How can I reconfigure kitchen cabinets that were built as one unit?

Question

My husband and I are planning to change the layout of our kitchen in our home, which we bought this past spring. The cabinets we have are really nice, but the layout has a peninsula that is very close to the fridge/sink and it makes two people cooking really awkward. So I have a plan to reconfigure the cabinets and add an island.HOWEVER, in reading multiple blogs and videos when DIYers take their cabinets down, they are able to unscrew the cabinets from one another at interior of the boxes and then from the wall piece by piece. I've looking and my kitchen cabinets seem to be build solid. There are 3-4 cabinets without any vertical seams, thus sharing walls.Am I missing something? Are they just custom cabinets that were built and installed in one piece?If this is the case, I'm assuming I'll have to take them down all as one unit and then cut them apart (sacrificing some of the cabinets since the walls are shared.Does anyone have advice or experience with this??

Sharon · Answer

Anything is possible but you won't know until you take the cabinet down, the seams could be invisible cause they put the interior dividers over the seam. How many screws across ? If it is one cabinet, you can tape the area to be cut with painters tape and use a fine blade like a multi-tool so you don't lose too much width. Then cut lumber to make new sidewalls. Here is cabinet basic video.

You could also sell your cabinets on Craigslist and buy new ones to meet your needs.

Toni @ Girl, Just DIY! · Answer

It's possible that your cabinets were built in place, or at least the peninsula was built as one big piece. Cutting it might bring issues and challenges that you're not prepared for. If you want to leave some of the peninsula that butts against the kitchen wall then you'd need to add a face frame so that you can add a drawer and shelf and door for the lower portion so that it matches the rest of the kitchen.

When we demo'd our kitchen for our renovation they'd been built in place so when we took down one cabinet another wall cabinet we hadn't emptied almost tumbled to the ground.

Laura Cooper · Answer

It sounds like your cabinets were built on site and not prefabricated. You can still reuse materials that are in good condition. If your cabinets are prefabricated, the face frames will be screwed together at the front support stile

William · Answer

It's possible they could be one piece. Open the doors and look at the inside frame for screws that would connect one cabinet to the next. If you see screws they are individual cabinets. If no screws it's one solid cabinet.

Picture 7

https://www.wikihow.com/Install-Upper-Cabinets