THE KITCHEN EDIT
START WITH YOUR KITCHEN DIRECTION
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Find your tone
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Explore layouts and options
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See project price guidance
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Find a kitchen direction that fits your home and lifestyle
The ARK Kitchen Edit
Plan your kitchen.
Get a starting estimate.
The ARK Kitchen Edit: Estimate Builder is an early-stage planning tool for Auckland homeowners. It helps you organise the key details that shape cabinet scope and pricing — before site measurement, detailed design, or a formal quote.
You don't need a finished set of drawings. You don't need exact construction measurements. Enter what you know now — your kitchen shape, approximate dimensions, appliances, storage direction, and surface preferences — and the tool will produce a Starting Estimate Range, along with a current Estimate Clarity reading.
The Estimate Builder is currently being prepared for launch. The information below describes how the tool works once it's available.
What is The ARK Kitchen Edit?
The ARK Kitchen Edit is ARK's suite of interactive kitchen decision tools. The Estimate Builder is the first module — designed to help homeowners clarify their early kitchen direction and build an initial estimate range.
It helps you answer three questions:
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What type and scale of kitchen am I currently considering?
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Which choices are most likely to influence the estimate?
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What still needs to be confirmed before a formal quote?
The Estimate Builder is not an automatic design tool — it won't decide which layout suits you best. Its job is to make what you already know clearer and more useful.
What information do you enter?
The tool guides you through the following:
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Kitchen renovation, refresh, or undecided
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Kitchen shape
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Approximate cabinet-run dimensions
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Fridge size and position
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Dishwasher requirement
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Oven position or type
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Pantry and tall cabinet needs
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Drawer and door configuration
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Windows above the benchtop
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Window count, position, and rough size
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Upper cabinet or overhead storage direction
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Island inclusion
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Cabinet surface direction
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Benchtop finish direction
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Integrated cabinet lighting
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Hardware and cabinet function preferences
You don't need to know every answer. Where something is still undecided, you can select the relevant "Not sure" option. Unanswered items won't be treated as confirmed conditions.
What do you get?
Once the results page is complete, the Estimate Builder provides an early project summary. This includes:
Starting Estimate Range
Low and high range based on current inputs
Estimate Clarity
How complete and reliable the current data is
Selected directions
A summary of your current kitchen choices
Key assumptions
What the estimate is built on
Outstanding conditions
Items not yet confirmed that may affect the range
Next step
Apply for an ARK review or site measurement
The result isn't just a number. It shows you what the estimate is built on, and which outstanding conditions could still shift the range.
How is the Starting Estimate formed?
The Estimate Builder uses a publicly available estimation layer maintained by ARK for early planning purposes. It considers factors including:
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Approximate cabinet-run lengths
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Kitchen shape and scale
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Upper cabinet coverage
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Pantry and tall cabinet needs
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Drawer volume
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Island inclusion
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Appliance-related cabinets and storage
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Cabinet surface direction
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Benchtop direction
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Splashback allowance
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Integrated lighting direction
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Installation, removal, or renovation allowance
These inputs are used to produce a low-to-high estimate range.
The Estimate Builder does not confirm individual cabinets, side panels, hardware selections, stone areas, or site conditions one by one. Those details are confirmed through the measurement, design, and formal quote process that follows.
What is Estimate Clarity?
Estimate Clarity shows how much usable information has been confirmed so far, and how tightly the Starting Estimate can be defined. It uses three stages:
LowMediumHigh
Providing kitchen shape, approximate dimensions, appliances, upper storage direction, and material preferences will generally produce a higher Estimate Clarity than completing only a few selections.
Progress through the questions and Estimate Clarity are not the same thing. Completing more pages doesn't automatically mean all critical information has been confirmed.
Estimate Clarity reflects how complete and how narrow the estimate range currently is — not final price accuracy, and not a formal quote guarantee.
Why a price range?
