Kitchen Planning
Updated September 2026
Cabinets are usually the largest line in a kitchen remodel, so “do we have to replace them?” is the right question. The answer depends on the boxes, the layout, and the storage you want. Here's how to check each one.
9 min read
Written by Mike Schwartz, Built by Design | Published August 1, 2026
Cabinets are the biggest line in most kitchen remodels, which makes “do we really have to replace them?” one of the smartest questions a homeowner can ask. The honest answer is that it depends, and anyone who says otherwise is usually selling whichever option they offer. Built by Design builds kitchens for a living and still recommends refacing, or painting, in the right situations.
This guide gives you the way to decide: what refacing actually is, how to inspect your boxes, a side-by-side comparison of refacing, painting, and replacing, when each one wins, and the hybrid plan that reuses sound perimeter cabinets while putting new cabinetry where it changes daily life. The examples are BBD kitchens in Leawood, Lenexa, and Olathe.
If the layout is the problem, start with the kitchen layout mistakes and the measurements that prevent them. For the budget side, read what a kitchen remodel costs in Kansas City.
Refacing has a reputation problem left over from decades of peel-and-stick products. The real thing keeps the existing cabinet boxes (the carcasses screwed to the wall and to each other) and replaces everything you see and touch: new doors and drawer fronts, new material on the face frames and the exposed box sides, new trim, and new hardware. Done well, with real wood veneer or matching rigid material trimmed to the frames and finished to match the doors, the visible kitchen is genuinely new. What it isn't is a fix for the box. A sagging shelf, a swollen particleboard bottom, or a face frame that's pulled loose stays that way behind new doors. And it isn't a layout change: the boxes stay where they are, at the sizes they are. Because the boxes don't move, the counters, the backsplash, and the flooring usually stay too, which is where the savings beyond the cabinets come from.
Before anyone quotes anything, open every door and pull every drawer. The decision lives in the boxes, and twenty minutes with a flashlight settles most of it.
| Check | Sound box | Replace it |
|---|---|---|
| Bottom of the sink base | Dry, flat, solid | Swollen, delaminated, or soft particleboard from a past leak |
| Shelves | Flat, or a slight sag on a long span | Bowed shelves, sagging box bottoms, broken shelf pins |
| Face frames and joints | Tight; doors close square | Frames pulled loose, boxes racked, gaps at the wall |
| Box material | Plywood or dense furniture board in good shape | Thin particleboard that crumbles at the screw holes |
| Drawers and glides | Solid drawer boxes; glides can be upgraded to soft-close | Stapled drawers that have come apart, or no room for new glides |
| Attachment to the wall | Secure, level, and plumb | Loose or out of level enough that new doors won’t align |
A kitchen can pass most rows and fail one. That’s where the hybrid plan comes in: replace the failed box and reface the rest to match.
Painting is the third option people forget, and for solid-wood or good-quality doors it's a real one when done as a professional sprayed finish, not a brush job in the garage. The table puts all three next to each other on the things that decide it.
| Reface | Paint | Replace | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What changes | Doors, drawer fronts, frame surfaces, hardware | Finish color on existing doors and frames | Everything, including layout and sizes |
| Boxes must be | Sound and level | Sound; doors must take paint well | Any condition; they leave |
| Layout | Stays | Stays | Can change |
| Storage upgrades | New drawers and glides possible in some boxes; no new box sizes | Rollouts and glides; nothing structural | Anything: deep drawers, full-height uppers, pantry, island |
| Counters and backsplash | Usually stay | Stay | Usually replaced; the new boxes rarely match the old cutouts |
| Disruption | Days to about two weeks; kitchen mostly usable | About a week; doors off site | The full kitchen schedule; kitchen out of service |
| Relative cost | Lowest of the three for a visual change | Lowest, if the doors qualify | Highest; the largest line in a kitchen remodel |
| Choose it when | Boxes are sound, layout works, you want a new look | Doors are good wood and the style suits paint | Layout changes, boxes fail, or storage needs are different |
Refacing is the right call when three things are true: the boxes pass the inspection, the layout already works (the sink, range, and refrigerator are where you'd put them anyway, and the aisles are wide enough), and the goal is a visual transformation. In that kitchen, refacing gets you new doors in the style you want, a finish that matches new cabinetry, soft-close hardware, and often keeps the stone counters and the tile you already like. It also keeps the kitchen usable through most of the work, which matters more than people expect. The common case is a 1990s or 2000s Johnson County kitchen with plywood boxes, oak raised-panel doors, and a layout that's fine. New shaker doors, a painted or stained finish, new pulls, and the room is a different kitchen for a fraction of the disruption.
See also: Kitchen layout mistakes: check the aisles and landing zones before deciding the layout works
Painting wins when the doors and frames are solid wood or a good veneer in a style that suits paint (shaker, flat panel, simple raised panel) and the boxes are sound. A professional finish means doors and drawer fronts removed, cleaned, sanded, primed, and sprayed off site, with the frames sprayed in place under masking. Oak grain shows through paint unless it's filled; thermofoil and laminate doors don't take paint reliably. Painting doesn't change the door style, so it's the wrong tool if the style is the problem, and it's the right one if the color is.
