We relocated the cabinets in our first remodel. It was a wise an inexpensive way to get a well configured kitchen. But these were relatively modern box component cabinets.

It is important to look at the cabinets carefully and figure out how they were put together, and how they have been attached to the walls and floor. If there are screws, it is much easier.

The attachments may not be visible if, for example, the face frame was put on over top of nails that were used to anchor the cabinets to the wall.

A 1920's house will probably have built in place cabinets that will be very difficult, if not impossible to remove intact. This does not mean that they cannot be reused, but that you will need to be very careful when taking them apart, and that you will need to rebuild in the new location.

When removing nailed face pieces, usually the least damage will be done if you try to pull the face off the nail, rather than trying to extract the nail. Just make sure you use a very thin pry bar and pad to avoid denting whatever the pry bar uses for leverage. (Have several pry bars of different sizes so you can use the thinnest one that does the job.

You may find that your best course is to re-use the visible fronts of the cabinets and build new insides.

It really would depend on their construction and how they are attached. If built in place then you would likely have to disassemble it in pieces and then assemble again. If it was built as one unit and then just attached to wall/floor it might not be as much work.

I don't know... If the main room is large with the sink, stove, eating space and you have TWO pantries, I would live there a while and think about retaining the two pantries and renovating the large main room. With two pantries that have cabinets, you may not need too many cabinets in the large main room at all - maybe no uppers. Not seeing it makes it difficult. Original built ins are so great to have - and it is terrific you want to preserve them, but someone removed the walk in pantry from my kitchen and I am sorry they did. I think it is part of the character of an old house I would have liked to keep. I'm just an advocate of keeping as much original as I practically can... of course, we have to live in it today and needs sure have changed. Good luck with whatever you do.

I was surprised in my kitchen remodel of my 1928 home that the kitchen cabinets were NOT built in place, but rather store-purchased units. Since I had assumed they were built-in-place, I had not planned on reusing them. I did move them to my basement craft area, where I now have my old cool pull-down table unit, an ice-box, and 2 other 1928 cabinets for storage and use down there.

These sound like your cabs have great potential, and as other posters have said, you may want to live with the set-up for a while before you tear into the original pantries. You really should get a restoration-saavy contractor or carpenter to come look at the cabs and give you an idea of whether moving them will even be possible. If they were built in place, rather than prefab cabinet boxes, they will be very difficult to move without significant carpentry/cabinetmaking work.

Good luck and congrats on the new (old) house!

When we were demo'ing our old kitchen someone asked if they could have the old cabinets. Well, when we went to take them down, they were built right into the walls. Appeared the lathe and plaster was done after the cabinets were hung -- sounds odd, but that's what it looked like. And the cabinets were built completely of 2X4s. Even the shelving was 2X4s laid side by side. Our house is quite grand with beautiful built-ins elsewhere, and we were surprised at the lack of quality in the kitchen, Needless to say, but they were not salvagable.