arcy, I can reposition the island. Funny you mentioned that because my mom hopped on the wagon to help me figure out what to do with the kitchen and she, too, suggested I reposition it. She also pointed out that the otherside of the island is much more attractive than the side that's exposed to the dining room. I will turn it next time I'm at the house and see what it's like. Thanks! Also, thanks for the wallpaper suggestion. I'll check out the collection at SW for ideas just in case. :) annkathryn, your cabinets are GORGEOUS! Thank you for the inspiration photos. They are gentle reminders of ways I can live with what I've got for now until I'm able to do what you did with transforming them. Great job! As promised, here are better photos of the kitchen: Here you can see the two green samples as well as a TINY bit of the Toasted Cashew I tried to sample peeking through Backsplash details (there is some splattering from cooking, that's not the tile) Close up of the tile in the kitchen (the grout will be cleaned when we move in so it'll lighten up a bit, the tile that will be installed in the dining room and living room will be similar in color to the lighter tile in the dividing strip shown here) Looking into the kitchen from the DR Someone requested a photo of the view from the back of the kitchen looking out to the DR -- pardon my lovely SIL, she was rinsing paint from her hands and the mini rollers, and my hand wasn't very steady here My mom suggested I take advantage of the side of the island shown in the above photo and turn it outward towards the DR. She also mentioned the idea of painting the island as some suggested here. I really like that idea! Hope this helps you all more than the previous photos did.

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.

Eversebz We plan on painting the kitchen walls white ( BM Simply White ) along with the rest of our home 😊 But yes, I agree if we weren’t , white subway tile might make the walls look dingy

OK...so you ARE updating the kitchen. OK. Now we are getting to the nitty gritty. Take TWO WEEKS (yep...1/2 month) to figure out your ENTIRE HOUSE colour scheme. This will become your 7 year renovation plan. 'Cause once you change ONE THING you start seeing how tired everything else looks. Nope. I'm not kidding. The 7 year renovation time frame is roughly how long it takes to do everything - piece by piece. What you are going to do is give yourself an END LOOK. It's like grabbing a train in a foreign country. Would you jump on one just 'hoping' you get where you are going? No. You would plan your trip to suit the train schedules. So don't just 'jump in' with flooring and hope (against hope) you get to where you want to be. Take the time right now to plank how each space will look. Go ahead and gather paint chips and list what colour you want for each space. Your kitchen has 7 (seven) elements: 1. Cabinets (big ticket item) 2. Counter tops (big ticket item) 3. Flooring (big ticket item) 4. Appliances: Total expenditure with 5 (or more) items = big ticket item 5. Backsplash (low budget) 6. Lighting (low budget) 7. Paint/wall colours (low budget) Wow! That's just for the kitchen!!!! Holy Hanna! Now imagine the sitting room with the fireplace...and the entrance...living room...dining room...bathrooms...bedrooms. Whew! If you mess up ONE choice today you mess up everything down the line. Trust me on this one (we see it multiple times a day on Houzz). Sit down and figure out the ENTIRE house and all of it's colours (get paint chips to match). Now you start purchasing things like paint, backsplashes, lighting, etc. And BTW...you want to update your LIGHTING well before you update anything else...so that you can see the FINAL colour of the products in your house.