Replacement earns its place when the kitchen needs something the old boxes can't give: a different layout (the island, the moved range, the opened wall), boxes that failed the inspection, or storage that works differently. Deep drawers instead of doors and shelves, full-height uppers to the ceiling, a pantry wall, an island with seating, a paneled refrigerator, a built-in for the microwave: those are new boxes. So is a kitchen that opens to the dining room, because the wall that comes down takes cabinets with it and the new run has to be built to the new room. BBD's Leawood kitchen is the clear case: the room was opened up, the refrigerator was hidden behind cabinet panels, and glass-front display storage was added for the family's dishware, none of which the old boxes could do. Recorded construction: 9 weeks. The Lenexa kitchen added a pantry, a blue-gray island with open shelving, and paneled refrigeration in a room that was opened to the dining and living areas.
See also: Leawood kitchen case study
Cabinet boxes don't all have the same job, and they don't all need the same treatment. A hybrid plan refaces the sound perimeter boxes and puts the replacement budget where it changes daily life: a new island with deep drawers and seating, full-height uppers where the old ones stopped short, a pantry wall, or the one run that has to move for the new range. When the new and refaced cabinetry use the same door style, finish, and hardware, the room reads as one design. The requirement is one coordinated plan and a refacing material that genuinely matches the new cabinetry. That's easiest when the refacing and the new boxes come from the same maker. Crown Cabinetry, a Kansas City cabinet maker, publishes a refacing process using quarter-inch solid-wood overlay, new doors and drawer fronts, matching trim, and new hardware, alongside its custom cabinetry, which is what makes a matched hybrid straightforward.
The cabinet decision drags three others with it. Counters: refacing and painting keep them, because the boxes and the cutouts don't move; replacement almost always means new counters, because new boxes rarely match old sink and cooktop cutouts, and a stone top rarely survives removal. Backsplash: stays with refacing, goes with new counters. Appliances: a new refrigerator that's deeper or taller than the old one, or a range that's wider, needs a box change either way, so decide the appliances before deciding the cabinets. A paneled refrigerator or dishwasher is a replacement-only feature. One more: refacing keeps the old interior. If the shelves are fixed and the base cabinets are doors over shelves, ask about adding rollouts and soft-close glides during the reface; it's the cheapest storage upgrade in the kitchen.
A cabinet seller benefits from replacement; a refacing company benefits from refacing. A design-build team gets paid for the kitchen working, which is why Built by Design starts with the layout and the boxes rather than the catalog. On an in-home visit, Kristen Schwartz looks at how the kitchen is used and what the wish list needs; Mike Schwartz checks the boxes and what the walls and floor would take. If the layout works and the boxes pass, refacing or painting goes in the written scope. If the layout is the problem, replacement does, for the boxes that need it. Either way the door style, finish, and hardware are chosen before anything is ordered, because cabinetry is the longest-lead item in the kitchen.
See also: Kitchen remodeling with Built by Design
Built by Design meets homeowners at the home, writes one scope before finishes are chosen, and builds with the same trade partners named in the case studies above.
FAQAnswers, by design
The questions homeowners ask about refacing, painting, and replacing cabinets, answered from the kitchens BBD has built and the boxes it has inspected. Your project team confirms what your kitchen’s boxes and layout can do.
When the boxes are sound, the layout works, and the goal is a new look, yes. Refacing gives you new doors, drawer fronts, frame surfaces, and hardware, usually keeps the counters and backsplash, and leaves the kitchen mostly usable. It isn’t worth it when the boxes are failing or the layout is the problem; then it’s a new look on an old mistake.
Open the sink base and check the bottom for swelling or soft particleboard. Look for bowed shelves and sagging box bottoms, face frames that have pulled loose, and drawers that have come apart. Boxes that are plywood or dense furniture board, dry, square, and secure to the wall reface well. One failed box doesn’t rule out refacing the rest.
Usually, yes. The boxes and the cutouts don’t move, so stone or solid-surface counters and the backsplash stay in place. That’s a large part of the savings. Replacement almost always means new counters, because new boxes rarely match the old cutouts and a stone top rarely survives removal.
For solid-wood or good-veneer doors in a paint-friendly style, a professional sprayed finish is a real option and the least expensive of the three. It doesn’t change the door style, oak grain shows unless filled, and thermofoil or laminate doors don’t take paint reliably. Paint fixes the color, not the style or the layout.
When the layout is changing (an island, a moved range, an opened wall), when the boxes fail the inspection, or when you want storage the old boxes can’t give: deep drawers, full-height uppers, a pantry wall, paneled appliances. New appliances that are larger than the old ones also force box changes.
Yes, and it’s often the smartest plan: reface the sound perimeter and build new where it changes daily life, such as an island, full-height uppers, or a pantry. It works when the door style, finish, and hardware match across both, which is easiest when the refacing material and the new boxes come from the same maker.
Keep planning with these related guides.
Kitchen Planning
Tight aisles, islands that fight the room, appliances with nowhere to land, and one switch for the whole kitchen. Here are the seven layout mistakes and the actual measurements that prevent each one, on three finished Johnson County kitchens.
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Budget & Costs
Built by Design kitchens have run $100,000 to $300,000. Here's what puts a kitchen at either end: cabinetry, trades, counters, and appliances, the three scope tiers, and the code items that show up on a real kitchen.
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Whole-Home Remodeling
Two clocks run on every remodel: the months of design, selections, and permits before the first hammer, and the 9 to 16 weeks of construction BBD’s recorded projects took. Here’s what happens in each phase, what can overlap, and why BBD’s whole-home projects start at $400,000.
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