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8+ years in West Michigan · Fixed-price contracts (the quote is the price) · 3D design on the first visit · 2-year workmanship warranty · 4.7★ on Google
Forest Hills is built for the kitchen that anchors the whole house — chef's kitchens, full-custom cabinetry, oversized working islands, and open-concept conversions that connect the kitchen to great-room living. We design yours in 3D on the first visit, lock the price before a wall is touched, and run the entire project — permits, trades, finishes — for Forest Hills Northern, Central, Eastern, and out toward Ada Village. No allowance games. The price we quote is the price you pay.
Book Your Free ConsultationA local crew, local trades, and local inspectors. We know how Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, and Ada Township each run their kitchen plan reviews — and we work those jurisdictions every week.
The number we quote is the number you pay. Every material, trade, and permit is itemized before you sign. No allowance games, no change-order roulette, no end-of-project reconciliation.
We bring a laptop and build your new Forest Hills kitchen in 3D during the in-home consultation — layout, island, cabinets, finishes — so you decide with a real model in front of you, not a guess.
2 to 3 hours, in your Forest Hills home, with measurements, 3D models, and an honest budget range tied to actual scope choices — before you commit to anything.
Verified reviews from kitchen, bath, and whole-home clients across Forest Hills, Ada, Cascade, East Grand Rapids, and the wider Grand Rapids metro. Licensed & insured — #262300501.
Every Forest Hills kitchen we hand off carries a two-year workmanship warranty in writing, plus the manufacturer warranties on every cabinet, counter, and appliance.
Forest Hills is a long-stay community. Families move in for the schools — Forest Hills Public Schools is consistently ranked the top district in Kent County — and they stay for twenty and thirty years. The kitchen you remodel here is the kitchen you cook in for decades, not the one you flip in eighteen months. That changes the whole decision. The question isn't "what's the cheapest bid," it's "who builds the kitchen I'll still love in fifteen years."
A typical kitchen remodel fails in one of three places. The budget creeps because the contract used "allowances" instead of fixed numbers. The schedule slips because nobody is coordinating the cabinets, counters, plumbing, and trades. Or the finished kitchen looks nothing like what the homeowner pictured because no one built it in 3D before the contract was signed. Our fixed-price design-build process eliminates all three. You see the kitchen in 3D before you commit, the price is locked before demolition, and one project lead runs the whole job.
If you are planning a kitchen remodel in Forest Hills Northern, Central, Eastern, or anywhere along the Knapp's Corner and Ada Village corridors, the first step is a free in-home consultation. We build your kitchen in 3D during that visit. From there, you decide whether the numbers and the design line up before any further commitment.
Forest Hills is its own kind of market — larger homes, an affluent and design-literate buyer, top-ranked schools that keep families in place, and a permitting reality that confuses most remodelers. Knowing the local details is half the job before a single cabinet gets ordered.
Forest Hills is an unincorporated community and the most populous census-designated place in Michigan — not an incorporated city. There is no single "Forest Hills" building department. Permits route through whichever township controls your specific address. Forest Hills Northern mostly falls under Grand Rapids Township (with a small slice near Cannonsburg in Cannon Township). Forest Hills Central is primarily Grand Rapids Township or Cascade Township, depending on its position relative to the East Beltline. Forest Hills Eastern often falls inside Ada Township as you move toward Ada Village. Each township has its own building department, inspection schedule, and fee structure. Most local copy gets this wrong.
We verify the correct jurisdiction for your address up front, pull every permit, sit through the plan review on your behalf, and coordinate every inspection — building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, final. You never have to call a township counter or figure out which office you fall under.
Forest Hills homes tend to be larger, on bigger lots, with real entertaining footprints — and many were built during the 1980s through 2000s boom with kitchens closed off from the main living space. The two things that come up in nearly every Forest Hills kitchen conversation are opening the kitchen into a great room and building a kitchen that performs like a chef's space: professional appliance suites, oversized working islands, custom inset cabinetry, and designer stone.
The buyer here is comparing Thornapple to other premium remodelers, not to budget shops. That's exactly the lane we build in. We design the full space in 3D on the first visit, evaluate the structure behind any wall you want to remove, and put the entire finish-level decision into a single fixed-price number — so the ambition of the kitchen is matched by certainty on the price.
One team, one project lead, one price — from the first in-home visit through the final walkthrough. See how our design-build approach works.
