My own kitchen is a tribute to golden oak, and I'm inclined to go dark for the counter. It would draw the eye and add definition.

I, too favor the darker counter tops. However, I think it depends on what YOU like. I will be interested to see what you do with your kitchen, as I, too, have a mid-1990's kitchen with oak cabinets (mid- or posibly higher range cabinets,not builder's grade, and no cathedral pattern). I have consistently been wanting dark countertops, but I am reconsidering for two reasons: (1) While I have a strong preference for the dark counters, DH does not share my preference; and (2) I'm worried about everything showing on a dark counter so that it would never look clean and I'd be cleaning it all the time.

We keep putting off when (or if) we will be able to replace our countertops, so I have plenty of time to keep changing my mind. I'll be watching for more updates to see what you finally decide.

We had that "same" kitchen built in 1993 with a light Formica countertop. We did a mini-remodel about 10 years ago and put in Cambria Welshpool Black, new ss appliances, ss hardware, etc. It updated the look enough to bring us to where we are today (ready to knock down a wall and increase the space). So, yes, I think dark countertops will look great with your golden oak cabs especially with all your windows. Looks like you have a lot of light coming in despite facing north.

I really like your space! I would also say dark. Maybe look at some counters with very dark blue (blue pearl) or very dark green like emerald pearl or verde peacock. These read black, but they complement the golden oak tones.

Your kitchen looks pretty fabulous for a "before", it is really nice. The cabinets look brand new and the layout is functional, You may never need to do a gut as far as I can see. But you are the one who works in the space and you may have concerns I can't or didn't see.
For the kitchen long term there are some questions you need to think about before you spend any more money. One is the range. You said replacing it is on the list. You should contemplate its replacments now. Unfortunately for you, you have a 30" drop in range. There are not a lot of options in drop in ranges. Go looking now. A good research assistant is the AJMadison website, great filters, they don't sell all brands, I like looking at Sears' website too. If there is one you like and you can do a simple swap fabulous. If there is not one you want and you are changing from drop in to free standing or slide in you need to know that and plan for it in your work. It's not a crisis or anything, you just need to know before you do a new countertop and possibly backsplash. The other is the hood. Is it currently ducted or ductless. Most people here on GW would insist on a ducted hood. I would. What do you want? If there in not currently ducting putting it in and doing the hood correctly would be where I would spend my money first.
Post some more pictures so we can see the whole sink wall. And for fun, take a look at the "design around this-golden oak" thread. It has lots of mockups of your color cabinets with different color countertops and backsplashes and you might find a color scheme that makes your heart sing. Caveat: some of it is a little snarky as some people don't appreciate golden oak's beauty, appreciate the design efforts and the humor; don't be sensitive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Design around golden oak

Have you ever thought about removing that cabinet that's over the peninsula? I had one so I know it's almost impossible to reach into, especially the upper shelves. Yours opens from the center, which is even worse than mine. You could put up a shelf to hold your baking canisters and put some artwork over it. It'd open the space up between your windows, and the pendant lights would look prettier without the heavy oak looming near them.

This post was edited by may_flowers on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 9:26

We too have oak from the late 90's and just did a remodel. We put in a quartz with black, grey, and beigy tones that really goes well with the oak. We changed the hardware to brushed nickel, ss apliances and took down wallpaper and painted the room a warm tone. What a difference it made.

Thanks all, now I'm more comfortable with the dark. Now I just need to pick a material.
@localeater: I do plan to replace the range with a regular slide-in- so I would plan and coordinate that with the countertop fabrication. The reason I mentioned separate budgets is more of a mental thing for me.
@Mayflowers: I never thought of removing the cabinet. The problem is, I'm short on cabinet space as it is. I have too much stuff--it takes over the pantry, the hall closet. One pan and pot for every purpose. But I do like the shelf idea. And I was thinking the lighting needed to be pendants.
@BellsMom- Thanks for the PS. I've added he "strap" hardware I've seen here a few times in ORB.

Here is a link that might be useful: Liberty Venue

oh! On the range hood- it's ducted and top vented and then goes about 1 foot and 90 degrees outside. Thankfully, that one won't be an issue to replace-- I'm just thinking a new under cabinet model with a bit more power. I think with the position of the vent, a chimney type hood isn't in the cards unless I want to cut another hole in the wall up higher- and I don't think I can do that because of some house layout issues.

I had the experience last weekend of searing pork tenderloin with that old one on, and my whole house was full of smoke.

