I would at least do one panel on the 'open' side of your island. Under the sitting area not necessary. The others are up to you. They will add a substantial amount $

Looks like you have full overlay? Is the back of your island 'applied doors' or is it raised panel paneling (integrated)? On the island, make them the same all the way around....whether integrated or applied.

I'm not a huge fan of 'applied doors' but on full overlay, it's OK. With frameless cabinets you can make the door flush with the box....or deeper so it's flush with the front of the cabinet.

I think it's applied doors but I'll double check with my KD. Thanks for your advice!

I intended to only do the side of the refrigerator as it is what one sees when one walks down the hall to the kitchen. We had problems with that cabinet and had two panels leftover (free!), so we put them on the ends of the cabinets that frame the door from the kitchen to the DR. Other two ends do not have them. I would NOT have paid extra except for the one on the side of the refrigerator. They are expensive.

Well.... just got the quotes. Matching tall door panel $510/each and island $280 each.

Does that change anyone's opinions? Sounds extreme!!! (At least for the tall panels.)

Thanks buehl! We are also doing an all-cash remodel so I'm trying not to spend unless it's definitely worth it.

The fridge and pantry side panels are just excessive in price. But your take is that I should add panels to the island?

I wouldn't add them where there's a seating overhang. You might put a plain end panel under the seating overhang if you're worried about someone kicking the cabinets and damaging them. We didn't and it's worked out fine. If your seating overhang is less then the minimum recommended (15"), you might have more kicking than we do b/c of reduced space for legs/knees/feet.

One of our peninsulas is fully exposed - it has no seating. That peninsula has cabinets opening on both the front & the back, so we did do decorative doors on the back of the peninsula where there was no door so they'd match. Here's what I mean..this is the back of the fully exposed peninsula; the doors on the right are decorative.

The ends have them for a more practical reason - when the granite installers irreparably damaged a cabinet on the other peninsula, we had to replace it. The replacement came with a flaw on the outside. Rather than re-order and wait another 4 to 6 weeks, our KD gave us (and installed) decorative door panels on the ends of both peninsulas - for free.

I have to say that I think it was a good idea b/c I've noticed a couple of deep dings :-( on those decorative doors caused by people carrying things (like chairs) and banging them against the cabinets. If it had been only the cabinet, I think the damage would have been more noticeable and, possibly, caused other issues. The only damage has been to those decorative doors.

My cabinets aren't here yet, so can't tell you how it will turn out, but I've ordered a mix of decorative panels and plain depending on the vantage point of the panel in the kitchen (eg. plain panel next to the window, decorative panel for cabinet facing kitchen entrance).

I was planning on a plain panel under the peninsula seating. However the plain panel was still pricey due to the size, especially with some upgrades to make sure the grain was running in the right direction, so I went with the decorative panel since it wasn't much more.

For your quote, is that the cost for the decorative panel? Or cost increase for decorative panel over plain end panel?

Caligirl, these are all great questions I should have asked.

I have to find out whether she added panels or it will just be a veneer. If no panels were added, then I need to get something regardless. And I'll also find out if those are upgrade prices or actual cost. If it's actual cost, maybe the updgrade won't be as much?

Misaltow I'm like Lilysmom and could not agree more with her comments.

I too did not do end panels in my first kitchen and should have but didn't realize the difference :( When you see it and you need to see it in person it makes a big difference and makes it beautifully finished...period! Please do yourself a favor and see the difference in person. In person it just looks $$$$ and to me worth $$$$ even tho I only want to spend $$ lol. And because I didn't want to get too spendy even tho I knew what I wanted I asked my KD Just to double check his thoughts ...he didn't hesitate and said he always does finished ends. I never brought it up again ...it's true, he knows it and I know it. With that said mine are very showy. Tall pantry end entering in kitchen, upper end and dishwasher end other side, upper cabinets flanking window over sink, and island. A friend of mine just did a $50K+ kitchen and did not spend extra for the end panel entering the kitchen :( big mistake! As to me that was a first impression. When I asked why she chose not to she said because each on island were $800 and she needed 4 (massive island). Honestly with that big of an investment what is one more!

Btw what you were quoted sounds fair.

For what it's worth yes all cash remodel here too...debt free and stress free :)

Thanks MaWizz, I'm definitely making sure I have end panels after everyone's advice. But just so we're on the same page... are you all talking about decorative end panels or end panels period.