A 2 to 3 hour visit at your Forest Hills home. We measure the existing kitchen, talk through how you actually cook and entertain, and sketch the new layout in 3D on the spot. You leave with a clear range for your scope — no commitment yet.
We refine the 3D model, sit down with you for cabinetry, counter, appliance, lighting, and flooring selections, and build a written specification that maps to a single fixed-price number.
Every line item is itemized — materials, labor, permits, dust protection, portable restrooms, cleanings. You see the full number before you sign. The price we quote is the price you pay.
We verify your township — Grand Rapids, Cascade, or Ada — pull every permit, coordinate every trade, and run dust protection from day one through final clean. We sequence cabinet orders so they land the week demolition wraps.
Final inspection, punch-list walkthrough, and handoff. Every Thornapple kitchen carries a two-year workmanship warranty in writing, plus manufacturer warranties on cabinets, counters, and appliances.
You have one direct contact from the first call through final walkthrough. No call-center, no handoffs between sales and production, no "let me find out who is supposed to know that."
Most Forest Hills kitchen remodels fall into one of these six scopes. Where yours lands depends on the existing layout, the finish ambitions, and how much plumbing, electrical, and structural work the space needs to support the new design. In Forest Hills, more projects land in the full-custom, chef's, and open-concept range than anywhere else in the metro.
Cabinet refacing or paint, new counters, sink, faucet, lighting, and backsplash. Layout, plumbing, and electrical stay. A smart fit for an established Forest Hills kitchen with good bones that just needs to catch up to the rest of the house.
New semi-custom cabinetry, quartz or stone counters, full appliance package, tile backsplash, updated lighting, refreshed flooring, and minor plumbing or electrical reroutes. A common Forest Hills scope when the layout works but every surface needs replacing.
Custom cabinetry, opened floor plan, structural changes, professional appliances, panel-front integrated refrigerator, hardwood or large-format tile. The standard scope for serious Forest Hills Central and Eastern renovations.
Wolf or Sub-Zero suite, dual islands or working pantry, custom inset cabinetry, designer stone, integrated lighting plan, hidden appliance garage, beverage center. When the Forest Hills kitchen is the center of the home and the entertaining hub.
Removing the wall between a closed-off Forest Hills kitchen and the living or dining room, installing the structural LVL beam, and rebuilding the kitchen around the new unified great room. Almost always paired with a full-custom or chef's scope.
Bump-out or full footprint expansion to add square footage — for a larger island, an eat-in nook, or a working pantry the existing Forest Hills kitchen cannot support. Coordinates with our home additions practice.
For a deeper cost breakdown by finish level and scope, read our kitchen remodel cost guide for Grand Rapids, or run a quick range in the cost estimator. You can also call (616) 404-3400 for a range on your specific space.
Forest Hills kitchen remodels range from about $25,000 for a cabinet-and-counter refresh up to $120,000 or more for a full chef's kitchen. The biggest drivers are cabinetry (40–50% of most scopes), counters and stone, the appliance package, and whether the project involves a layout change or wall removal for an open-concept conversion.
Most of our full-custom Forest Hills kitchens land in the $80,000 to $120,000 range. Mid-range remodels — semi-custom cabinets, quartz counters, full appliance package — come in between $55,000 and $85,000. Forest Hills numbers index higher than the metro median because the housing stock and the buyer's finish expectations push more projects toward full-custom and chef's scope, and because larger homes mean larger kitchens with more cabinetry and counter run. Those are real fixed-price ranges from real Grand Rapids-area kitchens, not allowance-game estimates.
For a full breakdown, read our kitchen remodel cost guide and our open-concept kitchen pros and cons guide before the consultation.
Because Forest Hills is unincorporated, your kitchen permit is pulled from the township that controls your address — Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, Ada Township, or Cannon Township for the far-north slice. Each runs its own building department, plan review, and inspection schedule. We verify which one applies to your home before design is finalized.
Permits are required for most kitchen remodels that touch plumbing, gas, electrical service, or any structural change — including the beam work for an open-concept conversion. A purely cosmetic refresh usually does not. We pull every permit, coordinate every inspection, and handle the township back-and-forth so you don't have to. Full municipality-by-municipality detail lives on our Grand Rapids remodeling permits guide.
Typical kitchen build timeline: 6 to 12 weeks from demolition through final walkthrough. Cabinet lead time alone runs 6 to 10 weeks — we sequence orders so cabinets arrive the week demolition wraps. Full chef's kitchens with longer appliance and stone lead times push toward the upper end. Every milestone is mapped in your project portal before any work begins.
