First, thank you all for the feedback this is why I wanted more opinions. I have more pictures but can't seem to upload more than one at a time. It is nice to hear that at least the cabinets look good from afar. They are not solid cherry if they were solid cherry fronts, I agree I would not be so quick to paint them, they are just a cherry veneer. I included a close up of the cabinets to give you an idea they aren't in great shape. Bee - your kitchen is amazing! thanks for the thoughts. I never noticed the orangey floors but you are right they do look that way and now that I am looking at it, it is overcast from the cabinets. Good idea of painting up a couple of boards, I have little swatches taped all over the space because we get a lot of sun movement in the space throughout the day. The table is 108 inches long, I am drooling over James Moder florale chandelier but need two of them. I don't think I could get DH to agree to three! LOL. A couple of responders noticed the island, the island is a just big box, open box deal, I don't think we paid $300 bucks for it, its a dark stain. Not worth refinishing. I would love to replace the counters, but with the sq ft we need it would be double that of a professional painting the cabinets, and I am really afraid that they would just look worse!

Here is reference to a poster here who has used it. They are chefs so hard, heavy use. The paint store told me the same. You might ask if this is the Classic or Select version, but I have read the new Select is even better. Can't always believe what you hear though. ' Posted by trailrunner (My Page) on Tue, Apr 23, 13 at 9:53 I don't have a 60' Wolf but I do have a 36' Caldera gas cooktop. We do a LOT of high heat wok cooking and also have a Miele built in deep fat fryer. We use all of this frequently and have done so for 7 years. We have no backsplash. Only paint on sheetrock. There has been no change at all in the quality of the painted wall since it was installed 7 yrs ago. I have BM Regal Matte paint that is scrubbable after 30 days. I regularly scrub it with a soapy dishcloth. There is no reason that you too can't have a painted backsplash . I have it throughout my kitchen. Here is only one of 100's of pics. You can see more in the albums of you click on the pic. Good Luck .c ' Here is a link that might be useful: regal matte This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, Jan 17, 14 at 15:36

you don't want white, and the darker colors, you say, will make it too dark, so that leaves you with light gray or one of those tones. what in the world are those cab made from? and who picked that granite to go w/those cabs? you say you're renting. they're letting you paint those? if they're made of a laminate type of material, the prep work for those will be necessary. quite frankly, I don't think it will look great painted. Do you really want to go through all of the work to paint those? have you ever painted cabinets? It's not something you can do in a weekend. Besides, that wood strip on the cabinets is kind of cool looking. changing out the country style cup pull to more of a bar pull will look better w/that style cabinet I'd leave the cabs and look into gettin a pre-fab, plain white or soft gray, quartz countertop. a 9' piece will cost about $450. fabricator can cut it to fit for another 600-900. maybe less depending on the layout of your kitchen. here's an example of pre-fab quartz, you only posted a small picture. post a pic showing the entire space

Here are pics as of now...I’m not sure they will help as we are mid-construction but you can see the space. I’m not sure Black would be my first choice, as I’m trying to lighten the space and the cabinets will be a medium gray plus medium wood flooring. I guess I’m having a hard time mostly contrasting colors with gray cabinets. I believe there will be bead and batten trim in the dining room.