Having just finished my 1939 remodel, and having had the dark cherry cabinets in a dark little kitchen at the back of the house--I think your instincts are probably right regarding a lighter counter. I love soapstone and am happy after 11 years of living here to have opened up the kitchen so I can have it--
but my backup plan was one of the higher end Corian lines (their private collection) Check out the "Clam Shell" color or the "Burled Beach" colors--they both looked really nice with my original darker cabinets.

With that said, if you want to play up vintage, Corian probably won't help you with that. You'd be better off with Formica, a honed stone, or even wood, marble or soapstone.

Can you post any pictures, sugarski? That would be very helpful.

I also have older cherry cabinets and have decided to keep them and work around them. It is going to save me a bundle and the footprint of the room works well for me now. Granted, they aren't 'todays' style, but I, like you, like the wood and the fact that they are original to the house.

Would love to see your kitchen as it sits now! : )

Sandy

Thanks, both of you! I will work on posting pictures. Not exactly sure how but will try to do that today.

How much do you want to spend?
I have a suggestion that I know a lady who has a cottage house: she put Vermont Danby Marble: Calacatta. (MUST SEAL VERY WELL)
She installed a farm sink: white and subway tiles: white glazed ceramic tiles on the splash. Running Bond pattern on the splash. (floors: not sure). Looked clean & fresh: vintage cottage-feel. Will brighten up your kitchen!

I would keep your wood cabinets natural: you could put lemon oil on the scratches: (maybe that is wrong: but I do that to my real wood and it works on scratches!)

Just my suggestion

OK, try this... I hope it works!
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii156/sugarski_photos/

Sorry the link isn't highlighted. The "optional link URL" thingy wouldn't accept the URL.

Here are a couple of your pics inserted here for quick looks:
Now that I've seen the cabinets, I really like petra's suggestions. I like your cabinets a lot. With a perked up environment they would look great!

Thank you so much for doing that! (How did you do it??) :)

I like Petra's suggestions too. I love farm sinks!

I keep trying to post "thank you" to everyone but it keeps rejecting the message. Hope this works.

Hi Sugarski,

I also had an old dark cherry kitchen with white formica countertops. Even though the 19 year old cabinets had some wear and tear, water stains, scratches etc... I really liked them and wanted to keep them for my remodel this year. I have never done furniture refinishing in my life so really didn't know what to do, but I knew the first step was to clean them up. I used a mild wood cleaner with a soft cloth and for stubborn greasy buildup I used a 0000 fine steel wool.

After cleaning them up, I had lots of scratches and areas of water damage where the finish had been removed. I bought some Minwax Wood Finish Stain Marker pens at Lowes. They look just like a regular marker but you can get them in a variety of wood stain colors. The Red Mahogany 225 was the best color match for my cabinet stain. I spent 2-3 days just touching up all the scratches, nicks and raw wood spots on my cabinets. I let the stain soak in good but would wipe up any excess that got on the rest of the cabinet. The stain pen really makes an amazing cosmetic improvement.

I'm sure a regular cabinet refinisher would have sanded down the fronts, reapplied stain and some type of finish sealer, but I wanted to see if I could get acceptable results with my quick method. After the atain had set over night I used a wood polisher liquid on a microfiber cloth to softly buff and shine the cabinets. They really did look good after that.

I will be keeping a close eye on any new damage or stains and try to address them right away from now on. But so far I have had several people tell me they like my "new" cabinets not realizing they are the 19 year old originals :)

Oh and btw... I was worried about granite being too dark also, but I LOVE my granite! It has just enough color variation with light creams and browns that I don't think it darkens the room at all. I like it so much better than the old white formica :)

Original 1989 Kitchen:

New Kitchen Remodel 2008: (still in progress)

Kitchen Cabinet before Cleanup:

Kitchen Cabinet After Cleanup and new Hardware:

lmalm, you did a great job refreshing your cherry cabinets! I'll bet your photos will be an inspiration to sugarski, because I know they were to me!

sugarski, if you are planning to keep the floors and are on a limited budget, I would look for a laminate that picks up on the colors in your vinyl. However, because your floor has a pretty busy pattern, keep the countertop pattern simple or solid.

You have a lot of kitchen packed into a not very large space so keeping things cohesive, colorwise, might help to visually expand the room. In fact, I would put a coordinating neutral on the walls as opposed to the blue, but I know you said it was new paint so you probably don't feel like changing it. : )

Sandy

lmalm-WOW--what a fabulous job you've done.

sugarski-to insert photos within your post from photobucket--just copy and paste the "html code" line into your post. The html code is one of the choices beneath the pictures (right after the direct link code you tried)
Then when you hit "preview message" on gardenweb you'll see how it sets up.

Gosh, lmalm, thank you so much for the detailed photos and tips!! I will try the same thing ASAP and let you know how it turns out! (Your kitchen really looks gorgeous!)

Sandy, thanks for the feedback. I agree, simple counters for sure.

berf, thanks for the photobucket tips!

As an aside... it looks like my cabinets can't be original to the house. There is a little plaque that says they were made by Rutt Kitchens. I looked it up and the Rutt company began in 1951. It seems like they are considered quite well-made cabinets, which is pretty neat!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rutt cabinets

I just replaced a white corian (buff). I hated it!

I can recommend a website that has 3 products that they sell to help clean and restore your wood finish. My sister just spent today working on my parents cabinets and she said they look amazing. The website is called touchoforanges.com. The wood restore kit contains touch of oranges wood cleaner, restor-a-finish and touch of beeswax wood preserver. The restor-a finish works great and comes in several colors. I have used it on my antique dining room furniture a few times and highly recommend it. Check out the website if you have time. They make some neat products. Good Luck.

I was requested to write up my cabinet touchup process in greater detail, so I have done that at the post link below. Hopefully it will help someone who is looking to preserve older cabinets without breaking the budget!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Cabinet Touchup Process