Not your credit card for sure! Your $10,000-15,000 would end up costing you $20,000-$30,000. Do you belong to a credit union? I would go talk to them about what they can do for you.

Is it possible to just do the renovation in waves, saving up more funds in between? We've done ours as:

Phase 1: Tearing out the floor, a corner of the kitchen we wanted gone, and changing the doorway to an arch.
Phase 2: Getting electrical changes and HVAC changes done, getting base cabinets, and getting countertops, sink, and faucet.
Phase 3: Upper cabinets and pantry installed.
Phase 4: Installing new floor. (Haven't gotten to this yet.)

Or just wait two years till you have the full amount in hand.

This is not the kind of investment that will turn you a profit, and it's not an absolute necessity (health, education, safety). Going into debt for something non-vital like a kitchen remodel just seems like...maybe not the best plan.

My philosophy has always been to save up and pay cash. Depending on how far along you are with your plans you may actually have longer before you can start swinging a big hammer in there than you thought. Maybe work out the details and figure out where to get things from while saving up more?

We are in our early 30s and saved aggressively for 5 years (while still putting away our planned savings) and paid cash. It feels awesome to know we don't have any debt related to the remodel.

Wait a bit longer and pay cash. We talked ourselves out of a lot of purchases knowing it was going into the kitchen fund.

My DH and I are both completely debt averse. Although our kitchen needed remodeling as soon as we bought our house 14 years ago, we were determined to pay off the mortgage before we did any work to the house. We did and then saved up the $30+ to pay for the reno. For us, it was well worth it to pay cash. If you are not willing to just wait an extra two years to save up the cash, a HELOC is probably your cheapest option.

Personal loan. Your time is money.
pay it off before starting anything else!

HELOC rates are good and the interest is tax deductible. A personal loan will have much higher rates and is not deductible.

When we did our kitchen reno, our budget was very similiar and we were also short of cash. We GC'd ourselves and did the job in phases as we could pay for them. In the end we increased our scope and our budget and got exactly what we wanted for more than our kitchen.
Also, stores often have specials no interest for 12 months, sometimes 24. If you are SURE you can make the deadline these are a great deal. If you miss the deadline, however, you will owe the interest on the previously free months and it will be exorbitant.
I suggest you fInalize your plan, and figure out the pieces. There are most likely chunks that you can do yourself and in the end, even if you curse and cry through them they will be the things with the most meaning and the most memories. I have a bathroom/laundry room that was supposed to be done this summer but the quotes were so high I told my husband we would just do it ourselves(subcontracting as necessary) this winter and I will GC again. I was hoping to hire it all out, but my frugal self prevailed. I have to say that I also believe that it sets a good example for my children- we review budget, review finances and say nope- that is too much.We have to figure out another, possibly less convenient and more difficult way to get what we want ourselves.

Many helocs have no closing costs and have very easy applications. Check around. If we waited until we had the cash, we would never have/do anything. It is possible to responsibly manage debt. Along with a home equity loan (not line of credit) we used a lowes credit card and got zero interest for 2 years.

A lower budget remodel like tnat is more likely to have more cost over runs than one with a higher budget. A kitchen redo has certain static costs that you just cannot get away from. If you are diciplined enough to pay the money back well, then te HELOC woud be your best bet as it will allow for more flexibility when you do encounter those inevitable overruns. Or, just save until you do have the 50K that an average kitchen redo costs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cost vs. Value

Just a word to the wise. Know that whatever you have budgeted, you will actually need 15-25% more than that, even if you have padded your original budget to allow for some overage. This is an immutable law of kitchen renovation. So the $30k budget you mentioned will turn out to be $35k-38k of expenditure, at least.

I would not borrow any money to refurb a kitchen unless I had no running water or the roof was caving in. Unless the kitchen was completely dysfunctional, I probably would not refurb until the mortgage was paid off, and if yours is, then a HELOC would not be the worst thing in the world. At the end of the day, updated kitchens are nice but not terribly essential.

We could have paid cash but decided to refinance the house (with one payment left) and consolidated the current Home Equity Loan into the refinance (which we could have also paid off) with cash back to cover the kitchen.
With mortgage loans so low, it made sense to go this route from a tax standpoint.
I would only recommend this if you are financially secure and comfortable with the payments. We were and still are.
Enjoying our kitchen in A2.

Money is pretty cheap right now so a HELOC (~2%) would be a cheaper option than a CC (~8%) if you can't pay the balance right away. You've just got to watch out for the adjustable rate and get it paid down quickly bc I think they can go up to 4 or 5%.

Personally, I'd wait until you have the cash in the bank (what's another 6 months?) then get one of those cash back rewards credit cards. We've got two through USAA at $20k each and we use them for projects but pay them off right away, using the cash rewards off the top.

>>>Personally, I'd wait until you have the cash in the bank (what's another 6 months?) then get one of those cash back rewards credit cards.

Swentastic, that is actually a brilliant idea. With that size project, it would really add up.

It is a hard decision, how to pay for renos. I am assuming the OP is young; why, I do not know. Everyone is in a different place re re kids, college, retirement, etc. We still have one kid's graduate school to pay for, and are easily horrified by debt. I am still waiting in hope that Santa Claus will bring me my new laundry room. ;-) (Probably not this year.)

It was my understanding that a Home Equity Loan, which we did, is better for your credit history than a HELOC. I'm glad we used a loan. I smile every time I walk into my new kitchen, when I used to cringe every time I walked into my old kitchen. The debt is worth my peace of mind.

Citi Simplicity Card
Interest Free for 18 Months
This card would meet your needs as outlined and the process to obtain one is relatively painless. The process can be done in a Citibank branch as well. The down side of this card is that when the 18 months are up the card does not carry any substantial reward system or perks. I have attached a link below that details the cards specifications.

http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/citi-simplicity-review/

You are so close already. Save your money and pay cash as you go. Spend the extra time for planning and shopping for best value. This is not a revenue-generating project, so taking on debt will add zero value to your remodeled kitchen. It's a losing proposition.

Another question to ask yourself if whether you have cash emergency reserves in the bank on top of that $23K. If not, you need to rethink your priorities.

We bought our cabinets, cooktop and ovens and installation at Lowes. They issued a $20,000, 18 month interest free card. We divided $20,000 by 18 and paid it off on time. In addition should we use the card again in Lowes, there are some discounts. We paid cash for the rest. My cabinets are Schuler. The only cabinet extras are 2 susans, 2 sets of dividers, and 2 cabinets with pullouts. So we kept costs down. I already had a floor, lights, and a fridge which helped a lot.

We both have Discover cards that give 5% cash back on purchases from home improvement stores April-June, we used it for a lot of our purchases and paid the balance in full each month.

Essentially, we got paid to build the kitchen we had already budgeted to build.

I'm with the HELOC crowd here ... it's cheap tax-deductable money. The paperwork really isn't all that. I did mine with the credit union - all by phone until the final closing paperwork, which they sent a guy to me to sign. No big deal, no closing costs, 3.5% (it's a 2nd). If it's under 100k, interest is tax deductible.

Since my kitchen project will add to the value of the house, I'm staying within my self-imposed guideline of not using debt to finance a depreciating asset :)

Plus, you have a line of credit that can be used for other things if need be - no application, no waiting - just be judicious about using it for your home.

If I may add a clarification, interest is only tax deductable once you exceed your household personal exemption. Many people, including myself, who own their homes or have small mortgages, etc. do not qualify. In that case, interest on debt is a direct drain on your assets and adds nothing.