Estimating your Modular Kitchen / Home Interiors

When you start thinking about your Home Interiors, you are not sure how much it is going to take. One of your friends did his interiors for 3.5L, and your cousin did for 5L. So, what the heck? Read through to get some basic idea.

1. Calculating the amount of work needed

The first step is to calculate the amount of work needed in terms of square feet (sqft). This is done by multiplying the height and width of each of the components (of the front side).
For example -

• If your wardrobe is 5 ft wide and 7 ft tall, the total sq ft of the furniture is 7 ft x 5 ft, i.e. 35 sq ft.
• If you are looking to supplement your loft with shutters, calculate the width and height of the loft and multiply them to find out the sq ft value.
• For false ceilings, simply use the breadth and width of the ceiling under consideration for the calculations.

Before determining the amount of woodwork needed, you need to know that woodwork can be categorized into five types, broadly. All types of furnishing come under these, and it is essential to know the types as each of them have a different cost per square feet. The five types are as listed:

1. Box:
   Many kinds of woodwork can be categorized into this one, as you might have guessed. Wardrobes, crockery units, or anything that possesses a basic box structure, i.e, of 3 dimensions providing space, can be considered under this type.
    
2. Frames and Shutter:
   As the names suggest, these are woodwork that creates enclosures i.e. provide with closing a space. Examples would be creating ‘doors’ for shelves, cabinets, lofts, etc. This only requires work in 2 dimensions technically, as it doesn’t create space but rather separates space.
    
3. Kitchen Wall Unit:
   This includes all the cabinets above the granite slab/level surface in the kitchen. This is very similar to the "Box" type, but with a smaller depth. Because of this, some vendor may choose to quote a lesser price for this than that of the Box.
4. Kitchen Floor Unit:
   All the furnishing that come under the granite slab/level surface in the kitchen is considered to be of this type. This is a sub-type of box as well, and unless BWR (Boiling Water Resistant Plywood) is used, the price remains the same as the first type.
    
5. Racks/shelves and wood paneling:
   These are racks/shelves and wood paneling. An example would be a TV stand made to accommodate various devices.

2. Listing the kind/grade of materials you want

Having found out the amount of work needed, you need to choose the kind of materials you want to use for the woodwork. There are various combinations and materials available in the market currently, but for the sake of simplicity, we will consider the most commonly used and available materials today: Solid wood, Plywood, MDF, and PVC.

Solid wood is expensive and is rarely used these days as other materials offer flexibility and functionality at cheaper rates.

MDF and PVC are used when the budget is low. They have their own shortcomings and are usually found in rental homes for that reason. The average price per sq ft of MDF is around ₹700-800

Plywood is the most commonly used material as it balances between being durable and affordable at the same time. There are a wide variety of plywoods available, differing in quality. The average price per sq ft for the different types of work is:

• Below Kitchen Counter (BWR): ₹1100 /sqft
• Box/Above Kitchen Counter:  ₹1000 /sq ft
• Frame and Shutter: ₹500 /sq ft
• False Ceiling: Starting from ₹50, varies with a lot of other factors 

3. Calculating the total Budget

Now that we have all the values required to find the total budget, just multiply the values found in the first step with the average rate per sq ft listed in the second step according to the materials you choose.

Tip: The calculation should look like this: Total budget = (Total sq ft of the woodwork) x (average price per sq ft of the chosen material) 
 

Here is a rough estimate for a 2 bedroom house of 1000sqft, using plywood:

Hall
Where the TV unit is similar to the attached one with size 4ft x 4ft = 16 sqft (do not include the unit below on the floor)

Price: 16 x 500 = ₹8,000

Bedroom 1
Wardrobe of size 6 ft x 7 ft = 42 sq ft
Loft shutter of size 10 ft x 2 ft = 20 sq ft

Price: 42 x 1000 (rate/sq ft for wardrobe) + 20 x 500 (rate/sq ft for shutter) =₹52,000 

Bedroom 2
Same as Bedroom 1

Price: ₹52,000 

Kitchen
Let's assume that the Kitchen slab is of length 8 ft.

Kitchen floor unit: 8 ft x 2.5 ft = 20sq ft
Kitchen wall unit: 10 ft x 1.5 ft = 15 sq ft

Price: 20 x 1100 + 15 x 1000 = ₹37,000 

Total Estimate: 8,000 + 52,000 + 52,000 + 37,000 = ₹ 1.5L (approx)

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