ALSO, ask him about removing the wood over the sink and adding a crown molding around the top of the cabinets. Something like the top trim in this photo:

It will give you a very high end look.

nothing about that kitchen says spanish colonial! those are cabinets from the 50's.

just replace them. you're going through all the expense of new counters and tile and flooring. take out those 60+ year old things and get what you like.

these first three are spanish colonial style

some other style cabs you could also implement. and it's fine to mix metals in the kitchen. the gold and the black will be fine.

By the photo, the cabinets look like they have reached retirement. Looks like hinges are old & therefore doors are uneven.

Time for new cabinets, countertop, & backsplash. If $ is tight paint the walls & do backsplash later.

New lighting,too. The current lighting gives off yellow.

Here's a guide to help

Elizabeth, listen to Beth, do not waste money refinishing those cabinets or getting new doors. Save up and get a new kitchen. There have been so many advances like self-closing drawers. Not yet sure what that set-up is under your cooktop, but large drawers would be much more useful.

Inset cabinets are my favorite, and many of the photos Beth posted have them. But trying to convert your old doors into inset is not a good idea. First off, inset cabinets are one inch deeper than overlay, which you need to accommodate dishes. They are often hinged differently.

You will spend a lot of money replacing cabinet doors, without improving your kitchen or adding value.

Oh bummer. I was really hoping to avoid a full replacement, as I'm working on a tight budget and quite a few cabinets! Plus, doing a full cabinet replacement means replacing the backsplash, counters, and appliances simultaneously which I was really hoping to avoid.

I thought you were replacing the countertop and backsplash anyway. you're not?

you were going to spend all that money to redo those doors and drawers and the crown/scallop thing. why throw all that money on those old cabs when you can get new ones? even the cheaper ones would only cost you 3K or so.

you can always do your cabinets and live w/no backsplash. you can also get pre fab granite since your kitchen area is so small. prefab comes in 9' countertop w/finished edging. all kinds of granite/quartz/quartzite/or marble. average price? $400. hire a fabricator to come cut them to fit. for your kitchen, about 700-1K, plus the cost of the granite. so anywhere from 1100-1600,,depending what you pick and where you live

some samples of pre-fabs

my personal opinion is, just remove this old kitchen and replace it with a new one within your budget. Any money you will spend to with alteration would be a waste of money. Either live with it or replaced!

Thanks, Beth - I should mention, this photo only captures 1/2 of my kitchen area, so I anticipate the cost to be a bit more.

ok. you could get two prefabs, or just buy one slab. don't know what the budget is, but regardless, I would not put new counters on those old cabs. save until you have enough to both and live w/o the backsplash for awhile. you could always just do a painted beadboard for less than $50

near a big city? look on craigslist. people sell almost brand new cabinets on there all the time. for cheap too.

for example, both of these are for sale near me. they are taking out of kitchens to sell , almost brand new, all come w/the granite and both are under 1500

now I realize you would have to finagle these to fit your kitchen, but if you're on a budget, it's an idea.

For maximum impact just replace counters and either remove or replace backsplash...(these are the biggest offenders)and add really cool hardware to the existing cabinets....

Thanks, everyone. I’ll update you once I meet with the cabinet guy today. He’s a 3rd gen. carpenter and so I’m looking forward to seeing what he says. The cabinet frames appear to be quite sturdy, custom cut, and in good condition so they might be salvageable yet.

Would love to hear carpenters options ....saving the cabinets will save lots of money for other things

following

Carpenter came by and said that the existing cabinets are custom built, solid wood, and in good shape, so he recommended a refacing. Here are his before/after photos on a similar project.

Refacing and some cabinet modifications for new appliances alone will cost us a good $10,000 given the size of our kitchen - which confirmed that a full cabinet replacement would definitely be out of the budget. (We're in Northern California, and the cost of projects has crept up even more due to last year's Napa fires.)

We're crunching the numbers and doing some additional research to figure out the best path forward.

I would look at IKEA's line. You can have brand new cabinets with soft close drawers and all kinds of storage features for $10K (probably less).

What good news that the cabs are a good quality...now the big decision of doing what first?...new appliances and counters might still get you closer to an updated look...quicker..but since we haven’t seen the whole kitchen it is hard to tell if it is more economical

I might recommend you do some research to find out how much is wise to spend on this renovation...in regards to your home value...all of this should be tempered by how long you plan on being there as well

As much as I appreciate the affordability of IKEA cabinets, I don’t think they’re appropriate for a historic, custom built home. The cabinets, as old as they are, are solid wood and 44” tall. Now if we were still in my last house, a 1948 postwar minimalist tract house, IKEA would be perfect.