I assumed I had end panels already, just not decorative. I was wondering if it's necessary to upgrade and get the door style end panels.

Good question! I'm talking about end panels being not the best choice and decorative end panels the way to go. I think you should really consider door style end panels. See if you can see a sample of all options ...an actual display would be great or even in a real kitchen!

I actually had 3 choices and you probably do too

veneer end panel - no! - These are not decorative

solid wood panel - maybe - These are not considered decorative but can look better than veneer

decorative end panel (door style) - yes! I'm doing all door style end panels but I don't have seating at the island.

I was just reading what buehl wrote I guess I would also consider a plain solid wood panel under overhang of island where there is seating, where people have feet and less showy? I'd need to see pics but that might save some $$. My mom just did an island and the first thing my sis said was I love how they finished the island and I agreed. I'll see if I have pics?

sorry I had to come back and edit to hopefully answer your question

Based on everyone's feedback, I'm going to do door style end panels in the island.

I don't have an island and I do have full overlay doors. I used decorative end panels. They were simply additional doors that are affixed to the end cabinet where the side of the cabinet is exposed. I do have some cabinets in an adjacent room that the furniture ends are integral to the cabinet.

Yes, they were an added cost. I think they made all the difference in the world between a standard builder grade kitchen and a truly custom product.

This won't be a popular statement, but when I look at kitchens on Houzz or Zillow, I find myself making an instant negative judgement on houses above a certain price range that don't have some form of end panel. Below certain price ranges, I wouldn't expect to see them. In the upper end, it's a lack of attention to detail and an obvious cost cutting choice. It makes me wonder where else there were cost cuts.

Thanks for your input @homechef59.

I just found out, and I'm greatly disappointed, that the current end panels are all veneer on 3/4 inch thick plywood that the KD says will look the same as my other cabinets....

There is no upgrade option to solid wood panels, only the door panels.

Which would be $2,370 if I got everything!!! Just for the look! Argh....

Veneer will look lovely. You won't know the difference.

Misaltow how many panels is that? I would still really think about it though. I went to bed last night remembering another kitchen we had without them. No wonder I can't get to sleep lol. we bought a house that was about 20 years old that did not have the end panels. We lived there about a year and the ends just always didn't look right. I discovered they were veneer and that's why they didn't look right because they did not age in color like the real wood cabinet fronts had. I was able to find the name of the cabinet company on one small quality stamp inside one of the cabinets. They were a couple hours away so I took off and existing door and went to see what could be done. They showed me in the showroom the difference in color between my old door and their new one. It was one or two slight shades off. They explained to me that with that much time passing there would for sure be a difference in color if I bought new doors. I asked if they thought it would look better than the veneer ends I had and they told me the door sizes I wanted would need to be custom made and may even be lighter then the sample in the showroom. I was bummed and sat on it for awhile and finally took my chance and ordered. When I got them I was happy they were not much different then the showroom samples but still one or two shades off from my existing ones. I had my handyman Carpenter install them and they looked incredible after they were installed. I didn't think about them being adjacent to the other cabinets so the slight change in color was not a big deal after all but it really made the kitchen look more upscale.

btw love your kitchen design plan! Can't wait to see it finished!

Thanks @MaWizz for your input. And thanks for the compliment! I've never designed a kitchen before, much less owned a house, so I'm trying to make everything "perfect."

Anyway, it's 3 large panels (side of fridge and two for pantry) and 3 medium sized panels (2 for island ends and 1 for dishwasher end). Large ones at $510/each and medium are $280/each.

This end panel situation is causing me anxiety. $2370 is a lot of money to spend for just the LOOK of something and not the functionality. But I also don't want to spend 24K on cabinets and have them look bad!!

I asked KD if I could save money by not getting veneer and getting door panel and she said that I had to apply door panels over the veneer anyway.

I ordered the panels for the sides of the island but I figure I could see how the look of it is first and order end panels later if I hate it.

Just wanted to comment... the integrated type end panels really do look best, if they are an available upgrade. With full overlay, it makes less of a difference and the applied panels will cost you less than having to go integrated. (I've done both)

You can economize a bit by not putting panels under the overhang. There will be stools that block the view and likely, you will have a baseboard and possibly an apron over your underhang that will dress the areas. The bare ends are so much more obvious, especially on the fridge. This is what I did on a prior project, and that change alone saved $2500 with integrated wainscoat panels -- but there were also no clear sight lines to the back side of the island (you do have a bit more exposure in the plan.