Kitchen architecture has gone through major upheavals from the time when the first kitchen was conceived. Even so, the underlying principle in kitchen architecture has been that of accessibility, ensuring that the things that the usability of a kitchen article defined its ease of access. For ages, kitchen cabinets have been an effective tool for ensuring the availability of a kitchen article as per its use. Every kitchen has its own needs and as a result, its own unique architecture for the design and placement of kitchen cabinets. With this perspective let us look at why, given a choice, you should opt to update, rather than replace your kitchen cabinets.

The first and foremost reason is of course the cost. Rather than invest in a new kitchen cabinet, it makes more sense to upgrade parts of an existing cabinet, or provide a new look and feel to it. Some cost-effective upgrades:

New hinges
New cabinet doors
New cabinet door handles
Re-facing existing cabinets
Re-painting existing cabinets
Adding more sections to an existing cabinet

You can perform these simple upgrades on your own, without engaging a hire. If employed effectively, the above techniques can go a long way in ensuring a new look kitchen with minimum investments.

The other reason relates to your comfort level. In an existing kitchen, each item has its place and very often, the person who uses the kitchen does not have to make too much of an effort to access these items. Over time, these activities become almost mechanical, so a person making tea will not look for tea leaves in the cabinet that stores oregano, simply because everything has its place, and the sanctity of a place for everything, and everything in its place is maintained. Dismantling existing cabinets and installing new ones however, upsets this harmony, and though over a period of time you may become used to it, you will reminisce the good old days when everything was so much easier, even though the existing arrangement may be better.

A natural corollary to comfort is the layout and topology of kitchen architecture. When a kitchen design is conceived, the layout of the support material such as the wiring, water works, and chimney is planned for. Installing a new cabinet may lead to altering this arrangement, which can at the best of times, be a painful task to undertake. Making these changes often translate into making alternate cooking arrangements a situation that not every homemaker will want to contend with. This may also mean that you will have to make do without certain utilities, which would not be the case if you decide to upgrade, rather than replace your existing kitchen cabinets.

Even if you do it yourself, think of the time that you will invest in installing a new kitchen cabinet. It is not a job that you can undertake one fine Saturday morning and be done with by Sunday evening. Installing or designing a new cabinet is not something that a person with limited woodwork skills would want to take up it can translate into your kitchen being non-functional for some time. Upgrading your kitchen cabinet however, is far easier and consumes lesser time, not to forget cost lesser dollars.

Think also of the cost implications of dismantling existing kitchen cabinets. It can have enormous and at times serious consequences to the existing infrastructure. Think of the money you may have to spend on repairing a wall, or replacing an existing fixture, or worse still explaining to your family why the heating system would not work because that kitchen cabinet you just took out short-circuited the electrical system. You may also want to explain why the water wont stop running in the kitchen sink. The sad part is there is no quick-fix solution to these problems. The good part is that if you decide to upgrade your existing kitchen cabinet instead of replacing it, you would not need to bother with it in the first place.

Summing up, installing a new kitchen cabinet can be a demanding task, and many times, a simple update is all that is required. To put it colloquially, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, when all that is required is the tightening of a few nuts and bolts (literally speaking!). So, before you decide to throw out that old kitchen cabinet, you may want to consider a more reasonable and economical alternative.