Key takeaways
- Refacing changes what you see. Remodeling changes what you live with. If the complaint is the color of the doors, reface. If the complaint is where the sink is, that is a remodel.
- Most people who renovate a kitchen do not reface. According to the 2026 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, 68 percent of renovating homeowners replace all their cabinets, 27 percent do a partial cabinet upgrade, and only 5 percent leave their cabinets alone.
- The line between the two projects is also the line the city cares about. According to the City of McKinney, cabinets, countertops, tile, flooring and painting need no permit, while moving plumbing, electrical or walls does.
A lot of 1990s kitchens have the same two things going on. The cabinet boxes are still holding up, and the layout is fighting the family. So the question is simple: do you keep the bones and change the face, or take the whole thing out and start over?
Alanis Remodeling & Construction is a family-owned remodeling company in Anna, Texas. Jesus Alanis started it in 1999, and the houses in this conversation are about that age. Here's how to decide.
Kitchen remodel vs. refacing: what is the difference?
Refacing keeps your existing cabinet boxes in place and replaces the doors, the drawer fronts and the exposed side panels, usually with new hardware. Remodeling takes the cabinets out and rebuilds the kitchen, which means the layout, the plumbing, the electrical and the surfaces are all back on the table.
The simplest way to think about it: refacing is a new front on the same box. Everything behind that front stays where it is. The sink stays where the sink is. The wall between the kitchen and the living room stays up. The upper cabinet that has always been two inches too low stays two inches too low.
That is not a knock on refacing. When the layout works and you just want the kitchen to stop looking like 1996, it is an honest answer and a fast one. It is only wrong when the thing bothering you lives behind the doors.
Not sure which one your kitchen is? Request a free in-home estimate and bring the question to the walkthrough.
Are 1990s cabinet boxes worth keeping?
Sometimes. A cabinet built in the 1990s is roughly thirty years old, and what matters is not the age but what has happened to it. Open the doors and look at the boxes themselves, not the fronts.
Here's what to check:
- The sink base. This is the first place to fail. Thirty years of small drips swell particleboard, and a floor that is soft or stained under the sink usually means that box is done.
- Square and level. Doors that will not stay aligned, or a face frame that has racked, mean a new door is being hung on a frame that cannot hold it straight.
- Material. Plywood boxes from that era are often fine. Particleboard boxes are a coin toss, and they are the ones that crumble when a hinge screw is backed out and reset.
- Shelf sag and smell. A bowed shelf has been carrying more than it was built for, and a musty cabinet interior is water that got in and never fully left. The EPA says "It is important to dry water-damaged areas and items within 24-48 hours to prevent mold growth," and a sink base that stayed damp never got that.
If the boxes pass, refacing is a real option. If the sink base is soft or the frames have moved, new fronts are going on a foundation that is already failing, and you will be paying twice.
Does the 1990s layout still work?
This is the question that decides most of these projects, and it has nothing to do with the cabinets. Kitchens built in that decade were often closed off from the living space, with a wall or a half wall, a smaller pantry than families want now, and a footprint designed around a single cook.
The way people use a kitchen has changed since then. Two people cook. Kids do homework at the counter. Everybody wants to be able to see into the room where everyone else is. A 1990s plan often fights all three.
The Houzz numbers say most people act on this. According to the 2026 U.S. Houzz Kitchen Trends Study, more than half of renovating homeowners, 52 percent, change their kitchen's layout, while 68 percent keep the same overall footprint. Read those two together and the pattern is clear: people are not adding on to the house, they are rearranging the room they already have. Refacing cannot do that.
Here is the plain comparison.
| What you want to change | Refacing | Full remodel |
|---|---|---|
| Door and drawer front style and color | Yes | Yes |
| Hardware and hinges | Yes | Yes |
| Countertops | Usually possible | Yes |
| Backsplash and flooring | Separate job | Part of the work |
| Cabinet layout and sizes | No | Yes |
| Moving the sink, range or dishwasher | No | Yes |
| Adding or opening a wall | No | Yes |
| Adding an island | No | Yes |
| Replacing failing cabinet boxes | No | Yes |
| Bringing old wiring or plumbing up to current code | No | Yes |
Which option puts the city in your project?
Refacing almost never does. A full remodel often does, and the difference comes down to whether anything moves. According to the City of McKinney, painting, tiling, flooring, cabinets and countertops do not require a permit, and neither does swapping a faucet in the same spot without altering the pipes. The moment pipes move, circuits get added, or a wall changes, it becomes a residential alteration permit.
Every Collin County city sets its own rules, so the same kitchen can be handled one way in McKinney and another in Anna. We cover how that plays out in do I need a permit for a kitchen remodel in Anna, TX. Ask during the estimate and we will tell you what your scope triggers before anything is ordered.
Can you reface now and remodel later?
You can, and sometimes it is the right call. If you are two or three years from a bigger project, or from selling, new fronts and hardware buy you a kitchen you do not mind looking at in the meantime.
Be honest about the math, though. Refacing done now is money that comes out with the cabinets later. When a full remodel is already on the calendar, waiting and doing it once is the cleaner path. When it isn't, and the boxes are sound, refacing is a real answer.
What this looks like in Anna and McKinney
Older houses are also where demo turns up surprises: wiring that predates how many appliances a modern kitchen runs, a supply line that should have been replaced a decade ago, a subfloor with a soft patch. Refacing hides all of it. A remodel is when it gets dealt with.
Our crew works out of Anna and covers the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and about 50 miles beyond, from McKinney, Allen and Plano up the US 75 corridor to Sherman and Denison. The whole family is bilingual, so the walkthrough and the proposal can happen in Spanish or English.
Find out which one your kitchen needs
Book a free in-home estimate. Show us the boxes on the walkthrough, and you get the cost and the schedule in writing before anything starts. Kim, one of our Google reviewers, put it this way: "What impressed us most was their ability to complete the project not only on time but also within our budget."
Start on the kitchen remodeling page, see finished kitchens in the project gallery, or request your free estimate and the Alanis family will schedule your walkthrough. Prefer to talk now? Call (214) 451-7499.
About the author
Angel Alanis is the project manager at Alanis Remodeling & Construction, the family company Jesus Alanis founded in Anna, Texas in 1999. He runs the schedule and the day to day communication on every kitchen, bathroom and whole-home remodel the family crew takes on across Collin County and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Meet the family.