Okay. This is where I show I know nothing of cabinet construction. Yes, the hinges are attached. The cabinets are like a cube with the doors attached to a frame piece that comes in from the corner about 3-5 inches. The hinge is on the door and attached to the part of the frame that is not the front of the cube but the 1/2" or 3/4" edge of that board. The hinge is about 4" long, with about 3" of it going straight back into the cube--into the air of the cabinet, rather than being attached or even on anything. Gosh, my description is lousey. I wish I could supply a photo, but I don't want to upset my daughter until, and if, I find out from you experts that there was another style of hinge that was supposed to be used. Thanks, Lynn

Not sure what kind of hinge she's talking about but most Full Overlay hinges open up slightly wider that 90 degrees. I think its 105 degrees. I do NOT like the single door 24" cabinets. The doors are HUGE and they tend to warp more often than narrower doors. But you need to look at your design as a whole and decide on door widths. A 24" door next to a 15" can look bad. Two skinny 12" doors can look bad next to a 21" wide door. Make sure you know your options on the possible combinations. The uppers absolutely do NOT have to line up with the base cabinets. That's a very old school and uncreative way of designing. Actually, it's not design, it's lining up cabinets on a wall. She doesn't sound too knowledgeable. How long has she been designing kitchens?

If the cabinets are built in place, it will probably be almost impossible to move them out without destroying them. As to your plan, anything is possible. The question should be whether it's worth pursuing, and this seems unlikely. Attaching an additional layer of face-frame to the existing frame is a bad idea; you'd have to remove the old and build new. Like Bob, I am skeptical that your existing 'boxes' are so wonderful. They're too shallow, fitted with motley, mismatched hinges, and the drawers are shot. Building a face frame one inch thicker than usual means building it with lumber that's one inch thicker than typical. Thicker lumber is more expensive and, in many areas, much harder to obtain. Joining the pieces together will be trickier, and may have to be done on-site. There will be a lot of very careful measuring for the drawers, which will have to be custom-built; installing them will be a finicky process. On top of all that, you're concerned about the price. I suspect you'll find it difficult to locate a carpenter willing to do it at all, because it's slow, fussy, risky work and not very lucrative. If you succeed in finding someone, you may find the cost/benefit ratio rather high. But, hey, there's no harm in asking a few craftsmen to look at it. If your plan doesn't pan out, you might look at local cabinet shops as an alternative to Lowes/HD.

Hi All interested. I'd like to address a few comments. My name is Birdie Miller, I have an account here at Houzz. I design and build custom kitchens, cabinets, furniture and millwork, since 1972. I invented the EuroButt II faux butt hinge in 1990 and brought it to the market in 1996. Because the European concealed hinge is such a GREAT hinge, designers have had to 'do-away' with the functional design element of the traditional butt hinge, mostly because cabinet makers don't want to use the butt hinge, "It is a pain in the butt to use it". It isn't because they don't want to see it, they just don't want to use it. Before 1980 all doors were hinged with some sort of knuckle hinge, the 80's were the period that contemporary design in the USA took off, along with the construction technique of frameless cases and European hardware. After a decade of getting used the European hardware and case building techniques most cabinet makers didn't want to go back to butt hinges and face frame cabinets. I know there are plenty of sources for face frame cabinets and no mortise butt hinges (NOW). In the 1990s there weren't. After the 1988 stock market crash, our industry took a 'HIT'. When it came back in 1992, 95% of the architects and designers I worked with went back to traditional design... I have my theory why that happened! Back to the subject. Using the concealed hinge is a smart way to go, for the cabinetmaker and the customer, but you loose the design element of traditional design. I ran into the problem in 1990 when my designers were now calling for the butt hinge. With a little work, I said, ''why can't I just do this''.... Fake the butt hinge and let the concealed hinge do all the work!!! With that concept, I invented the EuroButt II faux butt hinge. You get the best of 2 worlds, The charm of traditional design and the advantages of the high tech concealed hinge. That is why you would use the EuroButt II faux but hinge... Self close, Soft close, Adjustments and Clip on and off. I took a lot of care to design a fake hinges that looked absolutely REAL. I show the EuroButt II at my Houzz listing, with a link to the EuroButt II website address. If you have any questions let me know. Take care and good luck with your projects.