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Karin Ross Designs provides home remodeling services in Kansas City for homeowners who want the layout fixed, not just the finishes replaced. We handle kitchens, bathrooms, and whole-home projects across the metro, on both the Missouri and Kansas sides.
We design and build, so one team is responsible from the first drawing to the final walkthrough. Karin walks through your home on the first visit, tells you what is structural and what is not, and shows you every option your house allows before you commit to a plan or a budget.
The terms “remodeling” and “renovation” are often used interchangeably, but there are some subtle differences. Remodeling typically refers to more extensive projects that involve changing the layout or structure of space through demolition and construction. This could include knocking down walls, moving plumbing fixtures, or adding new features like built-in shelves or an island. Renovation, on the other hand, usually refers to making cosmetic updates to an existing structure, like replacing flooring, painting walls, or installing new cabinets.
At Karin Ross Designs, we offer a comprehensive range of home remodeling services that encompass both remodeling and renovation. Whether you’re looking for kitchen and bathroom remodeling or interior design, we have the expertise and experience to bring your project to life. Our commitment is to guide you through the entire process, ensuring quality, transparency, and a tailored result that surpasses your expectations.
Some remodelers only do refreshes: new cabinet fronts, counters, backsplash, paint. Others replace everything but never touch the footprint, so the bad flow stays bad.
Here is the money argument. Add up an honest refresh, from refacing and countertops to flooring, labor, and paint, and you often land at half the cost of a real remodel. You still have the corner sink and the island you can’t walk around.
Half the money for none of the change is the worst outcome in remodeling.
Sometimes a refresh is right. If you’re selling in two years, don’t move plumbing. But you should hear both answers before you spend.
Karin’s rule: you don’t have to stay inside the walls you have. Most homeowners never know that until someone draws it for them.
Every project runs through one team: design, selections, permits, build.
Layout first. We test whether the wall between the kitchen and the dining room is carrying load before we promise you an open plan, because in a KC ranch, it usually is, and the answer is a beam, not a “no.”
Primary suites, hall baths, and the powder room under the stairs. This is where the 1990s garden tub finally goes, and where the square footage it was wasting turns into a real shower and a second sink.
Kitchen, baths, floors, and flow all at once. Usually the right move if you’re staying 8 to 10 years, and almost always cheaper per room than doing it in three separate campaigns three years apart.
The design side of the same studio. Karin is NKBA-listed and has been designing in this metro for over 25 years.
A home remodeler who gives you the same speech in Brookside and in a 2003 build off 291 has not looked at your house.
Pre-war (Brookside, Waldo, Hyde Park, Coleman Highlands). Plaster and lath, a kitchen closed off from everything, one bath upstairs. These homes reward opening up more than any other stock in the city, and they punish you for guessing. The wiring and supply lines rarely match what the listing claimed, so we budget for what’s behind the walls up front instead of calling you mid-demo.
1950s to 70s ranches and splits (Red Bridge, Ward Parkway, Raytown, Prairie Village). Good bones, hard kitchens. The wall you want gone is usually load-bearing, and the ceiling is eight feet. Nearly all of it is solvable, but the plan has to account for the beam before you fall for a rendering.
1990s to 2000s two-story builds (Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Olathe, Northland). Nothing is broken. Everything is dated. Oak, corner sinks, a garden tub nobody uses. The structure is sound, which means you have far more room to move than you think.
Built your own home 20 years ago and assume you’re stuck with the plan you picked back then? You’re not. We can build a new house inside the walls you already have.
Most home renovation contractors gloss over this. It is also what stops a project cold.
| No permit needed in KCMO | Permit required |
| Paint, wallpaper, flooring | Moving a wall or anything load-bearing |
| Cabinets replaced in the same spot | Relocating plumbing (toilet, sink, shower drain) |
| Doors and windows in existing openings | New or altered electrical circuits and panels |
| Patching plaster or drywall | HVAC changes |
| Swapping a faucet or light fixture | Additions and basement finishes |
How it runs. KCMO wants a scope-of-work letter and floor plans through CompassKC, plus separate trade permits for plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. Plan review typically takes 5 to 10 business days. We file it and schedule the inspections. It sits inside our timeline, not on your to-do list.
In a historic district? On the Kansas City Register (Janssen Place, North Hyde Park, Coleman Highlands), the Historic Preservation Commission reviews exterior changes visible from the street, and no building permit is issued without a Certificate of Appropriateness. A kitchen or bath remodel that stays inside the house is generally not their department.
Across the state line, Johnson County cities each run their own process. One more reason to hire local.
We are not going to pretend a number on a webpage is your number. But you deserve a real starting point instead of a range so wide it’s useless.
| Scope | What you get | Metro range |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinet refacing | New fronts, same boxes, same layout | $3,000 to $13,500, or $150 to $450 per linear foot |
| Bathroom refresh | High-impact updates, tight scope, no demo | Around $10,000. This is a refresh, not a rebuild |
| Full kitchen, same footprint | New cabinetry, counters, appliances, lighting, and flooring | Starts around $60,000 and climbs with custom cabinetry |
| Kitchen with layout changes | Walls, beams, relocated plumbing, and gas | Above that, and usually where the value actually lives |
| Full bathroom and whole-home | Scoped project by project | We price it after we walk the house |
What moves your number more than anything else:
We give you a real number after we’ve walked the house, not before. Anyone who quotes your kitchen over the phone is guessing, and you will pay for the guess later in change orders.
Related: Kitchen Remodeling Cost Guide and Does a Kitchen Remodel Increase Property Value?
You are inviting people into your house for weeks. That should be a short list.
We’re based in Lee’s Summit and work both sides of the line. If your neighborhood isn’t listed, ask us.
Kansas City, MO | Lee’s Summit, MO | Leawood, KS | Overland Park, KS | Olathe, KS | Prairie Village, KS | Blue Springs, MO | Independence, MO
If you’re moving a wall, relocating plumbing, or changing electrical or HVAC, yes. Painting, flooring, and replacing cabinets in the same spot generally don’t require one. We pull the permits and schedule the inspections for every project we run.
Design and selections usually take longer than construction, and that is by design. Plan review with the city commonly runs about 5 to 10 business days once we submit. We give you a real schedule after we’ve seen the space, and locking your selections early is the single biggest thing that keeps it.
Usually, yes. In most KC ranches and pre-war homes, the wall between the kitchen and the living space is carrying load, which means a beam and a header, not a refusal. We confirm what’s structural before we show you a plan built on it.
The Historic Preservation Commission reviews exterior changes visible from the street on homes listed on the Kansas City Register, and a Certificate of Appropriateness must be obtained before the building permit. Interior kitchen and bath work generally falls outside that review. We’ll tell you which side of the line your project sits on at the consultation.
It depends on how long you’re staying. If it’s under two years, a targeted update usually makes more sense. If it’s eight to ten, remodeling almost always beats buying and re-doing someone else’s compromises, especially in a metro where the house you love in the neighborhood you want rarely comes with the kitchen you want.
It happens often, especially in flipped houses. We stop, tell you exactly what we found, explain what it takes to bring it to code, and price it before we go further. You’ll never learn about it from an invoice.
Yes, and we’re licensed to work in the cities we serve on both the Missouri and Kansas sides. Ask any remodeler in this metro for proof of both before you sign anything.
Bring us the room that isn’t working. We’ll walk it, tell you what’s structural and what isn’t, show you the refresh option and the real one side by side, and give you a number you can plan around.
No pressure, no guessing, and no finding out a year later that something better was possible.
Call (816) 425-2815 or book your free consultation to get started with home remodeling services in Kansas City.
