Why it matters
This is the highest-leverage decision in the house, and most buyers never learn that the first two options exist. A dated kitchen with sound boxes and a working layout does not need to be torn out. It needs new doors. The numbers make the case on their own. Repainting a standard kitchen's cabinets in Toronto runs $2,100 to $4,500. Refacing a standard 10x10 kitchen runs $5,000 to $15,000. Replacing the cabinetry runs $20,000 and up, and easily far more once you are into custom. Refacing gives you most of the visual result of new cabinets for a fraction of the cost, and painting costs a fraction of refacing again. If the boxes are sound, replacing them is a choice, not a cost, and you should not carry it in your offer as if it were forced on you.
How to spot it
What makes a kitchen a candidate: solid, square boxes; drawers that run true; a layout that works; and doors that are simply dated rather than damaged. What rules it out: swollen or delaminating particleboard boxes (usually under the sink, where a leak lived), sagging shelves, a layout you actively want to change, and thermofoil doors that have already peeled, which take paint badly.
What it costs
Toronto, 2026: repaint $2,100 to $4,500; reface $5,000 to $15,000 on a 10x10 kitchen; replace $20,000+. New hardware and hinges are usually bundled into a reface and are worth asking for.
What to do
Monitor. On the tour, open the doors and look at the boxes, then decide which of the three you are actually pricing. Then negotiate on that number, not on the fantasy renovation.
Education and triage, not a home inspection. Casaroo reads the doors, because doors are what photos show. Whether the boxes behind them are worth keeping is something you can check yourself in about ten seconds, and a cabinet contractor can confirm.