000. I drooled over Van Gogh granite which would have cost $40,000 alone!

Labor rates also vary from location to location.

$200,000 doesn't go very far anymore LOL.

I looked at a house yesterday (on an open house) that was listed at $2M--way out of my budget.

If a $2M 7+ bedroom house set up for staff can be "charming" this one really was. It was early 20th c. colonial revival last updated about 45 years ago, with deco bathrooms.

The kitchen was large, utilitarian, and in the basement and there was a real butler's/warming pantry adjacent to the dining room.

This is a house that it would be more expensive to tread lightly and make everything look like it has always been that way than it would be to blow a lot of it out and "update". I could see a large budget of $500K to make it look beautifully intact, and a much smaller budget of $200K to "update" the kitchen and baths.

Parade of Homes update...

The 1.5 million$ house turns out to be the one I visited last year. It's got a good kitchen. I didn't bother returning to see it again because I had to get out to see the others in the area, which turned out to be either adequate or downright disappointments. One with some downright weird stuff was described by the greeter as "designed by a man" and she said, "look around, there are many good features" and pointed away from the kitchen. This for $350,000.

Had an interesting conversation with the salesman of a prestige building company. He said that the granite prices have dropped sufficiently to make granite a 1% or less option in the $400,000 to $600,000 houses he was selling. "The granite in this kitchen was $3500 which is not a big deal in this house." He said it was not an exotic stone. The cost of the lots was significant cost--many on wetlands or in some kind of special neighborhood. Second most expensive house I visited was made to nestle inconspicuously into a neighborhood of rehabbed old lake cabins, a funky neighborhood dating from about 1900 clustered on the end of White Bear Lake outside the rich folks community farther north. (That's where Scott and Zelda spent summers at the beach.) Kitchen on this one was nice but no cigar. I asked where they anticipated dishes to be stored. "Here," the guy said proudly, and pointed to the opposite side of the space from the DW. Walkpaths were ignored!

I may not have granite or honed flooring or high-end appliances, but I have a great new kitchen. If it could talk, mine would say it feels pleasant, efficient, and respectful of all who enter, whether to work or to eat or to read or to chat or to clean. Not all the kitchens I've seen on Parade of Homes can say that.

After 12 years, Susan answered the original question. I wasn't knocking anyone for spending $300,000 on a kitchen. I just wanted to know where the money went and what the finished product looked like. Thank you!

We once went a house in our area to pick up a horse. The homeowner was also the owner of one of the largest commercial construction companies in the area, and had his own polo team and field. Clearly, no shortage of money. What was interesting was that the owner was also a very serious chef, yet the kitchen was smaller than average. He explained that he liked to have everything close on hand when he was cooking, and he had designed the kitchen for efficiency.