Renovate your kitchen without replacing it

Most kitchens we walk into are not broken. They are tired. The cabinets are straight and the drawers still run smoothly, but the fronts are dull, the worktop has rings and the tap leaks at the base. Then nothing needs to be demolished. You replace what is worn and keep what will last for years.

A new kitchen in the Netherlands now costs about € 15.000 on average, against about € 11.000 around 2020 (InRetail KeukenMonitor, April 2026). New fronts on your existing cabinets cost a fraction of that.

What it costs, from small to large

Each step is a complete job on its own. Most renovations combine two or three. Amounts include 21% VAT, which is what you pay as a private customer; the amount without VAT is underneath.

Step 1 and the fixed items are our own rates. Wrapping, spraying and fronts are market indications from 1 September 2026, from a small kitchen (up to 10 fronts) to a large one. We only price step 6 after a visit, because the items differ too much per kitchen. Amounts are written the Dutch way: € 1.234,50 means one thousand two hundred and thirty-four euros and fifty cents.

A new worktop

Everything about materials and prices per metre is on replacing worktops and worktop materials and colours. New doors on your cabinets: see replacing kitchen doors and fronts.

The worktop wears first. A new one can go on your existing cabinets if they are straight. Laminate worktops are losing ground to stone, ceramic and composite. Prices per running metre, including fitting and 21% VAT:

A stone, ceramic or composite worktop takes two visits. We measure once the cabinets are ready, and the stone fabricator makes the top to that template. If your old worktop has to come out before the new one is ready, we can fit a temporary worktop so you can keep cooking.

Which step suits your kitchen?

That depends mostly on what is under the fronts. Three questions usually settle it.

1. Are the cabinets straight and dry? Push against a cabinet and look under the sink. If the bottom panel has swollen or the cabinet wobbles, a new outside makes no sense.
2. Are the fronts still flat and undamaged? Then you can wrap or spray them. If the foil is peeling or there are dents, nothing will stick to them any more. Choose new fronts.
3. Does the layout need to change? If the sink or the hob moves, pipework comes into it. If everything stays in place, that cost disappears.

We always come and look first. We pull out the drawers, feel the bottom of the sink cabinet and check the hinge holes. That takes half an hour and costs the call-out charge of € 72,60 including VAT, once per job. A quote based on photos alone is a guess, and you pay for that guess on installation day.

When we advise against renovating

We say so when it is not a good idea, even though a renovation is the easier job for us.

• The cabinets have been wet. Chipboard that has absorbed water swells and never gets flat again. New fronts on such a cabinet hang crooked within a year.
• The cabinets have sagged. A hinge in sagging board will not hold a new front.
• The layout does not work. If the dishwasher has been in the wrong place for ten years, a new colour will not help.
• The kitchen is around twenty years old and was not good to begin with. Then renovating costs almost as much as replacing.

How long your kitchen is out of use

A renovation without demolition usually fits in one day. In the morning your old kitchen is there, in the evening you cook again. With a stone worktop there is a second visit for the top itself.

Buying a whole new kitchen instead? We install that too: see kitchen installation. All rates are on our price page.

Questions