The first and least expensive thing you need to do to lighten up the kitchen is to repaint it going a shade or two lighter of the same color paint. It looks like you've painted the greatroom and kitchen with the same paint but because the kitchen doesn't get a much light as the great room, using a lighter shade in the darker room will help fool the eye into thinking the rooms are more equally lighted. Next, and this may be a totally crazy idea but... It looks like you've got tons of natural light in the adjoining great room so I was wondering what you could do to borrow some of that light. Your arches and columns, combined with the dark wood (especially the dark ceiling beams) in your kitchen, plus the dark metal scrollwork on your lighting fixtures AND the fact that you have steps going up from the great room into the kitchen put me very much in mind of the "gothic cathedrals" in Europe. And that led to this idea. How about adding a "rose window" effect above the central archway leading between great room and kitchen to let more light into the kitchen. Attached is a link to an image of a rose window over an arched opening leading from the nave to the high alter of a cathedral that will give you a better idea of what is inspiring my idea. Basically, I think this would mean cutting a large round hole (like a round window) in the wall above the central archway and then inserting metal scrollwork to give the impression of a rose window. This would doubtless require a bit of reframing but it would cost a lot less than trying to add additional windows on the exterior kitchen wall. And, extra light from your greatroom would pass through the hole into your kitchen. Then, to make the rose window look like it was part of the original plan, you could find (or have made) some similar but smaller pieces of gothic scrollwork to hang over the archways leading to your front door and over the niche on the wall opposite the kitchen. Add a metal scrollwork quadrifoil design to the front of your hood (that smaller 4-leaf clover shaped window you see at the very back on the inspiration picture is a quadrifoil) and your stove very subtly become the "high alter" of your home. LOL! I'm also thinking that if you eventually find the western sun creates too much glare, you could hang stained glass in the kitchen windows instead of curtaining or shading them - which of course would add to the gothic cathedral impression. Anyway, I know its a crazy idea but sometimes you it helps to think outside the box. Here is a link that might be useful:

I second the recommendations from AnnieDeighnaugh. Basements can be tricky to illuminate, so a variety of sources, on dimmers, is essential. Our basement (approximately 750 sq. ft. finished) contains 18 cannisters (never more than 3 on a single dimmer for easy adjustment and so as not to overload a dimmer), 4 pendants above a 9 foot bar, 2 sconces in the TV area, a swag lamp above a pub table plus 4 switched outlets permitting varied placement of table lamps. There are several puck lights near the bar too. All were purchased at local lighting stores or home centers. Though we don't have a pool table, a switched outlet for someone to connect and hang a light above one was installed in the ceiling. I know that may sound like lots of light but we use the space for everything from gift wrapping to painting with its primary purpose as entertaining. We've also used various colors to differentiate areas so some light is absorbed by the darker colors. Sorry, no photos presently as the site I posted them to has gone down. Hope this helps. Good luck and Happy New Year.

My experience is with stained cabs but since DH and I are likely going to have a painted island and hutch, I've been doing some research into painted cab durability. I will admit to being hesitant, too, so it's great that you started this thread and that so many have responded. I hope you won't mind that I'm adding a question of my own. To owners of painted cabs: If your painted cabs are not factory painted - built and painted by local custom cab maker or built and painted in a paint booth or on site by your GC's painters - I'd love to know what kind of paint was used. TIA! kali2024, my neighbor has white cabs, nearly 20 yrs old. They are the 3rd owners, second owners with small children. And her twin boys are very hard on things. (They are also very curious, nearly ruined the vacuum because they wanted to see what happened when you vacuum yogurt! They crack me up but I'm glad they aren't mine!) Anyhoo, I noticed that despite the cab age and kid thing, only one cab in her kitchen has any visible damage. The drawer in the cab next to the sink has 2 small chips along the top edge. I don't know when these chips occurred or how they happened. For all I know, the chips happened when the POs had the 4x4 white tile counters replaced with 24 x 24 tile counters (the tile edge is quite deep). The builder didn't use any large, name brand cab company (he built our house, too), just a local cab maker. The cabs were likely painted on site by the builder's painters (that's how they painted all the woodwork in our homes). It was oil base paint because that's what they used 20 years ago. Paint needs time to cure before it's as durable as possible. Cure time will depend on how your cabs are painted: factory finished, sprayed in a paint booth by local painter or cab maker or painted on site. So treat them with care while they continue to cure on site (that can take up to 30 days from what I've read).

Yes, as soon as I saw the word shaker I thought "oh oh". That may not give you the look that you want. However, slab doors on top would help and something I have wondered about is whether or not the width of the rails/stiles would define transitional vs contemporary look. You may not have a choice of course but I seem to remember reading that wider rail/stile is more contemporary. However, that may have just been someones opinion. Can you do a waterfall installation of the granite - that for me reads more modern/contemporary as well. : link showing examples And yes, hardware, lighting and barstools can really pull the look into contemporary.