Before site measurement and specification are confirmed, a kitchen cannot reliably produce a single final price. Early in the process, a number of things are typically still unknown:
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Exact site dimensions
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Final cabinet count and sizing
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Internal cabinet configuration
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Final appliance models
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Confirmed materials and hardware
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Actual benchtop and splashback areas
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Wall and floor conditions
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Site access and installation conditions
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Demolition requirements
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Additional renovation work
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Later design changes
A Starting Estimate Range lets you assess whether your current direction fits your budget — without presenting early assumptions as final commitments.
What the Estimate Builder doesn't confirm
The Estimate Builder is not:
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A formal quote
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A confirmed final price
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A construction contract
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A complete kitchen design
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A per-cabinet production drawing
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A confirmed material or hardware spec
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A site conditions assessment
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A confirmed installation date
It also does not automatically confirm that pantry or tall cabinets can be installed, that upper cabinets won't be affected by windows or site conditions, that measurements entered are correct, or that plumbing, electrical, gas, flooring, tiling, painting, or structural work is included. These items are reviewed and confirmed through the formal project process.
What happens after you finish?
Once you've reviewed your results, you can choose to:
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Adjust your current direction
Go back and compare kitchen shapes, storage, appliances, surfaces, or functional preferences.
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Add more detail
Prepare more complete dimensions, appliance information, site photos, or other relevant information before returning.
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Request an ARK Kitchen review or site measurement
When you're ready to move forward, submit your contact details to request a review, site measurement, appointment, or follow-up. Your Estimate Builder data becomes the starting brief for that meeting. ARK will reconfirm dimensions, appliance specs, materials, site conditions, and formal scope before producing a quote.
How does this differ from a formal quote?
The Estimate Builder uses simplified inputs and ARK's internal pricing references to produce an early planning range. A formal quote is built from confirmed site dimensions, actual cabinet configurations, selected materials and hardware, appliance data, benchtop areas, installation conditions, and a defined scope — including what is and isn't included, and any allowances.
The Estimate Builder and a formal quote are connected, but not the same calculation. The final quote figure is not guaranteed to match the starting estimate.
When is your data saved?
While using the Estimate Builder, your information is held within your current browser session. Completing the questions does not automatically create a formal ARK Kitchen project, a myARK project record, a formal quote, or a permanent client lead.
A follow-up intake record is only created when you actively request an ARK review, measurement, appointment, or other follow-up, and submit the necessary contact details. A formal myARK project record is created after a formal quote is accepted, a deposit is confirmed, and project onboarding is complete.
Frequently asked questions
What is The ARK Kitchen Edit: Estimate Builder?
It's the first module in The ARK Kitchen Edit suite — designed to help Auckland homeowners organise their kitchen layout, approximate dimensions, appliances, storage, and surface direction, and produce a Starting Estimate Range.
Do I need exact measurements?
No. You can work with approximate cabinet-run measurements at this stage. Exact dimensions will be confirmed through site measurement and the formal project process.
Will the Estimate Builder give me a fixed price?
No. It produces a price range for early planning purposes — not a confirmed final price.
Does Estimate Clarity reflect price accuracy?
No. It shows how much usable information is currently available and how narrow the estimate range can be. It is not a measure of final quote accuracy.
Will ARK check the measurements I enter?
Not during the tool session. Actual dimensions are confirmed through site measurement and the formal project process.
Does the Estimate Builder include a full kitchen renovation?
Not necessarily. The tool can factor in certain renovation allowances, but it does not automatically confirm that all plumbing, gas, electrical, flooring, tiling, painting, or structural work is included.
Will a myARK project be created automatically when I finish?
No. A formal myARK project record is only created after a formal quote is accepted, a deposit is confirmed, and project onboarding is complete.
Is the Estimate Builder available now?
Integration, pricing, the results page, and full testing are currently in progress. When the tool opens, this page will be updated with the live access point.
Related pages
View real kitchen projects & pricesHow a starting estimate becomes a formal quoteExplore kitchen materials and hardware