Open-plan conversions, cabinet-and-counter refreshes and full gut renovations for Santa Monica's 1920s–50s bungalows and Spanish houses — permitted through the City of Santa Monica, built by one crew under one fixed-price contract.
Professional, licensed & insured Fixed-price proposals Permits pulled & closed Our own crew, not subs
Tell us about the project. We call back to schedule the on-site estimate in Santa Monica.
Kitchen Remodeling in Santa Monica, CA: Right Image Builders (CSLB #1021284) remodels kitchens for 1920s–50s bungalows and Spanish houses, with larger lots north of Montana across North of Montana, Wilshire Montana and Mid-City, with its own crew and permits through the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division. Typical build 5–8 weeks on site once permits are issued. One fixed written price after a free on-site estimate.
Licensed general contractor, CSLB #1021284, licensed since 2016, 5.0★ Google (45 reviews), 4.9★ Angi (103 reviews). Office in Valley Glen, about 35–45 minutes from Santa Monica. Planning ranges by tier and neighborhood are in the kitchen remodel cost guide.
Right Image Builders is a licensed general contractor remodeling kitchens across Santa Monica — North of Montana, Wilshire Montana, Mid-City, Sunset Park and Ocean Park. We build open-concept conversions, full remodels and cabinet-and-counter refreshes, with every permit pulled through the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division and one fixed price after a free on-site estimate; our crew is based in Valley Glen about 35–45 minutes away. CSLB #1021284. Call (818) 210-4544.
Santa Monica kitchens sit in 1920s–50s bungalows and Spanish houses: a closed kitchen and breakfast room at the back, cabinets from an earlier remodel, and a 100-amp service that will not carry an induction range, a second oven and modern refrigeration. North of Montana the houses are larger and the kitchen usually becomes a family kitchen open to the yard; in Sunset Park and Ocean Park the job is making a smaller kitchen work harder.
Two jobs hide inside every Santa Monica kitchen remodel. The first is the finishes: cabinetry, stone or quartz counters, tile, lighting and appliances. The second is the house underneath. The electrical here is typically older 100-amp services in many prewar houses; a full kitchen, an ADU or EV charging usually means a 200-amp Southern California Edison service upgrade. The plumbing is typically galvanized supply lines and cast-iron drains in the 1920s–50s houses, many on raised foundations, and the galvanized lines are replaced with copper or PEX while the walls are open. Opening the wall to the next room means an engineered beam and a structural permit, and the new lighting has to meet Title 24.
Our office is in Valley Glen, about 35–45 minutes away, and the project lead who does your estimate runs the build. On these streets logistics are simple: a small dumpster on the driveway, deliveries staged in the garage, and the site cleaned every evening. Most Santa Monica families stay in the home for the 5–8 weeks on site, with a temporary kitchen set up and the dust contained to the work area.
Shaker, slab, inset, and Eurostyle cabinet programs built and installed by our own team — dovetail drawer boxes, soft-close hardware, pantry and organization systems. We size cabinetry to the real dimensions of a Santa Monica kitchen, not a showroom rendering.
We work directly with stone fabricators — no middleman markup. Quartz (Silestone, Cambria, Caesarstone, MSI), quartzite, granite, porcelain slab, and natural marble. Waterfall islands, integrated undermount sinks, and matched backsplash are all in scope.
A common Santa Monica project: taking out the wall between a closed galley kitchen and the living room. We coordinate the structural engineering, beam sizing, temporary shoring, and LVL or steel install — all permitted through Santa Monica Building and Safety, all under our contract.
Large-format porcelain, handmade ceramic, natural stone, subway, and zellige — installed by our in-house tile crew with proper edge and transition systems. New luxury vinyl plank or tile flooring flows the kitchen into the adjacent rooms once the wall is gone.
Panel-ready refrigerators, integrated dishwashers, range hood venting, pot-filler rough-in, under-cabinet LED, and microwave-drawer cutouts — all planned before cabinets go in, so nothing is hacked in afterward.
Older Santa Monica homes almost always need electrical brought to current code — dedicated circuits, GFCI protection, island outlets, and panel work. We handle the rough-in, the Santa Monica Building and Safety inspections, and the sign-off, so the kitchen is safe and legal, not just pretty.
Professional, licensed and insured, and we put that in writing at every step, because a remodel is a trust decision before it is a construction decision.
California general contractor license CSLB #1021284 (General Building B), active since 2016, with general liability and workers' compensation insurance. Check the license yourself at cslb.ca.gov before you sign anything, with us or anyone else.
The proposal lists what is demolished, what is built, which finishes are included and which permit covers it. If it is not written down, it is not in the job.
When walls, floors or roofs open up we photograph what is behind them and send you the pictures. Anything beyond the scope is priced in writing before the crew continues. You never find out from the invoice.
California law caps a home-improvement deposit at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract, whichever is less. We follow it. Progress payments follow the work, and the final payment comes after your walkthrough.
