I just painted my bathroom and kitchen cabinets and I'm happy with the results. They were honey oak in terrible shape. In the bathroom I painted an off white color, then glazed them in a greyish/tan color, then covered with polycrilic with Minwax poly in Satin finish. As of right now the kitchen cabs are painted off white though not yet glazed. I don't like how the poly I put on top of the glazing on the bathroom cabs makes the cabinets so shiny so I may not add the glazing in the kitchen. The painted off white in the kitchen looks ok - certainly better than the oak IMO. I wanted to cover a lot of the grain which is my case was raised and in poor condition so I sanded a lot but not down to bare wood. I primed and put on 2 coats of BM White Sand. Then I glazed (that was tough to get right and VERY aggravating) then I applied 2 coats of poly. I have a guide for it and if you email me I'll send it to you electronically. Be warned- the painting takes much longer than anticipated but isn't hard work, just tedious. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Chooch's painted and glazed cabinets

Thanks for the new comments! As I mentioned before I am working on being able to post a much more detailed floorplan. Thanks for hanging in there with me! jejvtr- Thanks for your detailed observations! Some great thoughts. To answer your Qs: Existing fireplace is not appealing - it's old and ugly. Hard to see from floorplan, but the hood doesn't impinge on the masonry fireplace - it's actually in front of one of two existing pantry closets that flank the existing fireplace (this room was originally a tiny den). This wall gave us a lot of headaches - considered a wall of pantry closets surrounding a fireplace with the kitchen on other side of room, but this was a much less functional use of space and would also have been $$$$. I really appreciate the comments about issues involved in covering over the FP - will definitely ask ALL of those Qs. Range - A range is not my first choice - I prefer two full sized ovens, and not to have to bend down, but I'd consider, if it would really help matters (they do look great). Base cabinets - definitely want drawers for pots and pans - they are just not shown yet. Pantry - an extension of one of the existing ones. Re: adding a cabinet to the right of the sink - I can make that happen by reducing the size of that window. Only issue is that the pane size won't then match what is in the rest of the back of the house, but that doesn't bother me - it also gives a natural ending place for backsplash. No room for a wrap around hutch there, unfortunately. Thanks very much for taking the time to look at this with me! mjlb- Thank you -loved the drawing! I am especially excited about the idea of bringing down that corner cabinet to the counter - I think that would, indeed, give some balance to the run. I think you are also on to something as far as switching the position of the fridge - it's not that much farther away from the window sink and becomes easier to access for others. If I end up putting a primary sink in that island, it's like having two zones and remains very close. I like the concept of open shelves there, too. Verry interesting. To answer your other Qs: As mentioned, we can reduce that window and make room for a cabinet to the right of sink. I thought of a single post lamp fixture. Only Q is whether it would provide adequate light for the current 9' island. I have given some thought to the idea of two smaller islands, too. However, I'm also thinking of moving the sink to the middle of that island and making it a primary sink, in which case I'd need pullouts for trash, a dishwasher etc. But I would consider. Main entry near pantry is from the front of the house and the foyer/main hallway The room "below" the built in desk is the existing (already decorated) living room. Your point that the old part of the kitchen seems vacant is well taken. I felt that it was even worse when we tried to design a plan that was flipped the other way, though. Bigger is not always easier to design -unfortunately walls are not always able to go in the right places! I like your idea to try to break up the uninterrupted built in cabinets against the wall look. - a separate hutch, rounded edges, a desk designed to look like a desk, rather than a built in , etc. I think that with this comment you really got to the heart of one of the major things bothering me about the space. Thanks again for all your help! segbrown- Thanks for your suggestion! I especially like the idea of ending the island where the ceiling height changes. I will look into this. Maybe there is some creative way to incorporate the island with that in mind. I do think there is an issue with turning the island 90 degrees in that it can't be too long before impinging on the breakfast room space. Thanks so much!

What is the color of the cabinet (it's hard to tell in your photo)? I painted my living room Classic Silver from Behr paints. It's a beautiful, medium colored silvery gray that looks great with about every color. You could look on Behr's website or any other paint website, and virtually paint a living room. That should give you an idea how the color would work but I also recommend buying paint samples first before buying enough paint to paint the room. It will save you frustration, time, and money. Before choosing the Classic Silver, I purchased two other gray paint samples along with the Classic Silver, painted large enough sections on my living room wall, looked at the paint colors for a few days before making my choice. I made sure the color worked well on sunny and cloudy days.

The colors do all coordinate, while not the same. I don't like the idea of everything being one color. Having some variation makes it look more custom. Would you suggest just upper cabinets same as fireplace built ins and lower cabinets different perhaps?