Les is right. Our house is an 11 year old Lennar spec home. Although the house was not built well, the cabinets are in very good shape and we're only planning on staying here another 7 years. We are going to build our next house so we can make sure it really has everything we want. I don't want to change the complete look of my kitchen because I want it to flow with the rest of the house. I originally wanted white cabinets but when he came into the house he looked at my kitchen and said he would paint them oatmeal with a glaze. I didn't and still don't know what that color is and what it will look like. I order every piece of free literature on houses for my design book when we build so I know what I want going in. I just happened to be looking at the catalog and saw oatmeal glaze and I don't know that I like it with the colors I have in my kitchen. I searched for oatmeal cabinet colors last night on the forum just so I have an idea of what it is going to look like but I didn't have any luck. If anyone has cabinets that are painted oatmeal with glazing, may I see a picture please?

bbstx, thank you so much for the tips. I have some other remodeling to be done by contractors. These days, I have been busy buying lights and materials for bathroom remodeling. Sorry for my late response. For the kitchen cabinets, I will paint them myself. screedesq, thank you very much for sharing your experience, which is very helpful. I'll use the Benjamin Moore Advance Simply White Semi Gloss. For the primer, I'll use Sherwin Williams PrepRiteProBlock latex primer. The sales lady recommended SW premium wall wood primer. But according to bbstx's referred post, the former should be better. I have the external hinge of bronze color. Did you have the same? Did you change them to stainless steel? I don't know if it would be a good idea to change them to internal hinge and if it would be an easy job. Did it take you a lot of time to degloss and sand the cabinets? Did you use a rotary orbital sander to do the job? The contractor who is going to remodel my house suggested Rust-Oleum Transformations. I doubt it would produce the same good result as SW preprite problock latex primer + BM advance? Really appreciate your help.

As you can tell from the previous posts, there's more than one way to plan your attack. I prefer to have everything selected in advance but it didn't work out that way this time. I think the floor selection should be decided early on. I prefer the floor to go down before the cabs are installed (have done both ways). I went with the cork flooring; despite the zillions of stain choices, we came up with our own color and to be honest, it's dark, you can only tell its cork when looking closely. The cork works for our old bones; my neighbor with toddlers also interested in product. I got the soapstone countertops I wanted, but the color wasn't exactly as I had envisioned. I really liked the soapstone that caught my eye, so I'm re-thinking other previous decisions (backsplash tile, etc). Maybe I'm the only one who has a hard time making 'permanent' decisions and changing my mind is common. ;-). Treb's advice sounds so logical, I just couldn't get it to work in my project ;-). For example, wall paint color sounds like a great idea to hold off till near the end. Unfortunately my contractor painted fairly early on in his process (before cab install). Lighting is critical and should be considered for nearly every item going into kitchen. Once the lighting changes were made during early structural stage, I bought several bulbs with diff color tones to see which worked best with the limited natural light, etc. etc. Everything I viewed for the kitchen was done under the lighting tones. I guess I'm just trying to say, whichever early decisions you make, be open to changes of other decisions down the road. Being flexible is key. You're at an exciting stage right now...enjoy it all. Good luck.

Just sharing some inspiration (I hope). These first two links are red brick examples, but I think can still apply to orange tones: https://thecolorconcierge.com/color-palettes-red-brick/ https://thecolorconcierge.com/best-exterior-paint-colors-red-brick-homes/ Color ideas: https://www.younghouselove.com/frans-color-conundrum/ A nice green: Darker: There are so many options that could look great. I’m not a fan of painted or limewashed brick except in rare cases, but if you go that route I’d hire a pro for it.