Reached out for two more opinions from contractors. I think one of the contractors may be the son of the cabinetmaker who built the existing cabinets.

I see your point. I'm sure you'll find the solution that's perfect for your house.

Keep saving until you can do it right. The kitchen as is workable kitchen. Just because it's not exactly what you want today doesn't mean you can't live with it.

Hay Elizabeth, I would not waste your money on full replacement unless you are unhappy with the layout and want to change it. Doing the door replacement will cost you half of what a total replacement would and you will get the same look as new. Unless you go for custom or very high end cabinets for total replacement they will NOT be all wood on the inside like what you have now. Then you can spend the rest of the money on things that SHOW like new counters and appliances.

Jamie, when you say, they will not be all wood on the inside, are you sure? you can find plenty of all wood cabinets for cheap. I know because I've installed them for flip homes we've done. they are solid ply base with maple shelving. doors are also solid wood and dovetailed wood drawers. And they can be had for well under 10K.

I am in the process of replacing all my kitchen cabinets and during my extensive research for what I purchased for my own home I did not find any "cheap" cabinets that were ALL wood. Most have doors, shelves and drawers that are some grade of wood but the frames, base and side walls etc. were still a plywood/veneer material unless you paid extra (almost double) for "all wood" construction. That is the "solid Ply base" you use as an example above.

I am replacing my high quality Oak cabinets because of a water leak. Though I thought mine were all wood, only the parts you could see were real wood. The inside panels and bases (the "solid Ply Base") when exposed to the water turned into a mushy mess and fell apart.

The cabinets in Elizabeth's home are truly ALL WOOD and the insides will be much higher quality than what you can buy most cases today. That is why she would be very wise to reface them instead of replacing them.

Plywood is 'all wood'. here:

PLYWOOD IS CONSTRUCTED OF LAYERS OF WOOD GLUED TOGETHER AT RIGHT ANGLES, WHICH GIVES IT ITS STRENGTH. THIS LAYERING MAKE THE PLANKS RESISTANT TO WARPING, CRACKING AND TWISTING, MAKING IT IDEAL FOR USE IN CONSTRUCTION. • IN ADDITION TO ITS STRENGTH, PLYWOOD IS LESS EXPENSIVE THAN SIMILAR BOARDS MADE OF FULL WOOD SPECIES, WHICH MAKES IT IDEAL AS A CONSTRUCTION PLANKING MATERIAL.

if the panels in your cabs turned to mushy mess, it was particle board , not a solid plywood . particle board is made of sawdust and resin to make it firm. it's fine unless it gets wet,, then it expands and turns back to sawdust.don't believe me? take a piece of plywood and submerge it in a bucket. check back in a week.(which is much longer than yours was exposed to) it will be wet, but still intact. try the same w/ part. board and it will be mushy the next day.

did your cabs look like this?

You didn't have 'high quality' oak cabs if they used particle board. I have custom cabinets that are made of all wood and solid plywood 'innards'. the doors/drawers are all Birch.

No one uses a solid wood species panel for the back or the stuff you can't see. Solid 3/4 ply or 1/2 ply is strong and works just fine. particle board isn't solid wood, or even plywood.

look at the companies that offer these 'cheap' solid wood cabinets. there is no mdf in them. they're cheap because they're manufactured in china. But if they say 3/4" grade A plywood, what do you think custom cab builders are going to use? solid wood for the backs and insides? that's silly.

as for her wood cabs,,,I understand what you're saying. but they're almost 70 years old.they used thinner, solid wood back then. I don't know how well they look inside. sometimes the shelving gets very worn. trying to make new drawers to fit in those holes that have warped over time, will be very difficult and will never fit 100% like they should. and I'm sure other things are wonky because solid wood will warp over time.

I'm all for keeping the boxes, but not if someone charges her 10K to make to doors/drawers. for that price she could have all new 'wood' all'wood' cabinets. yes with plywood. which is how they're made nowadays. even the high end cabs you get from the home stores. and if you want painted cabinets, getting mdf panels for the doors is better since there won't be expansion/contraction and cracking like solid wood would do.

Good tutorial Beth!...couldn’t have said it better...even tho I am sort of okay with just refacing/trimming the doors...(at a reasonable price)....don’t know if she has all those usual worn out challenges you mentioned ...but also think the kitchen may be much bigger than she has shown........plus....not everybody has the knowledge ....or resources ....to get out there and get the deals that an experienced flipper might have ...at least they are not falling for the IKEA option