06 / Douglas County / Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree
Cabinets911 handles custom cabinets in Highlands Ranch from design through install, with close attention to the original kitchens in the community's earliest houses. We also cover Lone Tree. The usual job here: oak cabinets under a boxed-in soffit, a layout that mostly works, and an owner deciding how far to go.
Highlands Ranch was planned as a whole, on land Mission Viejo Company bought in 1979. The first family closed on a house in Northridge in September 1981, and building spread outward from there for decades. That leaves thousands of kitchens of similar age, many still wearing original builder cabinets. The common thread is the soffit: a drywall box above the uppers that eats storage and dates the room instantly.
Brief 01 / Highlands Ranch
Nobody can tell you what a soffit holds until it's opened. Before we design uppers to the ceiling, we cut a small inspection hole or two and look. What we find decides the plan and the budget.
The easy case. Many soffits were just a way to avoid building taller cabinets. Demo, patch the ceiling, and the wall is free for taller uppers.
A supply duct, a bath fan line or a plumbing vent changes things. Some can be rerouted through the joists by an HVAC contractor or plumber. Some can't. Then the answer is a smaller soffit, or uppers designed with a matching fascia so the box reads as cabinetry and not as drywall.
Soffits often carry the circuit for the lights above the sink or counters. An electrician moves it. Highlands Ranch is unincorporated, so if that work needs a permit, it goes through Douglas County, not a city hall. Ask the county's Building Division what your scope requires.
Brief 02 / Highlands Ranch
With the soffit gone, the wall above the counter gains real storage space. Uppers can run taller, or stack with a short row of cabinets on top for things you use twice a year. Crown closes the last inch to the ceiling, and it has to be scribed, because ceilings in houses this age are rarely flat across a full run.
Taller uppers need planning below them too. The range hood, window trim and any open shelving all have to line up with the new top line. Our kitchen cabinet planning draws every wall to scale before anything is ordered.
Brief 03 / Highlands Ranch
Refacing keeps the boxes and covers them: new doors, new drawer fronts, veneer over the face frames. It works when the boxes are square, dry and holding screws. Plenty of 1980s oak boxes still are. But refacing locks in the old box heights. Reface the uppers and remove the soffit, and you're left with a gap above cabinets that are now too short.
Our position: in a soffit kitchen, refacing the uppers is usually money spent twice. A hybrid often makes more sense. Reface or keep the base cabinets, replace the sink base if it's soft, and build new, taller uppers with matching doors. Order everything together so the finishes match. Our cabinet replacement page and the refacing and materials guide cover the trade-offs.
Response units / Highlands Ranch
Cabinet services for Highlands Ranch and Lone Tree homes.
Soffit-free layouts with uppers planned to the real ceiling line.
Replacements for builder vanities that sit low and swell at the toe kick.
Storage for the family rooms and dining nooks common in these floor plans.
Full or hybrid, depending on what the bases and the soffit turn up.
Crown scribed to ceilings that aren't flat, boxes tied into retained cabinets.
Cabinet packages for builders and commercial projects in Lone Tree and RidgeGate.
Routing
IfThe soffit is empty and the bases are solid
ThenKeep or reface the bases and build new uppers to the ceiling.
IfThe soffit hides ductwork
ThenGet an HVAC opinion first. Then design around what can and can't move.
IfThe sink base is soft or the layout fights you
ThenPlan a full replacement; refacing won't fix either one.
IfYou're in a newer Lone Tree home with no soffits
ThenStart with storage and layout, since the ceiling line is already open.
Coverage / Douglas County
Highlands Ranch is organized into four big neighborhoods, and the oldest kitchens sit in and around Northridge, where building started. Lone Tree sits just east, with Heritage Hills and the newer RidgeGate area. Everything is close enough to schedule soffit inspections and measures in one trip.
Call transcript / Highlands Ranch
Usually, but we look inside first. Empty soffits come out easily. Ones holding ductwork, a vent pipe or wiring need the right trade to reroute them, and sometimes a smaller soffit stays. We cut an inspection opening, tell you what's in there, and design the uppers around the real answer.
Reface if the boxes are solid, the layout works and you're keeping the soffit. If the soffit is coming out, refacing the uppers leaves them short, so most owners are better off replacing the uppers and refacing or keeping the bases. A soft sink base gets replaced either way.
Check the Highlands Ranch Community Association's Residential Improvement Guidelines, especially if the job touches the outside of the house, such as a new hood vent through an exterior wall. Building permits for plumbing, electrical or mechanical changes go through Douglas County, since Highlands Ranch is unincorporated. Your contractor should confirm both before work starts.
Yes. Littleton sits just north of Highlands Ranch, and much of its housing is older, with different cabinet problems. See our Littleton cabinet page for that side. If you live near the line between the two, either page leads to the same Colorado cabinet company.
Open a case / 06
Send photos of the kitchen, the soffit and the ceiling line. We'll tell you what the uppers could look like and what it takes to get there.
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