KITCHEN PROS · HONEST COMPARISON
New Kitchen or New Doors?
Most people pricing up a new kitchen have never been told there's a middle option. If your cabinets are structurally fine, replacing the doors and drawer fronts changes everything you can see for a fraction of the cost — and takes a weekend, not a fortnight. Here's how to work out which one you actually need.
Start with the five-minute testThe five-minute test
Open a few cupboards and drawers and look at the boxes, not the fronts. You are checking the carcases — the structure — because that is the expensive part to replace and the part nobody looks at.
- Any swelling or crumbling, particularly under the sink or beside the dishwasher? Water has got in. Those units need replacing.
- Shelves bowing, or backs coming loose? The board has given up. Replace.
- Doors hanging square and closing properly? If yes, the frames are still true — a good sign.
- Is the layout right? If you want the sink moved or the whole run reconfigured, you're doing a full kitchen regardless of what the boxes are like.
The short version: if the boxes are sound and the layout works, you need doors. If the boxes are damaged or the layout is wrong, you need a kitchen. Most kitchens under about twenty years old fall into the first category.
What actually changes with a door swap
Everything you look at. Doors, drawer fronts, handles, and the visible trims — end panels, cornices, plinths. What stays is the structure, the worktop, the appliances and the plumbing, which is precisely why it costs so much less and creates so much less disruption.
You keep your kitchen usable throughout. There's no rip-out, no skip, no week of washing up in the bath, and no re-plumbing. For a lot of households that convenience is worth as much as the money.
Where the money actually goes
We're not going to print a headline figure here, because a kitchen's cost depends entirely on its size and the range you choose, and any single number would be misleading. What's useful is knowing the shape of the cost.
On a full replacement, the carcases, worktop, appliances and labour are the bulk of it — and the labour is substantial, because it's a rip-out plus a rebuild plus trades. On a door swap you're buying doors, fronts and a bit of hardware, and if you fit them yourself the labour line disappears entirely.
Both routes are priced openly on our site rather than behind a quote form, so you can build the actual number for your kitchen: door prices and unit prices.
When a full kitchen genuinely is the answer
We supply both, so we've no reason to push you one way. Go for the full kitchen if the carcases are water-damaged, if you're changing the layout, if you're moving services, or if the existing units are a non-standard size that limits what you can do later. In those cases a door swap is putting a new face on a bad structure, and you'll regret it.
Can you really fit it yourself?
Doors, yes — for most people. It's measuring accurately, drilling hinge holes in the right place, and adjusting. It's methodical rather than skilled, and our guides cover each step. A full kitchen is a different proposition and generally wants a joiner.
The measuring is the part that matters either way. Read the measuring guide before you order anything.