IF you decide to go with a movable island, you might also check your cabinet line. Some of them have movable islands that you can get to match or complement your perimeter cabinets. I know, for instance, that KraftMaid does as my KD showed one to me when she was trying to talk me out of my mini-peninsula...she thought it would be more useful. [I love my mini-peninsula, btw! It protects my cooktop and has become my Baking Center.] I'm someone who went from a small "L" shaped eat-in kitchen to a 2-peninsula kitchen and I definitely do NOT regret it...as a matter of fact I think I gained an amazing amount of counter space, in particular...and I then had room for a Prep Sink...all pluses! There is a lot of anti-peninsula sentiment on this Forum, so you will probably not get much support for it. Most people (not everyone growlery!) prefer islands...stationary or movable. If you go w/a stationary island, I don't think 36" is a big enough clearance on the sides...I think 42" minimum, preferably 48". There will be a lot of laundry basket carrying through there as well as, I think, the traffic from the back yard (I can't tell for certain on this point). I'm guessing there's no garage so groceries will be coming in from the front door (is that correct?). You also need to have enough room to carry those groceries into the kitchen.

I'd definitely like the refrigerator opposite to preserve that nice work space you show--enough space located between sink and stove, under the window, refrigerator a quick step or two away. Can't beat it. We needed an extra 3" to fit in a drawer stack to hold silverware, etc, so our garbage pull-out is a 12" wide lower pull-out cabinet with everything but the bottom shelf/tray removed (the door stays attached at the bottom to that). A Rubbermaid Slim Jim sits in the pull-out tray (after we cut the top down to clear the counter). It holds a 23-gallon bag (almost too much) and works excellently. (This design was copied from someone I'm always grateful to at Ikeafans.com.) For a sink, if you find yourself counting inches, I also like what we did. I measured my widest commonly used sheet pan, and a refrigerator rack and chose a single-bowl sink they could both lie down flat in. (Everything else is smaller.) That turned out to be stainless steel about 31+" wide with flanges, with about 29" in the bowl. Specs said mount it in a 36" cabinet, I said heck no!, I NEED that space for drawers, and copied those here and elsewhere who mounted in a cabinet ALMOST wide enough to hold the bowl itself, a 30"er in our case. We chiseled out enough wood on the cabinet sides for the sink to sit down where it needs to be, but the chiseling didn't go anywhere near any of the corners. It's great! We both love it--and the 15" drawer stack this and the slim trash pullout enabled. Note that the sink could have been wider still given that the sides of the cabinet and of the cabinets adjacent are 3/4" thick (3/4 x 4 = most of 3 inches to play with. If we had needed to take away so much wood that it compromised support in the middle of a wall, we would have added thin metal strap supports across the wall to make up for it, but no need at all.The sink sits solid as a rock. Are you SURE you don't like the scallop? :) I'm not just suggesting someone ELSE keep a vintage element I wouldn't really have in my own new kitchen. I really would keep it.

You will have to get lots of paint samples and tape them to your walls in different lighting. Computer monitors are not accurate but at least give you an idea of what shades or colors might work. Our last house had lots of maple which I found color seemed to work well with it. I actually had a spice orange on wall in the kitchen, but my counters had some of that rust in it. Your counters don't appear to. I've always been fond of greens with maple, but nothing minty. I also had another wall in the kitchen painted brown, only because I did not want the spice orange/ rust color to get overpowering. I don't think I would have picked chocolate brown for the whole kitchen. Too many walls. Your kitchen area to be painted looks smaller to me and I think a slighter darker contrasting color would look good. I don't like really dark (depends on your lighting though). Tribix's recommendation of Mountain moss looks great. I like some contrast with maple and it has that touch of green I like. Others that caught my eye were 4 ( a little light, but I like the green.) 18, 19, 21- ( I like 18 and 21 but it may be too close to the shade of brown in your tile and too green? 19 seems to match the darker tile. Again the only way to tell for sure would be samples taped together on the wall. Tape about 4 together to get an idea. Also the samples will look very dark against your light colored walls, but not nearly as dark after you paint the whole wall. Be brave! I also like 22, 25 and 26.

Are you determined to paint your cabinets? As Sina says, it's expensive and if you updated your appliances and range hood, added a backsplash, new hardware, undercabinet lighting, and just declutter the cabinet tops and counter, you'd have a new kitchen! Your cabinets harmonize very well with your floor, which is your fourth wall. Your wall paint doesn't quite blend well with the current cabinets or the floor--you need something warmer to tie into the floor in any case. Here's a galley kitchen with birch cabinets in case you decide to spend your budget on updated appliances. Open shelving isn't for everyone, but in galley kitchens they can be very practical--no dueling cabinet doors but only if you have nice dishes, glassware to display and are very organized about them. Below are some other birch cabinet kitchens just for wall color and backsplash. (Plain subway in a warm color that goes with the floor and countertops are a good way to go. Tile has to work with countertop, cabinets, floor--all three or you'll get a mish mash. Take a really close look at your second photo--the closeup of the cabinet, countertop, floor. They all harmonize. Your countertop is very speckled black, so the backsplash should be simple--not too much contrast or pattern. Also add undercabinet lighting.) Here's a palette that could work with stainless hardware. Something you could do now is change out the dated hardware, which should match your appliances--nickel if you go stainless; black if you keep your black appliances. Think about a counter-depth fridge, which works better in a galley kitchen than a deeper on. In the meantime, totally declutte your coutertops and remove all those objects on top of the cabinets to let the soaring ceiling star on its own. Cost? Zero.