A kitchen or bath remodel usually means picking two materials at once — flooring and cabinets — and the order you decide and order them in matters almost as much as which ones you pick. Here’s a practical, honest planning guide, not a sales pitch.
Start With Design Direction, Not a Shopping List
Before ordering anything, settle on a general style and color direction for the room. Cabinet finish tends to anchor the rest of a kitchen or bath’s look, so most homeowners find it easier to choose a cabinet collection first, then pick a complementary flooring color, rather than the other way around. Home Connect’s cabinet collections (Brooklyn Premier, Shaker Premier, Napa Premier, Oslo Premier, and Essential Builder) and the full LVP, hybrid plank, and carpet lineups can all be seen in person, and cabinet samples are $30 each if you want to compare finishes at home before deciding.
Order Cabinets Early — Lead Time Is the Real Constraint
This is the single most useful planning tip: cabinets and flooring don’t ship on the same timeline. Home Connect cabinet orders are typically ready in 2-3 weeks, so cabinets are usually the thing to order first once your design is settled — ordering flooring too early just means it sits waiting, while ordering cabinets late can stall your entire project.
A General Sequencing Guide for Kitchen Remodels
Every kitchen is different, and Home Connect sells materials rather than managing installation, so treat this as general planning guidance to discuss with whoever installs your project — not a fixed rule: design and material selection first, cabinets ordered as soon as the design is locked in (given the longer lead time), flooring ordered closer to your installation date, cabinets typically installed before flooring in many kitchen layouts, flooring installed next, and countertops/backsplash/appliances usually follow. Confirming this order with your contractor (or, if you’re doing it yourself, thinking it through before you start) avoids having to work around cabinets that are already installed.
Bathrooms Follow a Similar but Slightly Different Order
In many bathroom remodels, flooring is installed before the vanity (a cabinet piece) goes in, which is the reverse of a lot of kitchen sequencing — again, general practice that varies by project and is worth confirming with your installer rather than assuming. The same lead-time logic still applies: if a vanity is part of your order, get it ordered early given the 2-3 week cabinet turnaround, and time your flooring order around your actual install date.
Budgeting Across Both Materials
For real per-square-foot flooring pricing across LVP, hybrid plank, and carpet, see our flooring cost guide. For cabinets, every order includes a free 3D design, so it’s worth getting a real design and quote before finalizing a budget rather than estimating from a per-collection price alone.
Ready to start planning? Order flooring or cabinet samples, or contact our Raleigh showroom to talk through your project’s timeline before you order.
