Kitchen Remodel Checklist:
9 Things to Plan Before the Walls Close

A kitchen remodel is one of the most involved projects a homeowner can take on. The cabinetry, countertops, tile and appliances are locked into the plan early. What tends to fall through the cracks are the functional details that only become obvious after the drywall is closed and the cabinets are installed, like electrical layouts for planned features.

So, what should you actually think about when planning electrical for a kitchen remodel?

From discreet power outlets to powered appliance storage, backsplashes, lighting and more, this kitchen remodel checklist covers all 9 electrical planning decisions that are routinely missed in the chaos of a remodel project. Most of them cost very little to address in the planning phase, but can be more complicated or expensive after the fact.

1. Plan your outlet locations before the cabinets go in

Electrical rough-in happens before cabinet installation. That means outlet locations need to be confirmed at the rough-in stage, which is a lot easier to do before the cabinets are set and the tile is on the wall. Changes after rough-in can mean opening walls, moving boxes, and potentially re-inspecting work that has already been signed off.

A few things worth locking in before rough-in:

• Outlet count and placement on each wall run. The NEC requires outlets within 6' of any doorway and no more than 12' apart along a wall. Confirm your electrician is planning to those minimums, and flag any locations where you want outlets that go beyond the minimum, like a dedicated coffee station, a specific appliance location, or a desk area in an open kitchen. (Confirm with your local NEC code)
• Under-cabinet lighting circuits. If you're planning hardwired under-cabinet lighting, those circuits need to be roughed in at the same time as your outlet circuits. They are easy to add at rough-in and difficult to add after cabinets are installed.
• In-drawer outlet power supply. If you're planning in-drawer outlets for a charging drawer or powered appliance pullout, an outlet can be hardwired inside the base cabinet before the drawer goes in. While it’s fairly simple to wire after the fact, it will likely come at no extra cost if the direction comes from you early.

The conversations to have are with your electrician before the rough-in inspection, and with your cabinet supplier before the order is placed. Those two timelines intersect earlier than most homeowners expect.

2. Decide how to power your kitchen island or peninsula

The 2023 NEC update under section 210.52(C)(3) changed island outlet requirements significantly. In states that have adopted the new code, outlets on the sides of kitchen islands and peninsulas are no longer permitted, as they pose a safety hazard. More specifically, receptacles in kitchen islands & peninsulas that are located below countertop height, and meant to “serve work surfaces” are no longer permitted. Why? Because dangling cords off the sides of islands were deemed hazardous (think: children pulling on cords that are powering crock pots).

So how can you power your kitchen island and peninsula? Here are some code-compliant solutions:

• USB-only in-drawer outlets, like this Docking Drawer Blade Duo
• Countertop-embedded assemblies like the Legrand Countertop Outlet
• Motorized pop-up units like the Docking Drawer 65W Flush Pop-Up

3. Plan for appliance storage before the cabinet layout is finalized

Kitchen appliances are one of the hardest things to plan around in a remodel because the instinct is to deal with them after the kitchen is built. The cabinet layout goes in, the countertops get templated, and then the question becomes where the toaster, the coffee maker, the stand mixer, and the air fryer actually live. At that point the options are limited to whatever space is left.

The better approach is to inventory your appliances before the cabinet order is placed and assign each one a home in the layout. A few decisions that are easy to make at the design stage and difficult to make after:

• Which appliances live on the counter permanently? Heavy or frequently used appliances like a coffee maker or stand mixer are often better placed in a dedicated countertop zone with a dedicated outlet nearby, rather than stored and retrieved.
• Which appliances get stored and pulled out for use? Appliances used occasionally are good candidates for deep base cabinet storage or a pullout shelf that brings them to countertop height when needed.
• Which appliances belong in an appliance garage? An appliance garage keeps small appliances connected, accessible, but out of sight. It’s the ideal concealed appliance storage when cabinet layouts allow.

For those planning on number 3, powered appliance storage, consider protecting it with Docking Drawer’s safety outlet for appliance garages, which automatically cuts power to the outlet whenever the cabinet door is closed, offering enhanced safety and peace of mind.

4. Consider discreet outlets instead of cutting into your backsplash tile

A standard duplex outlet in a tile backsplash requires a rectangular cutout that disrupts the tile layout and overall aesthetic, especially when working with large-format stone.

The Prado Unifit outlet is a 1.5" circular outlet designed to flush-mount into virtually any vertical surface: tile, stone, quartz, stainless steel, or drywall. The circular cutout is small, clean, and should be positioned within the face of the tile (rather than along the edges). It ships in six finishes and the cover plates can be custom painted to match the surface.

Browse the full Prado collection featuring single, duplex, hardwired, and corded configurations with finish detail that will add an elegant, modern, minimalist look to your new kitchen.

5. Incorporate a charging drawer to keep devices off the counter

Countertop cord and device clutter in a kitchen is almost always a problem. As the central place of any home, the kitchen often ends up with phones, tablets, earbuds, and computers on the kitchen countertops, with cords dangling from wall outlets as devices charge.

A dedicated charging drawer solves this frustration. Install a Blade Series charging outlet in a dedicated kitchen drawer to keep devices charging out of sight and eliminate countertop chaos.

Designed specifically for use inside a moving drawer, these outlets feature cable management arms that guide and protect the power cord as the drawer opens and closes, maintaining smooth drawer operation (even with soft-close slides). They come standard with an integrated safety thermostat that cuts power if drawer temperatures exceed safe limits, and are made with all-metal materials and TPA wiring for durability.

These outlets can be retrofitted into an existing drawer, but if custom cabinets are part of your remodel, flag it with your cabinet maker before the order is placed. Getting the outlet location into the cabinet design early is easier than working around it after.

