Remodeling a Kitchen in San Francisco – What You Need to Know

What to know about remodeling a kitchen in San Francisco including sourcing appliances, navigating the planning department, and photos!

We survived (thrived!) a major kitchen remodel in San Francisco and I’m here to tell you what made this a mostly smooth process for us! I also have some suggestions on where to source materials and appliances in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are an open book so let me know what questions you have.

Read on for all my tips!

Buying High-End Appliances in the San Francisco Bay Area

When you are doing a Bay Area kitchen remodel, you need to select your appliances first! The kitchen cabinets will be designed around and this may very well be your most expensive purchase for your entire remodel. We had no idea what we were getting into so I’m very grateful someone recommended the Purcell-Murray showroom in the design district of downtown San Francisco.

This huge showroom has many of the most premium appliances brands like Hestan (our appliance choice), Bertazzoni, Liebherr, and Asko. They are a family-owned business and according to their website, they handle the marketing, sales, and distribution for Bertazzoni, Best, Broan, Coyote Outdoor, Everpure, Franke, Hestan, Irinox, Krushr, MGS, and U-Line throughout California, Arizona, and Northern Nevada.

Thanks to the ability to demo these products in the Purcell-Murray showroom, we ended up selecting Hestan appliances for our kitchen. We loved the professional restaurant quality with the unique handle design and the ability to get a panel-ready dishwasher, fridge, and freezer. This allowed our 48-inch Hestan range to be the literal jewel of the kitchen. We also bought a Hestan Campania Pizza Oven which I wrote a whole review post about here.

Check their website for deals and promotions before you go!

Buying Stone Countertops in the Bay Area

One word (acronym?) – IRG! I wrote a whole post about our experience buying marble countertop slabs at IRG in this post.

Zipwater System for Sparkling and Boiling Water on Tap

One of the best splurge purchases we made for our kitchen renovation was a Zip Water Hydrotap System. After trying it at the Purcell Murray showroom, we installed this faucet that dispenses filtered chilled, boiling, and sparkling water. We’ve now been using it for 18 months and it never gets old! You can read more about the Zipwater system in this post.

San Francisco Permitting Process for a Kitchen Remodel – Our Experience

You are probably going to think I’m crazy when I say our experience with the San Francisco Planning Department was….awesome. The planning and building inspection departments are located in a beautiful brand-new facility in downtown San Francisco on Van Ness Ave. All of our kitchen permits were “over-the-counter” and even though we had no idea what we were doing they were helpful and responsive every step of the way. Everyone was so nice and very patient with us.

We also had a great experience with our San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) Inspectors. Again, things were super easy. It was easy to schedule our inspections and the inspectors were knowledgeable, friendly, and fair. One thing that I think helped us was Pat’s knowledge of codes and his complete perfectionist tendencies when it comes to his work. He truly overbuilt everything and we passed every single inspection with no modifications needed. Some issues with inspections may come down to the contractors not doing good work. I’ve definitely heard some nightmare stories!

Doing Owner-Builder As General Contractor for San Francisco Remodels

Again this was super easy and we had no issues! The inspectors quickly realized Pat was as skilled as any general contractor and the inspection process was easy.

Before and After of Our San Francisco Kitchen Renovation

Are you ready for the big reveal? Our 1981 San Francisco home had a structural wall separating the kitchen from the dining and living rooms. We removed this and reframed the room with new structural beams. This allowed us to change to an open floorplan kitchen with a huge island that allowed for lots of work space – and lots of storage!

Here’s what it looked like before!

And after!! What a transformation, right?!

Summary – Kitchen Remodeling Sources and Tips in the San Francisco Bay Area

I hope you found this post about remodeling a kitchen in the San Francisco Bay Area helpful! If you have any questions or if there is any topic I didn’t cover, let me know in the comments! I think the biggest tips I have are to pick your appliances early, go to the Purcell Murray showroom, and find a quality contractor so the inspection process isn’t a nightmare (easier said than done I know!).