Please post tome images

Duplicate post, again no pics. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/updating-brightening-kitchen-on-a-small-budget-dsvw-vd~5452134?n=1

amy,,,we don't know because we have no idea what your kitchen looks like.

delete your other post and post pictures in comments if you can't add them above

I'm posting my photos here since I can't figure out how to do it otherwise. Let me know what your suggestions are! Thanks!

Night

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What is the checkered flooring made of? Is it vinyl?

That's a whole lot of brown. your cabs are nice. I wouldn't paint them unless it's a last resort. If you have them professionally painted, expect to pay over 3K. What is your budget?

I'd switch out the granite to something light, paint the island (if you're keeping that floor, paint it the same light shade in the square) and lose those diner stools. they're too heavy for that spot.

you have a simple L shape kitchen. you could easily get a pre-fab granite/quartz countertop. the cost is $300-600 for a 9' x 24" piece. a fabricator will fit it for your space and install for about 1K or so. they also have small island pre fab pieces, or you could do a nice wood butcher block there. (or find a left over remnant that goes w/whatever else you pick). Then I'd bring in a nice tile backsplash with under cabinet lighting.

do you use that desk area? it seems rather deep for that spot.

another thing that people don't realize, clutter on the fridge. Take everything off and remove all of those papers next to it. take another picture. look at the diff

if you want to display some of those things, make a cork board to fit that entire space on the wall above the desk. hang your photos and stuff on that. keep the fridge clear.

I'd also remove the mini blind. (do you really need them?) letting in natural light will help brighten up the space. you could also hang a pendant light above there if you like.

few examples. for the island, if you kept it the wood and topped w/solid gray quartz, brough in some simple, smaller stools to match the floor

as for granite. look at these similar style kitchens

(ignore the star tile!)

this pic, below, is Alaska White granite and a plain old 3x6 subway.

for the island, you could use the Alaska and paint it this warm gray color

these are all pre-fab countertops. they come in tons of selections. go to a stone yard and look around. barter for a better price if you pay cash.

The first thingIi would do is get under cabinet lighting, at least between the sink and range. I refreshed my older wood kitchen and the biggest functional improvement is the under cabinet lighting. One of my friends is refreshing an older kitchen in stages and recently added under cabinet lighting. Her kitchen already looks much better, and she still has older countertops.

You might also consider replacing the over the range microwave with a stainless vent to open up the cooking space.

If you have hardwood flooring in the rest of the home, adding them to the kitchen would be pretty, but in the pics I am not distracted by the floor you have - being there could be different. You want the flooring to flow well with what is in your other rooms - so what is in those rooms is important.

A brighter kitchen is more about lighting than cabinet color. I would only paint if you are pining for a white kitchen. Unless you are an accomplished DIY person, have it done professionally - it will cost $$$.

My kitchen is somewhat similar to yours - I did not paint:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~110720042

I have a "wood kitchens" idea book which includes both newer and refreshed kitchens which might give you some ideas:

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/75202366/list/wood-kitchens

You are going to get a lot of comments with great suggestions I am sure. The refrain you will hear most and I will be the first: don't paint those lovely cabinets! They are very, very pretty. Now if you budget allows, new countertops and new flooring will help greatly. White corian would look good but a lot will depend on flooring. If that is too costly right now, the right color of paint on the walls, new counter stools, decluttering the refrigerator and the desk along with a few accessories (pretty utensil crock, perhaps new window treatment) will also do wonders.

There are a thousand ways to brighten up a kitchen. To help narrow down our suggestions to you, could you please post a handful of inspiration pictures of kitchens you do like? More than just one or two -- enough so we have enough to start seeing some patterns and get a real sense of what your style is and what features in a kitchen you're drawn to.

Also, part of brightening up a space is making the most of any natural light coming in. Could you please post images of the other half of the room too? Where and how is light currently coming in?

To start, I'd hang your roman shade much higher so it is not blocking any part of the window when it's pulled up (it looks as if it's blocking about 8 inches?). This will not only let in more light but also make the window look bigger and give a bit more sense of height to the room.

I'd also see if it is possible to alter the upper cabinetry around the window a bit. Right now the cabinets are noticeably crowding the window, which means light is being blocked on either side from really penetrating into your kitchen.

If you are planning to paint your cabinetry anyway, I would suggest taking down the diagonal corner upper (the upper immediately to the right of the sink). Corner cabinets provide fairly inaccessible, bad storage anyway, and this one is blocking your desired light!

After taking that cabinet down, you could leave that corner empty. Since the uppers around the range that would remain would be symmetrical, it would look intentional.

Somewhat like this:

Or you could fill in that corner by installing a normal, straight, non-corner upper cabinet (possible reusing the corner cabinet's door?) on the range wall. Then your uppers on the range wall would die straight into the window wall like this:

Or you could fill in that corner with open shelves that die into the window wall. Like this:

I think the second two options are nicer-looking than leaving the corner empty, but if budget is an issue, the empty corner looks fine enough and lets in light just as well.

In terms of reducing the light-blocking nature of the cabinet to the left of the window, since you are planning on painting the cabinets, you could look into finding an existing cabinet line with the same door shape as your cabinets. Then you could purchase and paint a less-wide upper and swap it in for the existing one to the left of the sink. You could also swap that cabinet for open shelves, which would be especially great for letting the natural light into the room.

If you do swap out the cabinet to the left of the sink, perhaps you could move the existing upper to the corner, replacing the existing corner cabinet and the upper to its right. Like this:

Since the row of uppers on the fridge wall is directly across from the window, you could do something I did in my own kitchen. Install mirrors inside the cabinets (on the back - behind the shelves) and then swap the shelves and doors for glass. You don't really notice that the mirrors - the kitchen is just brighter because it's reflecting the window light

Looks like this:

The floor is tile that's in really good shape. I won't change it for awhile since I have 5 kids and I need durability. The tile is in bathrooms and entryway though not checkered. Thank you all for your comments! I am leaning toward replacing the countertops with a lighter color quartz or granite and getting an undermount stainless steel sink. With those changes, what backsplash would look good? I think mirrors on the opposite side of the window would be great!

How expensive would it be to add pendant lights above the island?

Pick out and have the new countertop installed before picking a backsplash. You can get ideas, but having the new counter installed and seeing the big picture may change what you want for a backsplash. If you do not paint the cabinets, then keep the backsplash simple. Wood cabinets look best with simple backsplash. Usually, it works well to take a lighter color from the countertop and do a tile backsplash. Subway tile works well, but there are other tile shapes that can work and different sizes of subway tile besides the usual if you want to do something different.

Pendant lights are a great idea. It depends what you get and what an electrician in your area will charge. You can Google: "what do electricians charge in _____" to get an idea.

Get new countertops in a light color--not necessarily granite but some synthetic and you'll be fine. If you can spring for rippled subway tile, add undercabinet lighting, your kitchen will be transformed.

Artisan Kitchen Remodel · More Info

This kitchen shows the multiple effects of several suggestions upthread: pendant lights, painting the island, and undercabinet lights:

French Country Kitchen Cabinet Restoration · More Info

If you go lighter on countertops and add rippled, light catching backsplash make sure they work with your floor colors, wood, and paint unless you're planning to repaint. I like your existing non-white palette--not the usual high contast which can sometimes be glaring in a small kitchen.