This post was edited by julieboulangerie on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 11:34

I just had to edit this because I was looking at someone else's photo! But maybe it pertains to your refrigerator too. :)

You could gain some deep storage by replacing the over-fridge cabinet with a deeper one. It looks like you have a counter-depth fridge, so it would be accessible. Mine has my Bundt, angel food, and springform pans, a set of big SS bowls, an ice cream maker, steamer, yogurt maker, paper towels, and who knows what else, with room to spare. There's an adjustable shelf, but some people do vertical dividers for cookie sheets and tray storage. Or you can do half vertical/half horizontal storage if the cabinet has a center stile. I would definitely consider adding over-fridge storage since you might have to live 10 more years with your kitchen.

The lumber company in town stocks oak cabinets like yours and they are inexpensive, so you might call around. Your crown molding looks easy to pop off and re-attach or easy enough to replace if it gets damaged.

This post was edited by may_flowers on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 11:43

How about having the taller cabinets on either side of the range cut for glass? The glass can be frosted or obscure, and it would cut down on the amount of oak. Pretty kitchen.

Here is a photo of the whole thing today- I realize I did a poor job of showing the progression. The pinky-beige paint was from the previous owner. I did the green behind the range, but only because I didn't like the awful color and didn't have time to really do paint in the rest of the room (including the family room).

And here is the fridge- opposite the sink.

Good news about the vent! What's the door to the left of the fridge?

I do like the green better than the pinky beige!

I agree that dark looks good--but Nance's speckledy counter is really nice. The counter is probably a good place to start. Go to a stone yard, get samples of stuff you like, and see how it impacts paint choices.

(And double yes to getting the stove particulars worked out before doing a counter. Shouldn't be a big deal, but it's an extra step that has to go first.)

As for storage are you using all your cabinets efficently? perhaps adding roll out shelves etc.

The door to the left of the fridge is a pantry/crawlspace access.

And perpendicular to that (to the right of the range) is a pocket door to the dining room. It's usually closed to keep the dog (His name is Charlie) contained:

I looked at roll-out shelves (Rev-A-Shelf) and actually bought one a couple of months ago. I realized that because the cabinets are framed, I could only get a size that didn't maximize space. In addition, the shelves in the lower cabinets seem to be mounted from outside the cabinet boxes- there are no pegs/holes to move the shelves up or down. Installing those babies would be possible, but it would require some finesse- a drill won't fit. But I guess I would still have to decide if the roll out shelves maximized more space with less footprint than the current arrangement.

A few weeks ago, I did undertake an organizational project, and bought a few items at the container store- spice rack and some vertical organizers. It seemed to help in the corner cabinets to avoid the stacked pans and the banging associated with pulling them out.

This post was edited by julieboulangerie on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 13:19

Julie

As you repurpose and rearrange your kitchen, you will have many opportunities to maximize storage.
When you replace the countertops, while the tops of the corner cabs are open, you can probably also put in corner super susans or which ever other kind of base cabinet corner storage you like. (There are some seriously neat ones that have drawers and rotating shelves.)

You may only be able to put one on the top shelf, but even that will be a huge improvement. If you get that top shelf out (which I think you can), you can put in two.

Be certain to obtain the very largest size that will fit inside your cabinet. Often contractors put in susans that are inches smaller than they could be.

Here is an image of my corner susans.

Because they are about three inches smaller in diameter than they should be (GRRR), I have room alongside them to store cookie sheets and the like, which freed up a whole cabinet that used to contain cookie sheets. (In the top photo, the cookie sheets are pulled out to show them better. Normally they are invisible.) Inside, on the two shelves are a big stand mixer, SousVide Supreme, blender, vacuum sealer, Nesco roaster, waffle maker, all sorts of big awkward stuff that is immediately accessible with a roll of the susan. NO waste space, which I abhor.

Here the cookie sheets are pushed back and the susans rotated to show the easy access to everything.

This is an improvement you need to think about before you do the countertop, since you can ONLY install susans when the top is off. Otherwise it is the black hole forever.

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Sun, Feb 3, 13 at 14:48

Because we took our entire kitchen apart and had to relocate everything for the duration, I took the opportunity to re-evaluate the contents of our kitchen. What gets used once a year at best (not including the Thanksgiving stuff)? Do you really need it? What do you have more of than you need? I kept 2 small saucepans, 2 medium sauce pans, and added 1 larger saucepan in addition to several chili pot size that do get used regularly. Duplicates and rarely used saucepans went bye-bye. Actually I did that to most of the kitchen, although not perfectly. I kept the cookie cutters on the theory that once day my grandchildren will want to help make cookies, but I did let the waffle iron go.

Slimming down the contents makes your whole kitchen work better. It's actually quite liberating.

