I would envision this house with white trim on the window surrounds and baseboards, and then would choose a light, grayed neutral for the walls. This way you have great freedom with your art and furnishings and can make this an eclectic space where the pieces your husband loves will just be an interesting part of the whole, rather than a main future. Your wood floor and beautiful rug are a great start and I think this house could be made interesting and exciting with large, colorful pieces of art and great furniture and accessories. The colors you've posted can be iffy with the traditional furniture and don't really provide the neutral background that I'm thinking of. Michael J. Smith (the future White House decorator) has very good examples of this approach in his book "Elements of Style". He keeps his wall colors very subtle and classy and goes on from there to make dramatic and wonderful rooms. I think your house has great potential. I sense you're not in love with the colors you've chosen. My choice would be a light, grayed-cream color that will look contemporary and will never be dated and then really express yourself with the style you love. I suspect the elements you don't care for will provide an interesting counterpoint and will no longer take center stage.

From what I can see in your pictures, I would keep what you currently have as a backsplash and paint the strip over the top of your cabinets to blend in. Your kitchen looks fine if you are going to sell. Just keep it all clean a simple. SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR YOURSELF :-) I had just renovated my kitchen in my previous home...new white glass-front cabinets, beautiful gray tiles on the counter and backsplash, new gray retro vinyl floor tiles. My kitchen was a diner style with a great old Wedgewood stove and new white appliances. I ended up selling which wasn't the plan. I had renovated the bathrooms, new roof, new closet doors...all required to sell and my home sold in one weekend. When I went back to visit my old next door neighbor, he said the first thing the new residents did was rip out the kitchen and they threw those new cabinets in the trash....PEOPLE ARE ODD!!! Moral of the story, don't spend to sell, keep it clean, do just the basics and save your money. Your kitchen is really nice looking and the new appliances are certainly a strong selling point.

I would not spend that kind of money on old cabinets with worn spots. Start from the beginning and get a KD in there. You may have to save and wait to do what you want, but what you're suggesting is "lipstick on a pig". Sorry to be so brutal but we've seen this happen SO many times on GW, and 2 years later, owner is wondering if she can reuse her very expensive countertops. The answer is usually "probably not".

If the floors nearby are real hardwood, you can absolutely continue that into the kitchen. The only issue is that the floors are fairly dark, and combined with the cabinets will be a lot of dark wood, unless you're open to resanding and staining everywhere. But you could get a nice flow that way. If you're keeping the counters and cabinets, I would use a very neutral, solid, warm white or cream backsplash tile. You can look for a new floor tile in a larger rectangular format in a taupe color that is warm enough to work with the countertops. It needs to be a stone look and not a wood grain since it is up against your hardwood. If the floor tiles are neutral enough, they will still work if you change the countertop sometime in the future. You might want to get an estimate for new countertops and back splash, and another for new backsplash and tile floors, and another for continuing the hardwood and backsplash, so you can make the best decision about the direction you want to go and what your result will be. I would disregard your wall color when choosing your options since that is an easy and inexpensive thing to change, and focus on the more permanent items.