Having lived through a kitchen renovation, I agree with skimping on appliances -- especially when it comes to trendy brands (think Wolf stoves, Miele anything, or Sub-zero fridges). And concur on labor, if you can handle it. But floors -- no way, cause you will live with them for a long time and good flooring can be had for reasonable money. Cabinets - meh, it is really nice to have new. Accessories, on the other hand, are a totally personal choice.

I bought my kitchen cabinets for $150.00 on Craigs List and love them. Another place to skimp is with cabinet pulls. I bought my stainless steel pulls from Walmart for 27 cents a piece. Let me add that there are plenty of cost effective options for backsplashes.

I got my gently used cooktop off eBay. Retail $2k, eBay - $300. I stalked my other appliances online and was able to get them for 30% off and free shipping simply by waiting a few months for the sale and then pouncing. I refinished the original cabinets myself.

I do think good appliances make a kitchen, but stick to a budget. We put in an affordable flooring and I'm happy we did. It left us with more money for countertops, a new sink, ect.

I agree about skimping on appliances... although that term is relative. It was still a lot of money, but I can turn out an equally great meal with a $800 stove (stainless steel slide in by Kenmore) as I can with a Viking or Wolf.

I loved the Leibherr refrigerator but I didn't love the $4000 price tag. I ended up with a Summit fridge at a quarter of the price. Still keeps things cold.

I disagree about cabinets if you have a really small space and need to optimize every square foot. Then custom cabinets really can't be beat.

One place to splurge: the faucet. I love my Grohe faucet.

I'm with Mid-C on flooring -- make sure it's good quality. That doesn't necessarily mean making the floor look like the ballroom at Versailles, but cheap flooring wears out fast and is a pain to replace later.

I can't help but yearn for a white Viking range... the other options in white appliances are not good.

@Username26 - What kind of shop did you go to for the cabinet doors? Also, did you just paint the boxes or did you cover them in something? I want to paint my cabinets and replace the doors but I have no idea how to do it so the wood grain (it's pretty severe) won't show.

My entire place has been decorated with treasures from Homegoods, TJ Maxx and Marshalls. There are great deals to be found, but you have to be patient and go to the stores often. It definitely takes longer to find things, but I love the thrill of the hunt!

I made the mistake of going for cheap flooring (1/2 inch thick prefinished oak) in my living and dining rooms. It was a huge mistake. In a kitchen,which gets so much wear, water, spillage...I would recommend going for the very best quality flooring you can afford.

My kitchen remodel experience has taught me:

Go for quality and function over trendiness and label status on everything, but especially appliances.

Buy the best plumbing fixtures you can afford.

Make the counters higher than standard, unless you are very short.

Forget shallow upper cabinets, as they are nearly useless and a poor use of money.

Go for pantry storage whenever possible -- either one big cabinet pantry with pullout drawers, or some form of closet. More function for your dollar than multiple small cabinets.

Consider mixing counter materials; you may be able to use remnant slabs that way.

A big difference between cheap cabinetry and expensive is in the hardware you cannot see (the hinges, drawer rails, etc.). You may be caught up in the exterior look of a cabinet and think hardware doesn't matter. It does, as you will find out in a few years.

A backsplash is easy to replace down the line, while a counter or floor is less so. If you need to skimp, do so on the backsplash and change it later.

I can't skimp on labor because I don't actually know how to do any of the things I want to do and would be scared of messing it all up. I've heard that putting in a backsplash is easy, but I'm really not confident that it is.

Third (or 4th, 5th) the 'don't skimp on floors' comment. In my opinion the kitchen floor takes more abuse than any other in your house, bathrooms are a close second. Why on earth would you skimp there and put money toward a "pretty" backsplash material?

Real advice: skimp on your backsplash by incorporating a small band of the expensive mosaic tile you covet into an overall pattern of inexpensive subway or square ceramic tile.

These are great ideas... but somehow I left reading this imagining people buying "art" in the clearance aisle at their local TJ Maxx, please no.

Another voice in the Don't skimp on the floor chorus. It's too difficult and expensive to replace later.

Skimp on the counter, seriously. It's pretty easy to install a cheap laminate or low end butcher block to use for a few years until you can splash out for that stone slab you always wanted. Also, maybe skip the backsplash too.

Really, you can skimp on anything you can add later when your budget isn't so stretched. Don't skimp on structural elements, hardware, function. You can't replace them later.

Also, don't forget about cashback programs like fatwallet, or the many others out there. When we did our redid our kitchen we bought all of our appliances from sears onsale for between 25-30% off (Sears has some killer sales if you can wait a couple weeks), and then got an additional 4-5% cashback just by using cashback programs from fatwaller and bing cashback (when it was around)

You don't have to "skimp" on floors, but can go with a different option. For example, rubber floors, and true linoleum (e.g. Marmoleum) are very practical, comfortable and durable and don't cost as much as wood flooring.

Personally, I wish now that we had gone with poured resin flooring, but at the time I wasn't familiar with it.

And for everything else, I would advise going with things which endure. Painted cabinets can look nicely worn and can be repainted if need be; lacquered cabinets just look damaged.

