Kitchen makeovers in Moorabbin: refresh, don't rebuild

A makeover renews everything you see and touch — doors and drawer fronts, benchtop, splashback, handles, sink and tap — while the carcasses, the service positions and the layout stay exactly where they are. It is the shortest route to a new-looking kitchen, and the one most often misjudged. Whether it suits your room is decided at the measure, with a torch and a tape under the sink, not from a photograph.

Book a measure and quote

If the layout is the problem, start here

Reference photograph: plastic sheeting and brown paper taped down over benches and joinery, with a ladder still standing in the middle of the room. Nothing behind the coverings is coming out — on a makeover the protection is the site work.

On this page

01 What is replaced, what stays

02 Five checks before you commit

03 Fronts, tops, splashback, hardware

04 The shortened build sequence

05 Disruption and common questions

The boxes decide it. Everything else is a selection.

Renew the surfaces, keep the boxes

New fronts are made to the existing carcass sizes, then hung on the original hinge pattern or re-drilled to take new plates. The benchtop is templated off those boxes once they have been checked for level and re-fixed where they have moved. The splashback follows the new top. Handles, sink and tap change with it, and the room reads as new without a wall being opened or a service being moved.

Replaced
Doors and drawer fronts · benchtop · splashback · handles, hinges and runners · sink and tap · kickboards and exposed end panels.

Retained
Carcasses and shelves · the layout and bench positions · plumbing and electrical rough-in · flooring, in most cases · appliances that still suit their openings.

Field notes

Taken at the measure,
before any selection
is discussed.

Two of these five send the job to a full renovation, and it is better to know in the first half hour.

Five checks before a makeover is the right answer

01 Carcass condition. Press the base of the sink cupboard. Swollen chipboard, delaminated edges or a shelf that has dropped means new boxes, not new fronts. Sound carcasses are dry, square and still firmly fixed to the wall.

02 Layout faults. If the oven door blocks the walkway, the fridge opens against a wall or two people cannot pass an open dishwasher, new fronts will not fix it. That work belongs to Kitchen Remodelling and begins with Kitchen Design.

03 Water damage. Staining at the back of the base units, lifting kickboards or rusted hinges show a leak that has been there long enough to matter. It is traced and repaired before anything new is fitted, and it sometimes changes the scope.

04 Appliance and cavity sizes. Old cabinetry was built around the appliances of its day. A 900mm cooktop will not drop into a 600mm opening, and a current dishwasher needs its full cavity height. Where a new appliance does not fit, that part of the run is rebuilt while the rest is refreshed.

05 Hinge and hole patterns. Doors are drilled to a set pattern. New fronts can pick up the existing positions or arrive with new plates, but mixed and non-standard sets are recorded on the spot so the order is right the first time.

Selections

Fronts, tops, splashback, hardware

Fronts do most of the work. Laminated and melamine doors hold their value and now come in deep matt textures; polyurethane gives a seamless painted face and takes shaker profiles and shadow lines; vinyl-wrapped fronts suit profiled doors at a lower cost; timber veneer returns grain to a pale room. Each is chosen against how the kitchen is used and lit — a full-gloss face shows every fingerprint in a bright north-facing room, a fine-grain matt does not. Door styles, finishes and hardware are set out in full on Kitchen Cabinets.

The benchtop decision is the same one made in a full renovation, compared across stone, compact surfaces, timber and laminate on Kitchen Benchtops. The splashback is measured on site after the new top is down — tile, stone or glass, weighed up on Kitchen Splashbacks. Handles, soft-close hinges and drawer runners are the last selection and the one you touch most; good hardware can be fitted to sound existing boxes, and drawer inserts added inside them without changing a single carcass.

Reference photograph: profiled fronts, a plain top and a simple tiled plane — the three surfaces a makeover changes, typical of a refreshed bayside kitchen.

Sequence

The same twelve stages, shortened in the middle

A makeover runs through the same twelve stages, held in the same four groups used everywhere on this site — Design, Supply, Build, Finish. What changes is the weight of the Build group: demolition is partial, preparation is light, and the services stay where they were found. The full version is set out on our 12-step renovation process.

Design — stages 01–04
Consultation · Measure · Design · Quote. Nothing is shortened here. The measure is where the five checks are made and where the scope is either confirmed as a makeover or honestly widened.

Supply — stage 05
Materials. Fronts, hardware and the benchtop slab are ordered before anything is removed, so the kitchen stays in use while the order is made.

Build — stages 06–08
Demolition · Preparation · Cabinetry. This is the group a makeover shortens. Demolition takes only the old fronts, benchtop and splashback; preparation is levelling and re-fixing the boxes and making the wall behind the cooktop flat and sound; cabinetry means hanging and aligning new fronts rather than setting new carcasses.

Finish — stages 09–12
Benchtops · Splashback · Finishing · Handover. The top is templated from the fixed boxes and installed, the splashback is measured to the finished top, sink and tap are reconnected, silicone lines cut in, doors adjusted a second time once they have settled, and the room walked through with you.

Questions asked at the measure

Disruption, and what stays in place

Can we keep using the kitchen?

Up to the strip-out, yes. The sink and tap are disconnected when the old benchtop comes off and reconnected after the new one is installed, so plan a temporary bench, kettle and washing-up point elsewhere for that stretch. Floors and adjoining rooms are protected before work starts.

Will new doors sit properly on old carcasses?

They will if the boxes are square and firmly fixed. Hinge positions are recorded at the measure, fronts are drilled to suit, and the gaps between doors are set during fitting and adjusted again at finishing. Boxes that are out of square are re-fixed or, where they cannot be brought true, replaced.

Can I change only the benchtop and splashback?

Often, yes. If the doors still suit you and the carcasses are sound, a new top and splashback change the room more than people expect. The cut-outs for the sink and cooktop are reviewed first, since an old top may have been cut for appliances you no longer have.

Will a makeover fix poor storage?

Partly. Inserts, drawer systems inside existing boxes and better corner fittings recover a surprising amount without changing the footprint. What a makeover cannot do is create a pantry where there is no wall for one — see Kitchen Storage for what fits within existing joinery.

What if the checks say rebuild?

Then we say so at the measure and price the right scope instead — usually Complete Kitchen Renovations, or a partial rebuild of one run with the rest refreshed.