Here is the whole sink wall. - it's pretty much a corner cabinet on each side (the one one the peninsula side has a "back door" access on the other side), the sink, and the dishwasher. The disk rack is ugly, but functional... I hate drying with a towel.

I had to close the blind to get the light to work out. I've only closed the blind twice since I've been here.

Bellsmom- thanks for the detailed photos. I'll have to get out my geometry knowledge with pi.... don't get to use that much around the house!

Bellsmom- thanks for the detailed photos. I'll have to get out my geometry knowledge with pi.... don't get to use that much around the house!

Yup. Got a slide rule?

Or you can just masking tape together newspaper to make patterns.

Easy as pi(e) . . . . .3.14159. . . . Ummmm????

Newspapers and masking tape are definitely easier.

Well, no counter top yet, but I did purchase an Electrolux Slide In Induction range and a Broan hood (350 CFM). Counter will be in about 5-6 months, depending on when I have more time to select a fabricator/installer, to select a stone, and to supervise a project.

Details on converting from a drop-in to a slide-in range for anyone that's interested:
The installers had the drop-in out in a matter of seconds. They cut the laminate counter with a special blade on the saw that actually didn't create any chips- duct tape was also involved for a cutting line and to prevent chips. The drop-in sat on a box at the bottom of the cabinet, and that was removed too with the famous Sawzall. The sides of the cabinets also needed to be slightly cut. The installer also wired in a plug on the circuit.

As for the hood, I was surprised with the age of the old one (17 years) that no grease was dripping down from the ducting. It actually looked pretty clean. Either no one had really used it in the past, or that old filter, as ineffective as the fan was, prevented grease from entering the duct.

It isn't so wide in real life! Regular 30 inches. Picasa won't let me do a vertical photo very well.

This post was edited by julieboulangerie on Sat, Feb 16, 13 at 21:39

oooooooooo.

If a range could be sexy, it would look like that.

I'm looking at the same range hood - as much for the 4 lights as the exhaust flow!

The range hood is huge compared to the prior one- now I can barely reach into the cabinet above it (I'm 5'7"). It's also the most CFM I can install in Oregon without doing make up air--if not for the gas fireplace in the same area, something bigger could have been had!. And this one was a bargain, almost.

The four dimmable (3 setting) lights nearly solve the the lighting problem on that side of the kitchen. I'm still going to put in undercabinet lighting, but it's less of a "do right now" thing after the hood install.

In other words, it's the equipment that meets the needs of the house, and the market I'm in, and meets most of my needs without a fire-breathing dragon gas range :)

I don't know if you saw this link, but I think it's a really cute re-do that someone posted. Similiar to your kitchen.

Also, since you plan on eventually changing more with your kitchen, I would look at laminate. There are really nice laminates now, and very durable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cute oak redo

This post was edited by jansin62 on Sun, Feb 17, 13 at 8:47

@jansin62- it is cute! I love the look of blue cabinets with wood counters.

I don't think the look fits in my house, but she had some great budget ideas that I might need to consider further!

Do NOT do stone if a more extensive renovation is in your future. You'd be wasting your money. No fabricator will remove granite from existing cabinets and guarantee that it can be reused on new ones. And you probably want to tweak your layout in the larger redo. You may want to do an island instead of a peninsula. Or, at the very least, you may want to move the sink over so you can get the DW out of the middle of your prep zone and two people can work at cleanup and prep simultaneously.

Put in a pretty and inexpensive laminate. And put the dollars saved towards the eventual more massive redo.

Stove and new hood look great. You will love the induction. Congratulations.
And the new strap hardware is a very good addition also.
You are making progress.

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Sun, Feb 17, 13 at 14:46

Just found this link below on updating kitchen without painting cabinets. Looks pretty amazing.

Here is a link that might be useful: update golden oak kitchen

I hated my 90's golden oak orangey kitchen so I painted my cabinets a grayish color - BM's cumulus cloud. My DH installed the backsplash and I went out a picked a busy granite (ivory sukuri) to pull attention away from the cabinets. We also upgraded the appliances.

I'm very happy with the outcome. Of course, it was a lot of work and took 4 months.

Here is a link that might be useful: more picture of kitchen remodel

That is fabulous!!! OMG, it looks like it should be in a magazine. You and DH did a great job. I love it and wow what a difference! Great choices, great result, I love your granite with all of your choices. You have great taste! Good job Mrs. Shayne!

I've been lurking these forums for some time. The kitchen by julieboulangerie is almost identical to my own. My layout is adequate for my smaller space and the cabinets function fine. I hate my countertop, sink and stove so plan on an upgrade there. I have a hard time ripping out perfectly good cabinets simply because I don't like the style, even though they are 15 years old.

