Should You Keep Your Kitchen Out of a Whole-Home Cabinet Order?

Your kitchen layout works, but the doors look tired. Elsewhere in the house, you need new wardrobes and bathroom cabinets. One option is to keep the kitchen boxes, refresh their visible surfaces locally and order the other rooms new. Another is to replace the kitchen and include it in the same factory enquiry as the rest of the cabinetry.

The decision is more complicated than subtracting a kitchen price from a whole-home quote. Removing the kitchen can change the value and shipping needs of the overseas order. At the same time, keeping it adds a local refacing bill. The useful comparison is between complete plans for the house.

First, decide whether the old kitchen is worth keeping

Refacing deserves a quote when the layout and storage still work and the existing boxes are in a condition your installer is willing to reuse. Ask the person pricing the work to inspect the boxes, especially around the sink and dishwasher, and explain any repairs needed before the new finish goes on.

Look inside the cabinets as well as at the doors. If the shelves, drawers or interiors frustrate you every day, a fresh exterior may leave the main problem untouched. Price any drawer conversions or organizers you want as part of the refacing option.

The Home Depot's refacing service describes retaining the existing cabinet boxes while renewing visible components, with optional upgrades available. Its offering is one example: ask your own provider exactly which doors, drawer boxes, hardware, exposed surfaces and repairs are included. Our guide to refacing versus replacement looks more closely at the kitchen decision itself.

Ask the factory for two scopes

Give the factory the same wardrobe and bathroom brief in both requests. In one, include the new kitchen; in the other, leave it out. Ask for the kitchen to be shown separately and for a revised quote for the remaining rooms. Do not assume the smaller order will cost exactly the original total minus the kitchen line: ask the supplier to confirm its actual offer and any order minimum.

VSME, a brand of Moyisi, publishes a USD 5,000 standard minimum order value. Confirm how that applies to your proposed order. Meeting a supplier's minimum makes an enquiry possible; it does not establish that importing the smaller package will be economical.

Then request freight, delivery and installation figures for each actual scope. A smaller order may have a different packed volume and installation workload, but some service charges may remain. The only useful difference is the one supported by the quotes for your project.

Put three complete plans on one page

Consider a home that needs one kitchen, wardrobes and bathroom cabinets, with three possible plans: buy everything locally; reface the existing kitchen locally and order the other rooms from a factory; or order a replacement kitchen with the other rooms from a factory. Rather than invent prices, list the lines each plan has to cover and fill them in from written quotes.

Fill in every line before comparing totals. Keeping the kitchen lowers the factory price, but the refacing bill is added back, so which plan costs less depends on your real quotes, and the two kitchen outcomes are not the same. The local-only plan remains useful as a complete alternative. Check whether your real local quotes include delivery, installation and the same tax basis as the other options.

Check the costs that change with the kitchen decision

For refacing, ask whether the existing countertop stays in place, what happens if damaged boxes are found and whether the quote includes the interior changes you need. For replacement, ask who removes and disposes of the old cabinets, whether the countertop can be retained and what wall or floor repairs may follow. Keep any work common to all three plans on the same basis so it is not counted twice.

For the factory options, give a licensed U.S. customs broker the actual product descriptions, materials, manufacturer and exporter details for each proposed shipment. Ask for the applicable duties and entry costs for each scope. The kitchen, vanities and wardrobes should not be assumed to receive the same treatment. Add the broker's figures to the two factory columns before calling either one cheaper.

Also check whether a local installer will work with the proposed imported cabinets and price the actual rooms and assembly format. The factory's kitchen price is useful only when the local cost of putting that kitchen into service is visible too.

Choose the combination that buys the improvements you need

If the kitchen boxes are sound and the refaced kitchen would satisfy you for years, keeping them may leave more money for storage elsewhere. If a new layout or better kitchen storage matters more, the extra cost of replacement may be worthwhile. In some quotes, adding the kitchen to a factory order may even compare favorably with paying separately for refacing; in others, it will not.

Ask each supplier to price the rooms you actually want, then compare the finished-house totals. A coordinated appearance across rooms can be valuable, but it should be weighed against the cost of replacing a kitchen that already works.

Related guide: If you are furnishing several rooms, see how a whole-house cabinetry order works.