Are you renting or buying? That may determine if you can replace the countertop or just polish it up.

@apple_pie_order renting then buying after a year. I can make improvements. But financially I would like to keep the cost down until its actually ours.

How about a nice butterry pale yellow.

I think the color is a bit too green on the walls and a bit too dark. Look for a nice lighter aqua, with no muddy tones. That should brighten it up a bit. Countertops, look to be in decent shape. I would keep them for now, and just clean everything until it is sparkling. Oh, and dont forget to remove the border. Is that paper on the walls too? Wonder if it is there to cover up something, if it is. You might want to ask the owner, whats under the wallpaper. If you remove it, clean it really well underneath, and do any patching that needs to be done, and then paint over the walls guardz which is a primer, that also can go over any missed glue etc. Then paint the walls with 2 coats of paint. If wallpaper cant be removed, then remove the border, and paint the wallpaper with guardz, before painting over the top. (not a great idea though, to paint over wallpaper)

Pretty woodwork! I think white, blues and greens work well with medium to darker woods. Here are a few examples of farmhouse style wood kitchens.

Sounds like this is a rent-to-own situation and you haven't moved in yet. IMO, it's good to live in a house before making major changes, so even if you bought today, there are benefits to waiting on the kitchen remodel. I wouldn't change anything, but move in, unpack, get to know the house, and plan for the actual remodel. If you must do something, paint the walls and decorate. But even so, IMO live in the house awhile to see if that's necessary. What you have is not that bad. You may come to accept the green walls (or after the move, might prefer to relax on the weekend). A year will fly by. All this shopping, researching, meeting with contractors for a bid and then babysitting them during installation etc takes time and energy, so I personally would do it once for the real remodel (and avoid getting burned out on a temporary fix). Congrats on your cute home!

My guess is that what is behind the wallpaper is (drum roll please!) More Wallpaper. And behind that may be more, more wallpaper. As a renter, this is not a can of worms you want to get into. Also, the wallpaper doesn't scream 1992, but more like 1922, and it goes extremely well with the wood tone of the built ins.

Usually, the problem with 'dark' kitchens isn't the wall color, but the lack of pure, brute force light. Start by making sure the overhead fixture has the brightest bulbs possible. If it's an old fluorescent, you may want to swap it out, if you are reasonably handy. Then look into battery powered undercabinet lighting. None of this should be very expensive.

Also, depending on the exact layout of the kitchen, you may want to consider moving the refrigerator and replacing it with a work surface of some kind. All a refrigerator really needs is an electrical outlet.

Thanks for info on rent now, buy later. Do you have additional photos of the stove and fridge walls?

The countertops can be cleaned and polished with Gel Gloss or Kitchen Wax. The first you can find at big box or hardware stores, the latter you can order from the Vermont Country Store or amazon.com.

The fridge doors look like they could be reversible- would they be more convenient if they opened the other way? Take a look at the manual, you can download it from the manufacturer's website.

You can check out how many layers of wallpaper by looking under a cover from the light switch or electrical outlet.

As of right now I don't have additional pics of the stove and fridge wall I am going tomorrow I will add that to this post. The layout of that wall is fridge 3 ft of counter, stove, 3 ft of counter butting up to one of the entry to the kitchen Which puts the stove about even with the peninsula which is where the odd layout comes in to play. ( i can deal with that) it has the same cabinetry on top and bottom as pictured. The eat in area is a cream color and not wallpapered and has a large bank of picture windows. The eat in area is fairly large. Having spoken to the owner/ family friend painting is okay as long as wood work is not painted which i wouldn't do anyway.( he will be along side me for these projects)

Also a friend of mine suggested removing the doors of the cabinetry that hangs down over counter as they are pass through cabinets and have doors on both sides. Yay or Nay?

The chance to use the kitchen for a year before making any major changes is a huge gift and opportunity : ) .

A pale soft green, blue, or aqua would be historically appropriate and work well with the wood tones.

There's a wealth of information in the Kitchen forum archives, and well worth reading and searching through them. Also useful is the Kitchen forum FAQs for new/remodeled kitchens, good to keep some of the questions in mind through the next year,

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500754/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first#23827595

Congratulations on the new house!

The wood cabinets look pretty substantial in the photos --- I am guessing either custom made locally or from a pretty high end cabinetry shop, based on the depth of the raised panels. Lucky for you! I love wood cabinets that have a little bit of a rustic look, and think that works really well with a blue and white kitchen color scheme. There is a certain shade of blue I call cobalt that has been a traditional kitchen color forever, and it's easy to find all kinds of accessories in that color family.

See also this story about thrift shop finds....

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/thrift-store-find-blue-and-white-dishes-my-first-dsvw-vd~2266363[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/thrift-store-find-blue-and-white-dishes-my-first-dsvw-vd~2266363)

While you are living with this kitchen until you own it and can make changes with less risk, remember that you can hang things on the walls in colors you like to cover up some of the big expanses of green -- the blue and white plates are just an example. Could be posters that make you happy!

If I lived there and realized that the border is the thing that bothered me THE MOST, in the short term I would probably just cover it up! I'd paint some big sheets of construction paper with the color that's on the walls (you can use the cheap kids' tempera paints for this, just mix til you get close to the shade) and then cut the sheets to the right size so I could tape them over the offending border. What a relief! Then you can live without that "distraction" while you work on plans for your ultimate changes once you own, since as others have said, removing layers of wall paper is a major pain.

I honestly think that with enough blue and white you might be OK with the green, if you lie blue that is. And agree that better lighting can really brighten things up in an old kitchen.

FINALLY the subject of green in a kitchen reminded me that the cabinets in Julia Child's kitchen (now in the Smithsonian!) were green. Her husband made them for her -- they are a lighter shade than your walls. But I did find this intriguing photo of a kitchen she used in Southern France, with dark wood cabinetry and yet another strategy for covering kitchen walls -- pegboard to keep tools handy!

I would go look at Bradbury and Bradbury wallpapers for a sense of colors that were used in the Victorian era. Lots of excellent choices to pick color there as well as some spectacular papers.

I wouldnt remove the cabinet doors. I cant even imagine why you would want to. I suspect, when you do a remodel, you will be removing all those cabinets above that peninsula, or maybe even the peninsula itself, so for now, live with them the way they are. They look nice, but, in the end, I think you will find, you really dont like cabinets like that over a peninsula.

yeah I don't think I really would remove the cabinet doors. But it was one of those things where I thought well maybe that might open it up but I think with a good cleaning and some Victorian restore they will look very nice. At one time there was a drop in stove top under those cabinets you can see where they have replaced that section of counter with wood and painted it white.

The cabinets look to be a really thoughtful choice to go with the old woodwork.

Painting the walls will make a very big difference. I happen to like peninsula cabinets (seems like they mostly bug tall people teehee), and I like the raised area where the old cooktop was--it keeps the cabinets from being too oppressive.

Do nothing until you actually OWN this house. Live with it for a year and by then, you'll know what you WANT to do and what you can AFFORD to do. Yes, I DO understand that waiting is hard. I've done it multiple times.

Don't know how to link a video on this site. On YouTube, type

505 w crossmain in the search box