Three recent kitchens from Forest Hills and the surrounding communities. Real Thornapple projects, real fixed-price contracts, real finishes. Descriptive names only — no client names, no street addresses.
A full kitchen renovation for a busy West Michigan family staying in their Forest Hills home for the long haul. Scope: custom cabinetry, an oversized prep island with casual seating, a premium appliance package, layered lighting, and a reimagined work-triangle layout designed around daily routines, not magazine spreads. Full-custom scope, fixed-price contract.
Browse the portfolio →A full kitchen rebuild in rich navy cabinetry with brushed-gold hardware, a working custom island with quartz counters, and a layout reorganized around how the household actually lives. The kind of full-custom, design-forward kitchen Forest Hills homeowners ask for. Fixed-price contract.
See the full project →Wall removal, a structural LVL beam, and a full kitchen rebuild that opened a closed-off kitchen into a unified great room for a Forest Hills Eastern / Ada Township family. Scope: custom cabinetry, quartz counters, a working island sized for daily life and entertaining, and a layout that finally fits how the household actually gathers.
See more kitchen work →Watch our walkthrough on getting kitchen layout right the first time, then check the map for our Wyoming, MI office. We're 619 36th St SW, Wyoming, MI 49509 — about 20 minutes from most Forest Hills addresses. In-home and on-site consultations by appointment only.
Centrally located in Wyoming — roughly 20 minutes from most Forest Hills addresses, and close to Ada, Cascade, and East Grand Rapids. Consultations happen at your home, not at our office.
Call (616) 404-3400 · info@thornappleconstruction.com · Open in Google Maps →
"I love my kitchen. It's a breath of fresh air. Austin and Nate were amazing to work with. They stayed within my budget and were always patient and respectful. I can't say enough good about the whole process."
"A true craftsman who does great work. We love our new kitchen!"
"Communication and work completed was high quality."
4.7-star average across 19 verified Google reviews.
Each part of Forest Hills has a different housing mix, a different township, and a different design conversation. Here's how we approach each area.
Forest Hills Northern — Grand Rapids Township (with a Cannon Township sliver near Cannonsburg). Newer and boom-era builds, larger homes, and strong demand for open-concept conversions and chef's kitchens.
Forest Hills Central — Grand Rapids Township or Cascade Township along the East Beltline corridor. A mix of established and boom-era homes; full-custom kitchens and layout opens are the common scope.
Forest Hills Eastern — largely Ada Township toward Ada Village. Newer construction and luxury homes; full-custom and chef's kitchens with serious entertaining footprints.
Knapp's Corner corridor — established residential blocks near the Knapp Street and East Beltline node. Mid-range to full-custom scopes for long-stay homeowners.
Ada Village & Thornapple River Drive — premium near-village and riverfront homes in Ada Township. Full-custom and chef's kitchens with designer finishes.
HOA neighborhoods (Boulder Creek, Bailey's Grove, and similar enclaves) — interior kitchen remodels rarely trigger HOA review; we coordinate any dumpster, delivery, or parking staging with the association ahead of the build.
Forest Hills sits at the intersection of several established West Michigan communities. We build kitchens across all of them. Each link below opens the neighborhood-specific service page with local permit detail and recent projects. This page is part of our broader design-build remodeling in Grand Rapids practice and our parent kitchen remodel service line.
The real questions Forest Hills homeowners ask before booking a kitchen remodel — not the generic ones the other guys recycle.
Yes — Forest Hills is one of our most active kitchen-remodel service areas. We work across Forest Hills Northern, Central, and Eastern, the Knapp's Corner corridor, and out toward Ada Village. Project scopes range from cabinet-and-counter refreshes in established homes to full chef's kitchens and open-concept conversions in larger Forest Hills properties. Our Wyoming office at 619 36th St SW is roughly 20 minutes from most Forest Hills addresses, and every consultation happens at your home, not at our office.
Forest Hills kitchen remodels typically range from about $25,000 for a cabinet-and-counter refresh up to $120,000 or more for a full chef's kitchen with custom cabinetry, professional appliances, and structural changes. Most full-custom kitchens we build in Forest Hills land between $80,000 and $120,000, and mid-range remodels with semi-custom cabinetry and a full appliance package come in between $55,000 and $85,000. Forest Hills numbers index higher than the metro median because the housing stock and buyer expectations push more projects toward full-custom and chef's scope. Thornapple provides a fixed-price contract after the scope is finalized — no allowance games, no surprise change orders. For the full breakdown, see our Grand Rapids-area kitchen remodel cost guide.