6. If you want a pop-up outlet on your island, plan the cabinet interior first

A Docking Drawer Flush Pop-Up outlet is a convenient and NEC-compliant solution for powering kitchen islands. When the outlet is closed, it’s nearly invisible given its seamless integration, hidden under a custom cutout of your countertop. When it's needed, it rises with a gentle press to reveal a combination of AC and USB-C ports.

There are two physical requirements to confirm before the slab is cut or the cabinet is ordered.

• The first is the countertop cutout. The hole needs to be sized and positioned precisely before fabrication. This is a conversation to have with your countertop fabricator before the slab leaves the shop, not after it's templated and cut.
• The second is below-counter clearance. The housing unit that sits beneath the surface requires 17" of unobstructed depth below the countertop. If a drawer box occupies that space, the pop-up and the drawer cannot coexist at the same location. This is the conflict that gets discovered at installation when it wasn't caught at design, and the options at that point are limited: relocate the outlet, eliminate the drawer, or choose a different outlet type.

Confirm the cabinet interior layout against the outlet housing depth before the cabinet order is placed and before the countertop is templated. Both decisions need to happen before the pop-up location is finalized.

7. Plan your kitchen lighting before the electrician leaves the rough-in stage

Lighting is one of the most underplanned elements in a kitchen remodel. Most homeowners budget for overhead lighting and stop there. What gets added as an afterthought, or left out entirely, is the layered lighting that makes a kitchen actually functional: task lighting where work happens, ambient lighting that sets the tone of the space, and accent lighting that highlights the design elements worth highlighting.

The three layers worth planning deliberately when considering lighting options:

• Overhead and recessed lighting. This is the layer most homeowners do plan. The detail that gets missed is placement relative to the cabinet layout. Recessed cans positioned without regard to where the upper cabinets land often end up partially blocked by cabinet faces, casting shadows directly onto the countertop below. Finalize the cabinet layout before confirming recessed lighting placement, not the other way around.
• Task lighting. Under-cabinet lighting is the most common form, and it makes a meaningful difference on a working countertop. Hardwired under-cabinet lighting needs to be roughed in at the same time as the rest of the electrical, before cabinets are installed. This is an easy addition at rough-in and an expensive retrofit afterward. If under-cabinet lighting is anywhere on your wish list, get it into the rough-in plan now. In-cabinet lighting for glass-front uppers, toe-kick lighting, and interior cabinet lighting all follow the same rule: the wire needs to be there before the cabinet goes in.
• Accent and decorative lighting. Pendants over an island, LED strip lighting in open shelving, lighting inside a hood surround. These are often decided during the design phase but not communicated to the electrician until the cabinets are installed. Each one needs a junction box in the right location before drywall closes.

The practical sequencing note: lighting circuits and general electrical circuits may require separate permits and separate inspections depending on your municipality. Adding recessed lighting after a rough-in inspection has been signed off can trigger a second rough-in inspection. Ask your electrician what requires a separate permit in your jurisdiction before work starts, not after.

8. Decide on your finish palette before anything gets ordered

Finish decisions in a kitchen remodel have a way of getting made category by category as each trade shows up, rather than across all categories at once. The faucet gets picked at the plumbing showroom. The pulls get picked when the cabinet order is placed. The light fixtures get picked whenever the homeowner gets around to it. The result is a kitchen where nothing is wrong exactly, but nothing reads as a deliberate finish story either.

The fix is simple in principle: pull physical samples of every finish-bearing element into one place before anything is ordered and evaluate them together under the actual lighting conditions of the kitchen. Matte black from one manufacturer is not the same as matte black from another. Warm brass and champagne bronze read very differently depending on the cabinet color behind them.

The element that most consistently gets left out of this exercise is electrical. Outlet cover plates default to white or ivory unless someone specifies otherwise. In a kitchen with matte black hardware or warm brass pulls, a white plate on a tile backsplash or an island surface is an obvious break that is easy to prevent at the spec stage and annoying to address after tile is set.

9. Ask your electrician these questions before the drywall closes

There is a short window between rough-in and drywall where changes to your electrical are relatively straightforward. Once the walls are closed, any upgrade means opening them back up. Before that window closes, these are the questions worth asking:

• "Are my circuits sized for what I might plug in here in the future?" Some appliances, particularly anything with a heating element or a compressor, draw more power than a standard circuit is designed to handle continuously. Your electrician can tell you whether the circuit serving a given location is sized for heavy use or just general purpose. The cost difference between the two at rough-in is minimal.
• "Do I have enough circuits in the kitchen overall?" Kitchens require dedicated circuits for certain appliances by code, but the question beyond code minimums is whether your layout has enough circuit capacity for how you actually cook. A kitchen where the toaster and the coffee maker keep tripping the same breaker is a rough-in problem, not an appliance problem.
• "Where are my GFCI-protected circuits?" Outlets near water sources in kitchens require GFCI protection. Knowing which circuits have it is worth verifying before the walls close.
• "If I wanted to upgrade any of my circuits later, what would that involve?" The answer to this question is the most useful one on the list. A good electrician can tell you in about two minutes which future upgrades would be simple and which would require significant work. That conversation at rough-in costs nothing. The same conversation after drywall is a different story.

Start the checklist early

The decisions on this list share one characteristic: they are all easier, faster, and less expensive to address before or during rough-in than after. Outlet type, location, finishes, lighting, and cord management strategy should be in the plan before the cabinet order is placed.

For a deeper look at what distinguishes a well-planned kitchen renovation, the top must-have features for any kitchen remodel and top kitchen design ideas for 2025 are worth browsing alongside this checklist. And when you're ready to explore product options room by room, our full Kitchens collection is a good starting point.