# Are built-ins outdated? > Not to buyers who want character, and increasingly rare because most renovations remove them. What they do to resale, and when to keep them. - Author: Kelsey Earl, Realtor, Keller Williams South Valley - Location: Utah, Utah - Section: The Washington County Insider - Published: 2026-10-28 - Canonical: https://homesbykelseyut.com/blog/are-built-ins-outdated - Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLF3ClFAAZ4 - Contact: 801-419-8917 ยท Kelsey.earl@kw.com --- **Quick answer:** No, and they are getting scarcer rather than more common. Most renovations strip original built-ins out, which has made the houses that kept them unusual rather than dated. They narrow your buyer pool slightly and deepen it considerably among the people who came looking for character in the first place. --- Built-ins are not outdated in Utah homes, and they are becoming rare for a reason that has nothing to do with taste. Most renovations remove them. The standard refresh opens the plan, strips the millwork and puts in the same finishes everyone else is using. Each individual decision is defensible, and the cumulative effect is that original built-in cabinetry, wood doors and period detail are disappearing from the market. Which means a house that kept them is now unusual rather than dated. That is a change in supply, not a change in fashion. ### What a built-in actually does for a room Three things, and the first is the one people underrate. **It defines space without a wall.** A wood built-in between a dining room and a living room separates the two while keeping them connected. That is exactly what buyers now say they want from a floor plan, and it was solved eighty years ago with joinery rather than with an island. **It is storage that costs no floor area.** A bookcase in a wall takes nothing from the room. **It is evidence of how the house was made.** Built in place, by someone paid to do it, from materials that are expensive now. [Whether open floor plans are going out of style](/blog/are-open-floor-plans-going-out-of-style) covers the broader shift, and the short version is that buyers want definition back without losing light. A built-in does both. ### Where the "outdated" idea comes from Three real things, worth acknowledging rather than dismissing. **Dark finishes read heavy.** Stained oak in a small room with small windows is genuinely gloomy, and that is a finish problem rather than a cabinetry problem. **Built-in entertainment centers for equipment nobody owns.** A unit sized for a deep television from 2004 is a fair target. **Scale.** A floor-to-ceiling wall of millwork in a modest room can overwhelm it. None of those are arguments against built-ins. They are arguments against specific ones, and most are fixable with paint rather than with a crowbar. ## What it does to resale Honestly, both things. It narrows your pool slightly. Some buyers want a blank room and will price the removal. It deepens your pool among people who want character, and that group has fewer options every year. On a house with genuine period detail those buyers are the market, and they are not comparing you to the refreshed house down the street. They already rejected that one. What it does not do is add a measurable amount to an appraisal. [What adds value to a home in Utah](/blog/what-adds-value-to-a-home-in-utah) covers what actually moves a number, and original detail is not on that list. It affects who buys and how fast, rather than the figure. ## If you are selling with them Three things, in order. **Do not remove them before listing.** It is money spent to make your house more like every other listing, which is the opposite of what you want. [Whether to lower the price or fix up the house first](/blog/should-i-lower-the-price-or-fix-up-my-house-before-selling) is the broader version of that decision. **Consider paint if the finish is heavy.** Painting original millwork is contentious and it is reversible in the sense that the joinery survives. It keeps the architecture and loses the gloom. **Stage them as what they are.** A built-in crammed with storage reads as clutter. The same unit with a third of the contents reads as a feature. [How to prepare your house for showings](/blog/how-do-i-prepare-my-house-for-showings) covers the principle, and it applies hardest to joinery. ## If you are buying Ask one question before you plan to remove anything: is it structural, and is it original. Original built-ins in an older house are frequently part of how the room was conceived, and taking them out leaves a space that reads oddly in a way people struggle to diagnose afterward. [Whether older homes are better built](/blog/are-older-homes-better-built) covers what else in that era is worth keeping. And check what a previous renovation already removed. On a refreshed older house that is the question nobody asks, and sometimes what was taken out was the reason to buy it. ## The Utah angle Different in each market, and worth knowing which you are in. The Salt Lake Valley's older neighborhoods have genuine period stock, cottages and bungalows where the millwork is original and the doors are solid. That is where this question actually bites. Washington County's older housing is different in character and age, and the detail buyers there respond to tends to be about light, outdoor space and how a house handles heat rather than about joinery. [What the newest neighborhoods in St. George are like](/blog/what-are-the-newest-neighborhoods-in-st-george) covers the other end of that market, where everything is new and nothing is built in. ## Painting original millwork The decision people agonize over, so here is the straight version. Painting is not vandalism and it is not reversible in practice. Stripping paint off detailed millwork later is possible, expensive and rarely done well. So treat it as permanent. **What painting buys you** is light. A dark-stained room with modest windows is genuinely gloomy, and paint solves that in a weekend for very little money. **What it costs you** is the material. Old-growth wood with visible grain is a thing you cannot buy now, and under paint it becomes joinery rather than timber. My own rule is simple: if the wood is a species and a quality you could not replace, think hard. If it is a utilitarian finish in a dark room, paint it and enjoy the house. And if you are painting to sell rather than to live, check first whether the buyers in your segment want it. In a neighborhood where character is the draw, the thing you are about to cover is what they are shopping for. ## What I actually see Buyers who said they wanted character and then asked what it would cost to remove the character. That happens more than you would think, and usually it is about the finish rather than the thing. Painted, with the contents thinned out, the same built-in reads as the reason they liked the house. The other pattern is sellers who ripped out original detail on advice, spent real money, and sold to someone who would have paid the same for the house as it was. ## What to do next If you are selling, leave them in and consider paint rather than removal. If you are buying, live with them a season before you decide. The thing that looks dated in a photograph is frequently the thing visitors comment on. I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and I notice the doors on every house I walk. [Send me one you are considering](/contact) and I will tell you what is worth keeping. --- Source: https://homesbykelseyut.com/blog/are-built-ins-outdated Any market figure in this post is accurate only where a date and source are stated alongside it.