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.
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.
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.
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.
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 build in Orange
Old Towne leans almost entirely custom; the eastern tracts lean refacing and countertops. Both start in the same showroom.
- Cabinet Refacing Same boxes, new doors and fronts Cabinetry
- Custom Cabinets Built to your measurements Cabinetry
- Kitchen Remodeling Designed, supplied and installed Remodeling
- Bathroom Remodeling Vanities, tile, glass and stone Remodeling
- Countertops Quartz and stone, seen full-slab Surfaces
- Flooring Hardwood, tile and luxury vinyl Surfaces
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
- Showroom hours Mon–Sat 10am–5pm · Sunday closed
- Showroom 2910 E La Palma Ave, Ste B, Anaheim, CA 92806
- Service area 24 Orange County cities we serve
Reviewed by Orange County homeowners
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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.”
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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.”
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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.”