I had decided on granite (a black pearl) until I read these last few posts about laminate. Now I wonder if I should just settle for a nice laminate, new stainless sink (apron?) and range since the cabinets are dated?? Or should I choose granite now and paint the cabinets if we want a new look later? Can a wood/butcher block counter (would have to paint cabinets now) be re-used on new cabinets later? My quandary is about "settling", resale value (no immediate plans to sell), and knowing a total redo is long in coming, especially if we partially upgrade now. We have a lot of home improvement dreams so would like to stretch every dollar!

I hope this is not simply repeating others' questions, but I guess I'm just looking for some clarity of thought from those with a lot of experience. I've never done this before and feel it's an enormous decision!

mommaross, those are exactly the things I am struggling with. Right now, I went for the easy stuff, and I've put off the decision about new counters. I think in the next 6 months, we'll do the electrical work- under cabinet lights and something over the peninsula. Counters will come as well, although I am undecided on the material and budget.

This certainly isn't my dream or forever house, and that makes the decision harder. But I want to live here and enjoy it in the meantime. I just need to figure out what that means!

Just wanted to echo some of the votes for dark counters. Our neighbors have similar cabinets and recently did a mini makeover with dark granite cabinets similar to the quartz pictured. They also replaced the hardware and put in a neutral tile backsplash. It looks like a brand new kitchen. Your eyes are definitely drawn more to the counters, as someone previously mentioned.

Still think the makeover (without painting cabinets) linked below is pretty cool. They added molding and a new backsplash. There's a tutorial on how to do the molding:

Here is a link that might be useful: updating golden oak kitchen

I am definitely going with the dark countertop. And we have a lovely crown molding around the top with hidden lighting above and below the cabinets. We want to add the breakfast bar like in julieboulangerie's peninsula with a desk/storage on the wall behind. It's a nice, small kitchen except the previous owner skimped on the cabinets! I guess they had to meet their budget, as we all must!

My DH is hesitant to put real money into countertops because, in his opinion, it's like "supe-ing" up a cheap, run- down car. You still have ugly, cheap cabinets. And, like julieboulangerie said, this is not my dream or forever house, I hope! So I have resale in mind. I hate the fact that I couldn't re-use granite. Any other countertop options that could possibly be reused if/when the cabinets were replaced? Is that possible?

Another idea is to replace the upper cabinet doors. They have the rounded cathedral style carving. I'd want it square, even with frosted glass. That might make a difference! Lots of ideas going here, sorry!

Update:
New faucet (Delta) after the other one decided to stop sending water out of the pull out wand. I am guessing some particulates were stuck somewhere in there, and it was cheap-looking.
Here is the new one:

And I painted the kitchen and adjoining family room BM Bennington Gray- love that it's tan-gray-green. The "backsplash" is BM Barista. I decided to visit with a paint color consultant-- she was amazing at helping me out of color picking paralysis and stupor. I tried every cream, yellow, and green-y color I could think of, but she helped me pick out four real possibilities and then everything came together.

Https://vimeo.com/user12732009/videos
Use this link to see my before and after (third and fourth videos). My cabinets were 25 years old. I stained them in less than a week. It was so easy and I already had the stain.

After seeing some recent threads about budget, I thought I would update this again.

I had some help adding over and under-cabinet lighting. We used the Armacost LED tape light-- about $100 for the tape, transformer and other supplies. One 12 ft length was enough to do the top of the cabinets, and the lower right side in this photo. It was about a two hour job including the trip to Home Depot. The prep work of scrubbing the top of the cabinets was the worst-- otherwise the strip of lights wouldn't adhere. I didn't bother cleaning up there when I moved in, and apparently the previous owners never cleaned it either It took four Mr. Clean Magic Erasers to remove the grease. I learned that it should probably be cleaned more often.

I also fabricated a Roman Shade- the window was so wide the 54 inch home dec. fabric still wasn't wide enough. It was a learning experience from multiple angles, and it works for now. I'll probably be doing a new one at some point with my new-found knowledge of operating window treatments.

This post was edited by julieboulangerie on Sat, Jan 11, 14 at 14:52

Wow, I love that BS paint color. What is it? And the blind looks great. Amazing what a difference these relatively small changes make.

The back splash is Benjamin Moore Barista from the Affinity line. It's a lovely rich brown, sometimes it has a bit of a purple look. The other plus was the paint in the can looked like melted chocolate. (Oh the small pleasures!)

I absolutely love it in the small dose!