Oh, and in case it wasn't clear from my earlier post, I don't think you should discount soapstone at all--I would use it again in the right setting. I just wouldn't use *our* particular soapstone. We didn't get samples and test, and we should have (it was at the top of our budget so we just went with the cheapest stone they had--mistake!) I remember someone here, Marcolo I think, getting samples a few months after ours went in and commenting that our stone looked like Ray Liotta after the testing. ;) But I do still love it for the reasons we chose it, so I would look for a harder soapstone that had those great qualities with fewer of the downsides. All soapstone will show some wear, but usually it's more like a patina, and many can be oiled or sanded to hide this if you want. I don't think most people have the issue with the edges gouging and breaking down like we do. A few random thoughts, too--our sink cabinet was much the same as yours. In our before pics you can see one door completely missing--it wouldn't close so we finally just took it off! Our sink run had been built in a later remodel (using, we think, parts of the original cabinets) because the original sinks of that era were freestanding behemoths (beautiful, but rarely kept in remodels in the 30s-50s sadly) so it was common for those cabinets to be remodeled even if others were kept. Ours were very poor condition (only mediocre quality to start, and many years old with water leaks and such to boot) and could not be salvaged. They were also three-sided built-in-place (very common in that era) which limited how easily we could reuse or adapt them. And I love love love tile counters, but we got it priced out and it was well above the cost of any stone options to have it done well (critical for it to be level--while we were fine doing our backsplash ourselves, we were not confident in our ability to get a perfectly level surface on the counter) using epoxy grout (which local places said was the solution to icky grout, something we wanted to avoid--dunno what the thinking on this is these days, as this was three years ago). If you have strong DIY tile skills, maybe an option, but otherwise, it's probably not worth the cost. And last (sorry for the length!) two thoughts on drawers: yes, they can add runners if you want (may need to replace the boxes though depending on drawers), but beeswax did wonders for ours! Try that first for sure. We did find that it was less costly to remodel the areas where we did not open walls beyond electrical, so I think if you can divide the kitchen by walls, it would be feasible to keep the Hoosier and drawers but gut the other areas. However, we also had and were keeping plaster walls--drywall is a lot cheaper so then it might make more sense to go down to the studs and just put up new wall. It may also affect code requirements, too. Where we did not open walls, our existing wiring was grandfathered in (except for counters, since cabinets/counters were new). That did save us some money too.

I currently have creamy white upper cabinets ,two 36"wide uppers have glass doors on either side of my corner sink. ( (Yes I love my corner sink) The lowers are dark stained birch. I have creamy white travertine look porcelain floor tile and St Cecilia granite which has a lot of orangish flecks so I painted my BS pumpkin. I did this house as a flip; we're living in it while we build The House. I picked the two color cabinets because the kitchen has two north facing windows and needed light, and it's smallish at 12X16. I wanted a white kitchen but couldn't convince my DH so we compromised. White on top, stained on bottom. Funny thing is everyone who comes here loves this kitchen! From friends and family to strangers who step in the door, to the plumber to the appliance repairman. All comment positively. So I'm doing a combo in the new house.

Your door style is arched, so I'd go with a squarer design at the bottom. You can get the same basic door design in the squared version. I had this combo in a previous home. The cabs were chosen by the the builder's design center. The pictures I have of the kitchen were too far away to see, but I noticed the landing/desk area had the same configuration: Try greens that are a bit deeper than your granite color. I don't have suggestions as granite can vary. If you have a sample that closely resembles your slab, take that in to the paint chip aisle and grab a several you like. I do have a suggestion for your bases though, go with frameless lower bases with drawers. You'll get a ton more usuable space versus framed cabinetry. And drawers are much more efficient and easy to use as opposed to cabinets. It's ok if it doesn't match. I have a Sunset Kitchen book where a kitchen designer talks about how they did framed uppers as they were more traditional (it was an older house, 1920's I think) and it's uppers that the eye sees. Apparently, we don't notice lowers as much. Unless, of course, your TKO'd - Totally Kitchen Obsessed, then you notice EVERYTHING.

“we really like the modern European style but that seems to be the most expensive.” Nope. There are Ikea cabinets. Reasonably priced. If you don’t want to put them together yourself, you can hire a contractor to do it. Also, the two photos you posted are not “the modern European style”. They seem rather traditional to me. Before investing in changing things in your kitchen, pin down more what style you really like. As has been mentioned already, your current cabinets have the dated arch design. They also don’t reach the ceiling. Painting them won’t change that, and I think you’ll be disappointed in the result. You don’t mention budget. If you have the funds, change out the whole kitchen for a new kitchen that is in line with the dream kitchen you want for your house. I am guesstimating - assuming you don’t make structural changes like taking down walls - it will cost $30-40k if you make middle-of-the-road choices. If you don’t want an entire re-do, I’ll repeat what others have said - change the counters, backsplash, and switch out the black-hole appliances for gleaming, reflective stainless steel ones. When you change the counters, you’ll want to replace the sink with a more current one, and remove the little tree line of sink fixtures you have there for a single-handle integrated-spray faucet.