Kitchen remodeling · La Jolla, since 2005
Kitchen remodeling in La Jolla, designed and built by one team.
A Kaminskiy kitchen remodel starts with how you cook and gather, not with a catalog. Our designers draw the layout, our drafters and engineer handle the structure and the permits, and our own crews build it, on one contract with the price in writing before demolition. Award-winning in San Diego since 2005.
Accredited, certified and held to accountCalifornia contractor #922807, since 2005
Kitchen remodeling in La Jolla · since 2005
The room you live in most, designed around how you use it.
A kitchen remodel is the project most San Diego homeowners start with, and the one that changes daily life the most: storage you can reach, counter space that works, light where you cook, and a layout that opens to the people you cook for.
Kaminskiy Design and Remodeling designs and builds kitchen remodels across San Diego County: layout, cabinetry, permits and construction by one team on one fixed-price contract, since 2005. Custom cabinetry, an island that earns its footprint, lighting in layers, an induction cooktop hidden under porcelain, a wall that comes down between the kitchen and the dining room. Our designers, architectural drafters and project managers take your kitchen from the first sketch to the final walkthrough on one contract, with one fixed price before anything is demolished. Founded in San Diego in 2005 by Sergei Kaminskiy, and still founder-led.
From the cottages around the Cove and the Village to the hillside homes of Bird Rock, La Jolla Shores and Muirlands, La Jolla has some of the most varied housing in the county, and some of the most involved permitting. Permits for kitchen remodels in La Jolla are issued by the City of San Diego. Our design and architectural team drafts the construction documents, a licensed structural engineer stamps them where the scope calls for it, and we submit them and manage the whole process for you. Parts of La Jolla sit in the coastal zone, which adds a coastal development review to some projects; we plan for it from the first meeting.
Start with a complimentary consultationKitchens in La Jolla
La Jolla kitchens: older houses, ocean air, and a view to protect.
Most of the La Jolla kitchens we open were built before 1980: galley kitchens in Bird Rock and Windansea cottages, closed-off kitchens in La Jolla Shores and Muirlands ranches, and 1970s view homes on Mount Soledad where the kitchen faces away from the water. The work is usually the same three things: open the plan, bring the kitchen to the light and the view, and replace what fifty years of salt air did to the wiring and plumbing behind the walls.
The ranches of La Jolla Shores and the Muirlands were built with the kitchen as its own room. Taking down the wall to the dining or living room usually means a bearing wall, a beam sized by our structural engineer, and a permit from the City of San Diego. A kitchen remodel inside the existing walls is normally exempt from the Coastal Development Permit; moving exterior walls or adding floor area is where the coastal review begins.
On Mount Soledad and along the bluffs, the best room in the house is often not the kitchen. Moving the kitchen to the ocean side means rerouting water, drain and gas lines and finding a path for the range hood, and it is the most common request we hear in La Jolla. When the move comes with a second story, the 30-foot coastal height limit sets the ceiling before the design does.
Source: San Diego Municipal Code, Coastal Height Limit Overlay Zone
A pre-1980 La Jolla house usually has a 100-amp panel, no dedicated circuits for today's appliances, and in the older cottages galvanized supply lines that salt air has not been kind to. An induction cooktop and a modern oven want 240-volt circuits, and California's Title 24 energy code sets the lighting rules for any kitchen that gets a permit. We plan the electrical and plumbing upgrade with the design, so the budget covers it from the start.
Source: California Energy Commission, Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards
Within a mile of the ocean we recommend marine-grade stainless for pulls, hinges and faucets, quartz or well-sealed natural stone for counters, and fiberglass or aluminum-clad windows over the sink. Cabinet finishes matter more here than inland: a catalyzed finish holds up to the humidity of the marine layer where a thin lacquer will not.
Many of the cottages near the Village and in Bird Rock, which was subdivided in 1924, are past the City's 45-year threshold, so a kitchen addition that changes the exterior goes through a historical review before the permit. A remodel inside the walls does not. We design so the kitchen you want fits inside the house you have, and when an addition is the answer we carry the review through the permit.
Source: City of San Diego, historical reviews for structures over 45 years
Families in La Jolla Shores and the Muirlands who are staying in the house and want the kitchen open to the family room. Couples in the Village and Bird Rock cottages who want a real kitchen without losing the cottage. Owners of Mount Soledad view homes who want to cook facing the water. And homeowners near UC San Diego remodeling a 1970s or 1980s condominium kitchen, where the association's rules join the City's.
The first meeting is at your kitchen table, the price is in writing before demolition, and the same team carries the project from the sketch to the last cabinet pull.
Our three La Jolla kitchens below show the range: a bamboo-inspired modern kitchen in cool greens and warm wood, a Baja-inspired kitchen with color and traditional tile, and a chic open kitchen built around a large island. Finishes are chosen at our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo, about 25 minutes off peak; the first meeting is at your kitchen table.
Our work in La Jolla
La Jolla remodels. Real homes. Real families.
Every photo below is a Kaminskiy project in La Jolla, designed and built by our own team. Open any project for the full gallery, and follow the galleries to see hundreds more across the county.
Remodeling in La Jolla
Every service in La Jolla. One local team.
This page is about kitchen remodeling in La Jolla. Every other Kaminskiy service has its own La Jolla page too, and the neighborhoods around La Jolla have theirs: the same designers, project managers and crews, from one Design Center.
