Orange · Old Towne

Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling in Orange, CA

Old Towne Orange is one of the largest intact historic districts in California, and the houses around the Plaza run from the 1880s to the 1930s — Victorian, Craftsman, and early Spanish Revival, most of them still on their original plan. Their kitchens are small, rear-facing and built for service, and they demand cabinetry made to fit rather than bought to fit. Ten minutes east, Orange Park Acres and Santiago Hills are an entirely different problem.

Orange, CA

Old Towne is a fit problem, not a style problem

The grid around the Plaza is one of the largest intact historic districts in California, and the houses on it are genuinely old by Orange County standards — 1880s Victorians, Craftsman bungalows, early Spanish Revival, most still carrying their original casework and floors. Their kitchens were built as service rooms at the back of the house: narrow, closed, with a porch beside them and a pantry the size of a cupboard.

You cannot solve that with a catalogue. Ceiling heights vary, walls are not square, and the trim profiles that make the house worth living in have no modern equivalent on a stock door. Old Towne kitchens are custom cabinetry work — inset doors, matched profiles, carcasses built to the height the room actually has. The extra space nearly always comes from absorbing the service porch, which gains the counter run without touching anything visible from the street.

The floors matter too. Where the original hardwood is sound, refinishing it is better value than replacing it and it holds the room together — but it has to be sequenced around the cabinet installation rather than squeezed in afterwards. That is a decision made at the start, not on site. See flooring for how we handle it.

Panelled cream refrigerator front with a carved frieze panel
Panelled refrigerator
Carved capital on a fluted pilaster in cream cabinetry
Fluted pilaster

Ten minutes east, a different city

Orange Park Acres and Santiago Hills have nothing in common with the Plaza grid. The eastern tracts are 1980s and later, already open-plan, with sound builder-grade boxes and worktops that have simply dated. Painted doors, quartz and a full-height slab backsplash is the entire project, and it runs short.

West Orange and El Modena sit between the two: post-war single-storey homes with closed kitchens, soffits and good boxes, where refacing with the soffit removed does the work.

Kitchen with two chandeliers above a dark carved island and a window wall
Island and window wall

Bathrooms in Orange

In the historic district, bathrooms carry the same tension as the kitchens — the original tile is often beautiful and the waterproofing behind it is forty to a hundred years old. We are straight about which parts can genuinely be kept once the substrate is opened up. In the newer tracts, bathroom remodeling is the more familiar conversation about layout, storage and material.

Tiled shower with a mosaic accent strip, a recessed niche, a grab rail and a handheld shower
Shower niche and grab rail

Getting started

Kitchen Cabinets and Beyond has built in Orange County since 1995, holds California contractor license #902246, and carries insurance on every job. The showroom is about ten minutes from most of the city.

Book a free estimate for your home in Orange. If you are in Old Towne, bring a photograph of your existing trim — that is genuinely where the design starts.

Near Orange

We also work in Villa Park, Anaheim and Tustin — see every Orange County city we serve.

Carved range hood surround with a tiled niche above the cooktop
Carved hood niche
Farmhouse sink beneath an arched window with a shaped valance in a cream kitchen
Arched window
Oak kitchen cabinetry with a marble backsplash and a sink beneath a wide window over the garden
Kitchen Remodeling
White freestanding soaking tub on a tiled floor beneath a row of bathroom windows
Bathroom Remodeling
Cherry kitchen island with a turned post leg and a black granite top on a wood floor
Cabinets & Countertops
4.6 out of 5 stars, 115 Google reviews
Who we are

A historic grid and a hillside, ten minutes apart

Orange has something no other city we serve has: a National Register historic district with a working grid of 1880s to 1930s homes around the Plaza. Those kitchens are a different discipline from the tracts on the city's eastern edge.

  • Old Towne Orange
  • Orange Park Acres
  • Santiago Hills
  • El Modena
  • West Orange
What we do

What we build in Orange

Old Towne leans almost entirely custom; the eastern tracts lean refacing and countertops. Both start in the same showroom.

Orange questions

What Orange homeowners ask

If your house is in Old Towne, bring a photograph of the existing trim. Matching it is usually where the design starts.

  1. We are in Old Towne. Does the historic district control what we do to the kitchen?

    The district's protections are aimed at the exterior and the streetscape — what you do inside your kitchen is generally yours to decide. Where it does bite is if a project changes a window opening or anything else visible from the street, so we identify that early. Interior work is a fit problem, not a permission problem.

  2. Can new cabinetry be matched to our original trim?

    Usually, and it is the detail that decides whether a period kitchen looks right. Bring a photograph or, better, a short offcut. Inset doors with a matched profile sit correctly in these houses in a way modern overlay doors do not.

  3. Our Old Towne kitchen is tiny. Where does the extra space come from?

    Almost always from the service porch or the utility space behind it. These houses were built with the kitchen as a back-of-house room, and absorbing the space next to it is how you get a real counter run without altering anything visible from the street.

  4. Should we keep the original wood floor?

    If it is sound, yes — it is often the most valuable surface in the house, and refinishing it costs less than replacing it. It has to be sequenced around the cabinet install rather than done afterwards, which is a planning decision we make at the start.

  5. How far is Orange from your showroom?

    About ten minutes, down the 57 or straight along Glassell to East La Palma Avenue in Anaheim.

Ten minutes down the 57.

4.6 out of 5 stars, 115 Google reviews
What our clients say

Reviewed by Orange County homeowners

  • Tom & Glenna Laguna Beach
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    “You have a great design showroom. It was a wonderful place to start with our remodel and gave us some great ideas. The cabinet installer was a true craftsman. The whole process went smoothly and was on time.”

  • Naz Alibhai Home owner
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    “Our kitchen was in desperate need of a complete remodel. Emad not only came up with the most amazing design we could have imagined, but delivered it from the drawing board to the end result.”

  • The Gouldies Newport Coast
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars

    “Emad and his team transformed our first home in Newport Coast into our dream home. He guided us through the entire process, stayed within our timeline and finished the entire kitchen and bath.”

Call (714) 630-0477