I'd see if someone could take a sample of your type of granite and hone it before you commit to that, as I have Googled and don't see a single example anywhere of Volga Blue done in anything but a polished finish. It may be a stone that looks very different honed. When you say build new cabinets and take them all the way to the ceiling, do you mean that he'd just remove the crown molding that you have now, add a board to the top to take it to the ceiling and then put the crown back, or add new crown? I ask, because the second is possible and far less expensive. I have a 1937 cape cod, that had 24" of counter top when I bought the house. In the early 90's, I had it re-done, and keep that date in mind when you see this! :-) My cabinets ended about 4" from the ceiling. I had mine painted last winter and they added pine to bring the upper cabs to the ceiling and then added new crown, and painted everything. See second pic, below. It's a different wall, and before the room was finished, but see what I mean? You'd never know they weren't installed like that.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I need to stop over and get better pics. Were moving into the house but aren't going to do anything to the cabinets so I'm really looking for accessory suggestions on how to distract and have a more updated feel. We are changing the counter tops but they not in. Were going with a lighter cream or white granite with darker veins. The floor is a very light tan. Basically I'm imagining my kitchen will look like a traditional kitchen ppl usually do in a flip home. I don't want that but can't really change anything aside from accessories and other furniture that might give the room a more updated feel. As mentioned the walls are Parisian taupe. I feel like it's going to just be too yellow/tan feeling in the end. What kind of light fixtures, kitchen tables, colors, rugs, etc would help update honey oak cathedral cabinets with a lighter granite counter top and light tiled floor with Parisian taupe walls for example I found these ideas on Pinterest.

Please disregard the question, I was able to get the information I was looking for in another discussion :-) Wish there was a delete option.

@sheloveslayouts If you just use a lumens/sf calculation for general ambient lighting and stop there, the shortcomings become evident in a kitchen. Let's say you have a common 15'x20' kitchen, where 8'x15' of that is carved out for a Breakfast table. We'll use 30fc (footcandles) that IES calls for kitchen sink and stove. 300sf x 30fc = 9000 lumens If you choose a 6" recessed can @1200 lumens = 8 cans. In order to achieve the sustained 30fc of your calculation, the lights have to be evenly spread in a grid. So in a 15'x20' space that means 2 rows with 5' between fixtures one way, 4' the other. But that places the fixtures in the aisles, where you shadow counters when tasking, doesn't line up with appropriate task centers (e.g. sink, ref, center of 36" wide upper cabinet, etc), and does not center over the breakfast table on one side of the room. Also, IEC wants 50fc for kitchen prep counters, 20fc for Dining, and 5fc for floors. The straight calculation of 30fc didn't account for those varied numbers. So to alleviate those discrepancies, you move those cans closer to the counters and center one over the table. But now you've created hot spots on cabinets and uneven lighting across the space from such a high-lumen fixture. Fine, so you move down to a 600 lumen fixture, which calculates to 15 total cans. Even more hot spots with overlapping throws and then lighting up the open floor. It just seems like the tail is wagging the dog. And we're not even getting into reflectivity (light loss factor), or that the mass of cabinets take up part of the sf in the equation, but still need some light between the massing (the counters). The biggest fail though, is lumens/sf alone doesn't address the most prominent feature in good residential lighting - mood and drama. When you think about lighting in a house, it is first task-oriented to a specific spot: light the vanity counter and your face; light the shower; light the book you are reading on the couch or bed, light the kitchen counter and island. Then accent things: the fireplace; a window seat; an art wall. You are not as concerned with lighting the floor in front of the couch; or the spot you stand in front of a vanity; or the between-cabinet aisles in a kitchen; or the footboard of a bed. And since there are many doorways, windows, furnishings, and wall or ceiling jogs that affect those tasks, lighting can be influenced by the aesthetics of placement and the fixture style. This slight push/pull between function and aesthetics should not affect overall lighting, especially when lighting is layered - overhead, table set, wall mount, cabinet mount (above and below). However, you don't need to ditch lumens/sf for ambient lighting. In the old days, we did it in a non-scientific way: if a closet ceiling light wasn't bright enough to tell black from navy, you would switch the 60W 'bulb' to a 75W. Or if the bedroom central ceiling light seemed too harsh late at night, from 100W down to 60W. So the benefits of using lumen/sf is best illustrated in an example of a classroom or office building. If you have a 600sf room flexible for multiple desk arrangements, or 3000sf of general cubicles, then you can calculate total lumens on 40fc and get close to the number of fixtures and zero in on whether the spec of the fixture you chose is sufficient. But, you still have to verify the task lighting is acceptable by performing a photometric for footcandles at 30" desk height. And yet even after all that, at the end you adjust fixture locations based on hotspots from walls or coordinating with HVAC diffusers, footcandles be damned. So, even here when you appropriately start with a simple equation, task lighting still comes first, and aesthetics play a huge part. One thing to take away from the class/office example is those are large, open, flexible spaces with diffused lighting levels. But as the IEC footcandle guide notes, a residential Kitchen is varied in it's tasks. The island may serve both prep and dining. You may need 80fc as opposed to 30fc as you age. And, you are not worried about diffusing the light across open space, because I can say with certainty there's not going to be any space that is not taken up by cabinets, tables, something that has a function with a task lighting need. Bring in other attributes of a Kitchen, like the drama a hanging light provides lighting up a flower arrangement in the center of a table, and sticking to lumens/sf hinders your thinking. So what I find in residential lighting is it falls more on the creativity spectrum than engineering calcs (hence they are named lighting designers, you want a lighting engineer for precise stage lighting) - focus on the tasks - and ambient kind of falls into place. But you can back check with lumens/sf or use it to help in fixture selection. Sure, curveballs with high ceilings, soffits, vaults, galley layouts, and high-end cabinets, but for the most part residential lighting is a simple monster.