Do a search on the kitchen forum. I recall seeing quite a few threads where people who had painted their oak gave step by step details and advice. Good luck!

I'd paint the cabinets and walls. I wouldn't paint the counters. I think islands only look good painted a different color when they're built to look like a separate piece of standing furniture. Not a standard island of that makes sense. Regarding the comment above for solid surface. I have it, like it, and prefer it to the feel and noise of granite but it's not easy peasy maintenance free. It scratches though it can be refinished. My finish is a high gloss but you can have matte and everything in between. I always make sure I use pot holders under cutting boards and mixing bowls. You also can't put anything hot on it. All that stuff quickly became habit (grew up with laminate) and I don't feel like we baby it. It's not for everyone though.

Here's the little square swatch on top of the counter. We definitely aren't afraid of using color or repainting, but cabinets is a lot of work so we will probably just continue the Medici Ivory trim paint over most of the kitchen and reserve a muted olive for the island as an accent only.

Finally our kitchen journey is finished. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, designs and advice. Every comment was reviewed, considered and in many cases incorporated, even when the advice was not to include an element that would not serve the aesthetics or budget for our project. Much appreciated to all. I especially appreciate the time and effort of the professionals in the thread who helped without compensation. Their expertise was invaluable and gave us the econfidence to make choices that helped to push us to the finish line. I wanted to share our final pictures and some of the learnings from the process. 1. Budget is a guideline. Our guideline was 10k, a significant sum for a face lift and sufficient for a basic reface in my area, repainting cabinets, sink and countertop. It didn't allow for all of my wishlist (e.g. extending cabinets, custom rangehood, waterfall countertops, extra large sink and antique brass fittings). Those items required extra budget and some serious negotiation and shopping excursions to support. All in we spend 14K and that included extra cost fo unplanned updates (rewiring for undercabinet lighting, range vent, plumber to replace old plumbing). We also paid twice as much for our counters than we expected. $2700 grew to $5500 but still very reasonable considering our configuration. It meant that my island depth had to be reduced which still bugs me a little but ultimately works better for our floorplan. 2. Sometimes you just can't get a deal on price. I was desperate to find a backsplash that would be timelines, add texture but not break the budget. We were going to go with quartz to match the counters but that was a budget buster. We decided on subway tile but had made spanish tiles that matched out counters exactly. We found the perfect tile but it was 45% higher than our budget so we searched high and low, for weeks but never found an alternative option. We went with that option and have not regretted it for a second, it has an old world feel that works with the rest of our transitional home. 3. Somes reusing something better serves the overall project The floors in our kitchen were my biggest concern. "Lipstick on a pig" came to mind everytime we discussed, picking a cabinet colour, quartz countertops and tiles. We had to find a way to incorporate the existing flooring with a new bright kitchen. I needed to refresh our tile to a standard that would not detract from the new cabinets. This was a journey. We finally decided the biggest impact was to regrout the floor reducing the impact of the patter and lightening the floor overall. I think this labour intensive, cheap exercise ($50 in materials) was our biggest bang for our buck and the most satisfying update to our kitchen. 4. Having a plan will save you heartache and reduce regrettable spends. We poured over thousands of pictures, asked hundred of questions and discussed the project with as many experience people to have a solid picture of what we were trying to achieve. This helped us to know where to spend our dollars effectively. We researched all of the people we worked with and understood the work that would need to be done and we only hired people who understood our vision. 5. Be realistic You can't have everything, everything won't be perfect and sometimes concessions will have to be made unless you have unlimited time, resources and an army of tradesmen who can do anything you can imagine. I learned that the real fun is in the problem solving and thinking outside of the box. It took 6 1/2 months but it was more than we had hoped to achieve within our budget. Project: Update our builder kitchen, making it brighter, in line with the rest of the work we had done on the main floor and reusing as much of the original kitch as we could. 17'X 19' floorplan remained the same. It was dark, crowded outdated and just worn out from 17 years of use. The cabinet had a 10" dust collecting gap, the counters were laminate and in need of repair and we didn't have backsplash. We focused on light, bright updates that were not overtly trendy or specific to 2023 but rather aligned with the transitional design that we have been incorporating throughout the house. We also replaced the lighting to create unobstructed views within the room and out to the backyard. Perfect spot for morning coffee, chatty dinners at the end of the day or a hand of crazy eights with the kids. Is our kitchen magazine perfect? No but neither is the rest of the house but it is beginning to be perfect for us. :-)