We just finished doing a major remodel on a very tight budget. We used big box store cabinets and then painted corbels, bun feet and beadboard to give it the high end look - without the cost. For the backsplash, we used a more expensive glass/marble tile mixed with subway tile. Again - the look without the high price tag. But we did put in a new, beautiful wood floor. That's not an area to skimp! Here's the 'after' pics! http://www.sopocottage.com/2012/04/exciting-news-will-we-get-published-in.html

Laurel at SoPo Cottage

I'm just finishing up a kitchen renovation so I can't speak of wear and tear on the floors but I chose a groutable vinyl tile from Home Depot that has good reviews for durability. I did my whole kitchen floor, tile and grout (about 100 sq. ft.), for $160. That's including the grout I bought for a color test but didn't use. You can cut the tiles with tin snips or a box cutter so I did it myself. It looks really good.
As for appliances, I buy whatever Consumer Reports tells me is a good buy. It hasn't done me wrong yet.

Sometimes you do get what you pay for - and sometimes you don't. The trick is to shop smart and know what you are doing. My parents bought a sub-zero refrigerator when they redid the kitchen when I was about 12. I'm 41 now, and the refrigerator is still great (It's been serviced no more than 4 times).
My friends bought a Miele washer/dryer that I covet - I have never used a washer that cleaned as well. Other friends bought another model Miele, and they are honestly pieces of crap.
I have found that Maytag makes a great washer, but I have had horrible experiences with their dishwashers.
Some of it is luck, I think, but some of it is also research.

I was fine skimping on the countertop and going with Ikea laminate.

To me, the last place I'd skimp would be the cabinets. The difference between a really amazing looking kitchen - and one with longevity - is often the quality of the cabinets. It's one of those things....lower quality looks cheap and often falls apart or shows serious wear pretty fast. But then there's a point where it doesn't make sense to spend past, either.

If, for example, you want wood, nothing will look like real wood. Not laminate, not pressboard and not plastic or laminate.

I agree about the appliances, though I will say that we did carefully opt for an expensive Miele front loader and dryer because of the fact that it meant that we could have more counter space over it and it also meant that we could have nearly TWO FEET extra of counter space on the other side of them, so to us that made the most sense to spend (at the time Miele was the only brand that small, now cheaper front loaders and more compact washers and dryers are available.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is, scrimping and saving is good and there has to be balance, but it can be way more relative than universal.

There are some great refacing products out there. I know, I used to picture cheap-drawer-liner-looking-diy-gone-bad tackiness too. But believe me there are great wood grains, thermafoils, and paints/stains to choose from and you really have to study them to tell the difference. They have come a long way in the last few years. A word of caution: this is not a diy job, use a trusted professional who has access to quality products, the right training and the best tools. You should receive completely new (solid wood or mdf) doors and drawer fronts and a matching refacing veneer applied to all the boxes. You can also choose from many styles of mouldings to go with your new look. Check it out!

Don't forget your reuse centers. My local Habitat for Humanity ReStore made my kitchen renovation possible almost two years ahead of our projected schedule. I bought an almost new black GE double wall ovens, an almost new black Jenn-Air downdraft cooktop, a new Moen faucet, and a floor model granite composite sink for under $600, not to mention spending less than $30 on all the hardware for my entire 200 sq ft kitchen. All the money goes to a great cause, and they will come and take all your old cabinets and appliances for free!

The best way to save money is to plan. Figure out what you want, and start watching the ads cycle so you know when those items go on sale and what a good deal looks like. Ikea traditionally has kitchen sales in the spring and fall, and you can save a bundle. The sale we purchased are cabinets in (which, btw had better ranking in Consumer Reports for function and durability than most of the cabinets that cost 2-3x's more) allowed us to purchase solid granite countertops for less per sg ft than it would have cost us to tile the countertops our selves. You can also get some major appliance bargains on Cyber Monday. We bought our dishwasher on Cyber Monday and saved 45% over the normal cost.

I understand what everyone is saying about not skimping on floors, but I'd like to be a voice for the opposite camp. Right now, we simply couldn't afford great floors, and with 4 kids and one on the way, I was okay with that. We simply leveled the existing floors in our 1885 home with plywood & maybe backer board (I think--my husband is the reno guy) and used the peel and stick linoleum tiles from a big-box home improvement store. It's been 2 years and they show no signs of wear-and-tear, and I cook and bake every day. The pattern is neutral & hides the dirt well, and with the other much more dramatic changes we made, no one really pays it attention one way or the other. Someday, when we have the budget, we can always put in a better floor if we choose, but for now, if something happens, we can replace just a square. And with little kids, that's a much better option for us right now.

A great tip on kitchen taps: Chicago Faucet Company.

I particularly love their commercial line: they are no-nonsense, functional, durable and reasonably priced.

(My pet peeve are over-designed kitchen taps.)

The problem with not using a floor that you want in the long-term is that the only way to ever change it properly is to remove all the base cabinets and appliances. Otherwise, if you ever want to change it our later, you are doomed to have flooring which ends at your base cabinets and comes part-way up the kick panel, which is less than ideal.

Talk to your landlord or the building manager before you begin your redo. When I moved into my apt, I found out that everything was the exact same in the kitchen from when it was built in the mid 1960's & that other tenants had their kitchen completely redone on the managers dime. I spoke to the building manager & he replaced my stovetop & hood, oven & countertops. Now I'm working on getting him to replace the cabinets.