Forest Hills is an unincorporated community, so there is no single Forest Hills building department — permitting jurisdiction depends on your specific address. Most Forest Hills Northern properties fall under Grand Rapids Township, with a small slice near Cannonsburg in Cannon Township. Forest Hills Central is mostly Grand Rapids Township or Cascade Township, depending on where the property sits relative to the East Beltline corridor. Forest Hills Eastern often falls inside Ada Township as you move east toward Ada Village. Each township has its own building department and inspection schedule. We verify the correct jurisdiction for your address, pull every permit, and coordinate every inspection as part of the fixed-price contract. Full breakdown on our Grand Rapids remodeling permits page.
Almost always, yes. Any kitchen project that relocates plumbing, adds or moves electrical circuits, does gas line work, or touches structural framing requires a building permit from the township that controls your address — Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, Ada Township, or Cannon Township. A purely cosmetic refresh — paint, like-for-like fixture or cabinet swaps, no plumbing changes — usually does not. We confirm the threshold during the in-home consultation and handle every permit and inspection ourselves, so you never have to call a township counter.
Yes. Opening the wall between the kitchen and the dining or living room to create a unified great room is one of the most-requested scopes we build in Forest Hills. Many boom-era Forest Hills homes were built with kitchens closed off from the main living space, and today's households want them connected. We evaluate which walls are load-bearing, design the required LVL beam or steel header, route plumbing and electrical through the new ceiling, and coordinate the structural inspection through the controlling township. Read our open-concept kitchen pros and cons guide for the full trade-off discussion before committing.
Yes — chef's and full-custom kitchens are the scope we build most often in Forest Hills. That means professional appliance suites like Wolf and Sub-Zero, dual islands or a working pantry, custom inset cabinetry, designer stone, integrated panel-front refrigeration, layered lighting plans, and beverage centers. Forest Hills homes tend to be larger with real entertaining footprints, so the kitchen is usually the center of the house. We design the whole space in 3D on the first visit and lock the finish-level decisions into a single fixed-price contract.
A typical Forest Hills kitchen remodel runs 6 to 12 weeks from demolition through final walkthrough. Lead times for custom cabinetry alone are usually 6 to 10 weeks, and we sequence orders so the cabinets land the week demolition wraps. Layout changes, plumbing relocations, structural work for an open-concept conversion, and each township's plan-review cadence all factor in. Full chef's kitchens with longer appliance and stone lead times can push toward the upper end. Every milestone is mapped in your project portal before any work begins.
Yes — most of our Forest Hills clients stay in their home during the entire kitchen remodel. We help set up a temporary prep area in the dining room or basement, install plastic dust barriers between the work zone and the rest of the house, lay floor coverings throughout, bring portable restrooms so our crew never uses your bathrooms, and schedule professional cleanings during the project. The work zone gets isolated; daily life stays as close to normal as a kitchen being offline allows.
Real Grand Rapids-area kitchen remodel costs broken down by scope and finish level — refresh, mid-range, full custom, chef's. The same ranges apply in Forest Hills.
Considering knocking down a wall in a Forest Hills home? Trade-offs, structural realities, and what an open-concept conversion actually costs.
What permits a kitchen remodel needs across Grand Rapids Township, Cascade Township, Ada Township, and the wider metro — with timelines.
Run a quick range for your specific Forest Hills kitchen scope before booking the consultation.
Our full kitchen remodel hub — scope, process, what's included, and FAQs for the wider Grand Rapids market.
Kitchens, bathrooms, additions, and whole-home renovations from across Forest Hills and West Michigan.
Kitchens are one piece of our design-build remodeling in Grand Rapids practice — design, build, and budget under one roof for Forest Hills homeowners.
Spa-like primary baths, curbless walk-in showers, and aging-in-place builds — designed around your life, protected by our fixed-price process.
When every room needs attention, you need a partner who coordinates every trade, timeline, and detail under one contract.
Family rooms, home offices, guest suites, and basement bars waiting beneath your feet — built to current code.
It starts with a free consultation — in your home, with 3D design on the spot. No commitment. No pressure. Just clarity on what your kitchen can be and what it will actually cost.
Book Your Free ConsultationOr call us at (616) 404-3400
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