You have a wonderful lot of storage. I also don't find your cabinets objectionable. I think the builder grade oak cabinets are the ones that have given oak such a bad name. There are some very nice, different style oak cabinets like yours that are quite lovely. I agree with the lighting. I would say holes in the drywall would be better than such a terribly dated, dirty looking (nothing personal, I think all those of that style look dirty) box light. It just cannot be your style! I have a hard time speaking to color online, given different monitor resolutions. Green to gray would probably be lovely with your countertop, but gray to me wouldn't compliment what I'm seeing color-wise of your cabs. Green? As long as it didn't have a yellow base. You've got lots of potential there! :)

Some further background: we had hired an architect right after we moved in, and had planned to fully gut the kitchen and move the powder room out to the attached garage, creating a mudroom at the same time, but we had to abandon those plans due to costs associated with fixing other major issues in the house. I've taken a snapshot of what was supposed to the demo plan for the kitchen which gives you an overhead idea of the current layout and you can see the ridiculous placement of the bathroom. Door in the lower left of the photo is an exterior door to the driveway. Fridge is right next to it. Window and sink are at the bottom, oven on the right hand wall. Before we had put the kitchen plans on ice, we had found granite slabs we love and we have a deposit on them. I have to decide whether to pay the other 50% or eat the 50% I have already spent. They are holding the granite for me until next summer so I can decide what to do. I am leaning towards paying the balance and using the granite on my existing cabinets if I can't afford to replace them by them, at which point it probably makes sense to stain the cabinets dark unless I change out the floor tile too. If we do new countertops we will replace at least the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time with stainless and do something with the backsplash. (My current countertops are ivory Corian so I would not want to replace them with laminate. We live in a fairly upscale town on Long Island where I haven't seen anyone put in new laminate recently -- everyone does granite, quartz or marble). Your suggestions so far are dovetailing with what I was thinking -- remove the upper cabinet over the peninsula, swap out the other piece of stained glass with clear glass, take down the wallpaper and paint the room some color, and replace the light fixture. I can't remove the whole peninsula without changing the tile floor because there is a vent cut for the heat/AC right in front of the peninsula. I am also inclined to remove the faux fireplace as the radiator is no longer needed since we replaced the heating system. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of gel staining vs. having the cabinets professionally sanded and stained? I've gotten an estimate for regular staining and could afford to do it if we were for sure keeping the cabinets but gel staining sounds like something we could do ourselves, which would be easier to justify if I might replace the cabinets down the line.

We purchased a 1989 Cape that had been untouched since building. The layout and number of closets are fantastic! The adundance of draperies, mismatched floors, and the kitchen were AWFUL. Draperies were easy to lose, floors are slowly getting done, and the kitchen - well, it will take years to save for a full reno, but a coat of paint is a miracle worker! 1) Do you have any regrets Absolutely not! It made the space so much brighter and cleaner. 2) What did you paint - crown molding, kitchen cabinets, baseboards, door frames, doors only? Base cabs, upper cabs, beadboad on the back of the peninsula, beadboard wainscoting around the room, door frames, and a closet door. 3) What color or kind of paint did you use? Benjamin Moore Advance in White Heron. I discovered I adore the Advance paint. It self-levels, filling in pores and grain lines. It's not as workable as oil, but it's very different than acrylic wall paint! 4) What would you have done differently I thought I'd save some time and mess by NOT sanding the frames between coats. I did sand the doors. You CAN see a difference, but only when you open a door. The sanded door fronts are very smooth - the grain nearly disappeared. 5) Where did you start? i.e. finish a specific room and then move on, baseboards, crown molding, doors The kitchen was the focus, but now, we have some "spare" cabinets that were relocated to the laundry room. I plan to paint them aqua. I can't wait to buy more Advance! 6) What made the biggest impact Color. The original kitchen is fairly large - about 13x20, with half as the working kitchen and half as a seating area. The original counter is a rich blue-green Corian - and there's a lot of it! The original floors are unsealed whitish tile with white grout. The golden cabinets became white and I painted the room to match the counters (for now). From green and orange and beige and dirty gray floors, to crisp green and white - such a transformation. 7) How long did you devote to the project About 3 weeks, working 4-5 hours over 3-5 days a week. I had to clean everything with TSP, then sand everything (someone re-poly'ed the cabs to shiny them up for sale - ugh!). Two coats primer, two coats paint, touchups, sanding between each coat. Not to mention, I also painted the interiors of the uppers, as I still plan to buy glass front doors for those. 8) Any other comments you think are relevant I refinish furniture as a hobby - I love to see wood grain and bring an old piece back to it's original beauty. But I've become a white kitchen convert. It's SO EASY to keep it clean! The cure time is a full month, but 2 years have passed, and it still looks perfect.

I agree with the others who advised to not spend a lot. I probably wouldn't even change the countertops (I lived with horrific counters for 20 years before remodeling a kitchen very similar to yours). New paint, knobs or pulls, and a range hood (even if it's recirculating instead of exhaust to the outside) will freshen it up a lot. I would keep the existing appliances - I think white and oak are OK together. Get a little MW - you have a lot of counter space. I have a cute little MW with a curved back that tucks neatly into a corner - I love it. But I will temper my remarks - and remind Kitchen forum regulars here - that we see kitchens differently than normal people (those not TKO - totally kitchen obsessed). We see lack of drawers, and DW in the prep zone, and no hood, and we can think of 20 ways to improve the function. We understand that the color of an appliance isn't as important as its location. But the reality is that the average HGTV watcher (and likely the majority of home buyers) don't care what the layout is, or how inefficient the storage is, as long as there are granite counters and SS appliances. We also tend to focus more on the kitchen. I like to look at houses for sale, and I don't care how spectacular the view, or how great the neighborhood, or how big the closets - if the kitchen has a stove in the island (or some other major sin), I'm done looking. I suspect normal people prioritize differently. miamuimeg, I suggest you check with a local realtor, or look online, to see what houses hat are selling in your neighborhood look like, and to learn what people want in a house in your price range. That will give you the very best idea of cost-efficient upgrades vs. wastes of money.