Nearby neighborhoods
We design and build kitchens in every neighborhood of San Diego County. See the San Diego kitchen remodeling page or schedule a consultation.
The La Jolla kitchen remodeling guide
Kitchen remodeling in La Jolla, in detail.
How a kitchen remodel actually goes in a La Jolla house: the layouts we see, the light, the materials, the wiring, and the permit.
Galley kitchens with a window at the end in the cottages; kitchens behind a wall with a pass-through in the Shores and Muirlands ranches; and kitchens on the wrong side of the house in the view homes. The fix is rarely more square footage. It is a wall that comes down, an island that takes the place of the peninsula, and a sightline from the sink to the people you cook for.
Where the house allows it, we move the kitchen toward the view and give the old kitchen a new job as a pantry, a laundry or a mudroom.
From May into July the sun can stay behind the clouds until noon in La Jolla, so a kitchen that relies on one window reads dim for weeks. We light in layers: a larger window or a glass door where the plan allows, ambient light in the ceiling, task light under every upper cabinet, and a pendant over the island. California's Title 24 energy code governs the fixtures on any permitted kitchen, and we specify to it.
Within a mile of the ocean, hardware and finishes have to be chosen for salt and humidity: marine-grade stainless pulls and faucets, a catalyzed cabinet finish rather than a thin lacquer, quartz or well-sealed stone, and fiberglass or aluminum-clad windows over the sink. The three La Jolla kitchens in our gallery show three directions, from bamboo and cool greens to Baja color to a chic white kitchen around a large island.
A pre-1980 La Jolla house usually arrives with a 100-amp panel and no dedicated circuits. Induction cooktops, a modern oven and a quiet dishwasher each want their own circuit, and a 200-amp panel is often the first line item. In the older cottages we also expect galvanized supply lines behind the sink wall and plan to replace them while the wall is open.
A kitchen remodel inside the existing walls needs a building permit from the City of San Diego and is normally exempt from the Coastal Development Permit; moving an exterior wall, adding floor area or changing the roof brings the coastal review in. Plan on four to eight months from the first visit to a finished kitchen, with design and permits first and construction the shorter part. A bathroom remodel in the same project shares the permit and the crew.
Bathroom remodeling in La JollaGood questions
La Jolla kitchen remodeling FAQ: a few straight answers before you call.
Cost, timelines, permits with the City of San Diego, value, living without a kitchen and the Express option. More on the full FAQ page.
Read all FAQsNothing. The in-home design consultation is complimentary anywhere in La Jolla. A designer comes to your home, listens to what you want to change, takes measurements and photos, and tells you honestly whether we are the right fit for the project.
We do. Permits for kitchen remodels in La Jolla are issued by the City of San Diego. Our design and architectural team drafts the construction documents, a licensed structural engineer stamps them where the scope calls for it, and we submit them and manage the whole process for you. Parts of La Jolla sit in the coastal zone, which adds a coastal development review to some projects; we plan for it from the first meeting.
Usually not. A kitchen remodel inside the existing walls is normally exempt from the Coastal Development Permit and needs only a building permit from the City of San Diego. An addition, a second story or a change to the exterior walls or roof is where the coastal review begins, and we tell you at the first meeting which side of that line your project is on.
About four to eight months from the first visit to the finished kitchen, with design and permits first. A project that needs a Coastal Development Permit or a historical review runs longer, and we build that into the schedule rather than discovering it at the counter.
In most of them a 100-amp panel, no dedicated circuits, galvanized water lines and sometimes termite or dry rot damage in the framing on the ocean side. We plan the electrical and plumbing upgrade with the design and price the repairs so they are not a surprise.
At our Design Center in Rancho Bernardo, about 25 minutes from La Jolla off peak, where you see cabinets, counters, tile and fixtures with your designer. Cabochon Tile and Stone on Girard Avenue and the Ferguson showroom in Kearny Mesa are close by if you want to see more. The first meeting is at your kitchen table.
It depends on the size of the kitchen, how much of the layout changes, and the cabinetry, counters and appliances you choose. San Diego kitchens run from tens of thousands of dollars to well into six figures, and cabinetry is usually the largest line. What we promise is a fixed price in writing before anything is demolished: at the design and bid presentation you see every line of the scope, the contract and the schedule together. The kitchen cost calculator on this page gives an honest range in about sixty seconds.
Usually, yes. New cabinets and counters alone generally do not need one, but plumbing, electrical, gas and structural changes do, and most real kitchen remodels touch at least one of those. We draw the plans, submit them to the city or the county, and schedule the inspections, so the permits are never your problem.
It varies with the scope and the neighborhood. National figures put the return as low as half of the budget, while higher-end kitchen remodels in homes on the Pacific coast have returned upwards of 93 percent. An updated kitchen is also the first thing most San Diego buyers look at. The bigger return is daily: a kitchen that works the way you cook and gather.
Cabinetry, almost always. It is the largest material line and the most labor to install well: every box has to be level, flush and strong enough for what goes inside it. Professional-grade appliances and natural stone are the next two lines that move a budget. Our designers show you where a dollar changes the look and where it does not.
Start here
Schedule your complimentary in-home design consultation for your kitchen remodel, anywhere in La Jolla.
- A designer comes to you, measures, listens and shares first ideas.
- No pressure and no obligation. We tell you if we are not the right fit.
- Our Client Care team calls back during the time slot you choose.