We submit the plans, meet the inspector and close the permit. You get the closed-permit record, which is what a buyer, an insurer or an appraiser will ask for.
The people who estimate the job are the people who build it. No subcontractor hand-offs, no call center; your project lead answers the phone during the job and after it.
Santa Monica is its own city on the coast between Pacific Palisades and Venice, from the large lots north of Montana Avenue through Wilshire Montana and Mid-City to Sunset Park and Ocean Park. Every permit goes through the City of Santa Monica's Building and Safety Division, which runs a paperless electronic plan review with its counter at the Permit Services Center at City Hall, 1685 Main Street, and our Valley Glen office is about 35–45 minutes away over the 405.
Because the city's plan review is electronic, the drawings, the Title 24 energy forms and the structural calculations for a wall removal are uploaded before the counter appointment, and we schedule demolition around the permit. Houses that are designated landmarks or sit in a historic district have exterior changes reviewed, so a new kitchen window or door is checked against that status first.
Santa Monica is its own city, so the kitchen is permitted through the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division. The electrical and plumbing permits are pulled before demolition, inspections are scheduled around the framing and rough-in stages, and the permit is closed at final so the work shows as permitted when you sell.
Right Image Builders prices a kitchen remodel in Santa Monica the same way every time: a free on-site visit, a measured scope, the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division requirements checked for your address, and an itemized fixed price in writing within a few business days.
Hidden conditions are priced in writing when they are found, not on the final invoice; the number you sign is the number you pay, and the final payment follows your walkthrough.
For planning ranges before the visit, see the kitchen remodel cost guide.
A senior member of our team visits your Santa Monica kitchen, listens to what you want, and gives you an honest read on cost and timeline. No pressure, no call-center runaround.
Within 3–5 business days you get a fully itemized, fixed-price proposal — cabinets, stone, tile, electrical, permits, labor. The number is committed before we start.
One crew, all Santa Monica Building and Safety permits, your project lead on-site. We hand you a finished kitchen with a closed permit. Final payment is due only after your walkthrough approval.
Tell us about your kitchen and we'll get back to you within 4 business hours with next steps. No obligation, no sales pressure — just a straight answer on what your project takes.
Prefer to talk it through?
We hired Right Image Builders for a full kitchen remodel and couldn't be happier. The owner personally showed up to every major milestone. The fixed-price contract was exactly what we needed — no surprise invoices, no scope creep. Our kitchen looks like it belongs in a magazine.
Our kitchen went from a 1980s relic to something out of Architectural Digest. Right Image Builders was meticulous with every detail — the cabinetry alignment, the backsplash grout, the countertop templating. Genuinely impressive work.
Two bathrooms, new hardwood floors, kitchen cabinets, and a laundry room — all in one project. Right Image Builders coordinated everything flawlessly. They answered every text within the hour. This is how construction is supposed to work.
Plain answers on costs, permits, materials and hiring, written for Los Angeles houses and kept current.
What changes at each tier, permits, weeks on site, resale.
Read the guide →Decision guideReface or replace the cabinets? For Los Angeles kitchens: when the boxes are worth keeping, what refacing cannot…
Read the guide →Decision guideQuartz, quartzite or marble for a Los Angeles kitchen? Hardness, heat, stains and etching, sealing, look, and how…
Read the guide →AnswersDirect answers from the Los Angeles remodeling FAQ, kept current.
Read the answers →Yes. Right Image Builders is a licensed California general contractor, CSLB #1021284, with general liability and workers' compensation insurance; verify the license in minutes at cslb.ca.gov under "Check a License" and ask us for the insurance certificates. The Santa Monica estimate is free and on site, done by the project lead who will run the job, and the itemized fixed-price proposal follows within 3–5 business days.
Right Image Builders, a licensed general contractor (CSLB #1021284) based in Valley Glen about 35–45 minutes from Santa Monica, remodels kitchens across North of Montana, Wilshire Montana, Mid-City under one fixed-price contract: design, permits through the City of Santa Monica, and construction by one crew, with final payment only after your walkthrough. 5.0★ on Google (45 reviews) and 4.9★ on Angi (103 reviews).
Go to cslb.ca.gov, choose "Check a License" and enter the number; ours is 1021284. Confirm the license is active, classified B (General Building Contractor), bonded, and shows workers' compensation. Then ask for a written fixed-price contract with scope, materials, schedule and payment terms; California law requires it, and it is the only way to hold any contractor to the promise.
A fixed price, in writing, after the free on-site visit, not a running estimate. The scope is itemized line by line, the City of Santa Monica Building and Safety Division permit and inspections are inside it, and hidden conditions found during a Santa Monica job are priced in writing before any further work. For budget planning before the visit, the kitchen remodel cost guide shows the current ranges.
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Free on-site consultation. Fixed-price proposal. One local team from demo to final walkthrough — with every Santa Monica Building and Safety permit pulled and closed.
(818) 210-4544