So IMO espresso for cabinet color is already dated so no to that .The cabinets are a really dated style so Iwould look into having them professionally painted if you love everything about the kitchen as it is that way you can have the holes for those pulls closed and place the pulls in a better spot. I also think you will need to consider what to do with the kitchen before choosing flooring. If painting the cabinets white I would do the center floor color

Thank you

I've noticed in some show homes that they are painting lower cabinets a darker color and upper cabinets a lighter color. Also on some decorating shows they've started painting them green, blue, etc. If I paint them white should they all be white. Is that still the trend.

1. Too gray and will clash with everything.

2. Too dark and will show everything.

3. Best of the 3, but maybe explore other choices around that color. That may have a bit more wild pattern once you put the planks together than you think.

No gel staining. No dark. Painting would be the easiest transformation for those, and the odd hardware placement could be fixed that way. Pick a color straight from your counter color. The White Onyx Formica has several warm cream colors in it. Maybe one of those for the cabinets, and a blue or green in the mix too. Maybe cream uppers, and a color for the lowers? Or maybe a soft blue or green for all? Definitely add more lighting, including under cabinet lighting.

#3, but agree to look at others in similar tone. Gray is definitely out - does not work with warm wood and is too trendy for long term style flexibility.

Replace the toe kick with a wood one stained to match the cabinets rather than a vinyl strip like was previously there. Wood, painted or stained will look much better.

You are planning on selling in the next 5 years or so (or so it sounds like in your post). That means you will want a "classic" looking kitchen that will look clean and attractive to the most amount of people.

That means you will want to PLAN THE KITCHEN before you touch the floors. Here's why. Let's imagine you choose a floor that works with 'brown wood' (as seen in photo). That's great if you keep the kitchen as-is (not recommended). If you choose a floor FIRST you are painting yourself into a colour corner. That means you will be forced to work with the SAME COLOURS you have now. Which means you will go be going around and around on the same colour course without any way to exit.

So....do yourself and your budget and your house and your kitchen a favour. PLAN the FINAL look of the kitchen FIRST. Get together all the colours you would LIKE to see in the kitchen. Get paint swatches for EACH SURFACE. Now put them in a basket in your car.

As you go about your life, you will run into "deals". Do NOT purchase ANYTHING unless it falls in line with your colour story for your kitchen.

That includes flooring. No flooring until the kitchen has been "colour coded". I'm serious. I call this the 7 year renovation plan.

Now to be clear, you do NOT have to touch the kitchen. Not yet. You can do that last (or second to last). The point is to get you DRIVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Once the direction has been chosen, you can move through the renovation AS YOU SEE FIT.

But you have to have a destination. Do NOT start with flooring. Ever. Floors go in LAST. I'm sorry to say but you work from the top down. Paint (get the old sheet vinyl all nasty with drips). Swap out the counters (let the workers beat up the old vinyl). Have the cupboards painted (please don't gel stain) (let the painters mess up the old vinyl).

When all is done, install your new floors. Notice how all the abuse will be taken by the OLD VINYL....right. That's the whole idea. Use the vinyl as a disposable drop cloth.

Here are pictures of my kitchen. What are your suggestions on colors for the cupboards for re-sale and the long haul. would you reconfigure anything?

Ahhhhh... as I feared. A dark, dated kitchen. Just because the kitchen is fully functional (it would take a Kitchen Designer to tell you whether it is optimal....I'm only a flooring expert) doesn't mean it is ideal.

You have a U-shaped kitchen with a small opening to the living space and a small opening to the kitchen diner seating area. Not many home-buyers are into this sort of set up. Of course, this is HIGHLY dependent on location (ahem...you've heard the saying, "In Real estate it is Location, Location, Location").

Without photos of the rest of the kitchen space and the rest of the living area attached to the kitchen area, it is hard to tell what needs doing. But one thing is for sure, I would NOT go dark on cabinets. Your current kitchen is too dark as it is (for most people's tastes). Light and bright sells a kitchen.

It is *possible to paint the kitchen cabinets but the doors are very old fashioned. It might be better to look at refacing the cabinets (new doors hung) and the cabinets themselves painted to match.

The peninsula would work better if you remove the upper cabinets...but then you lose storage space...now what to do? Right. At that point, you need a certified Kitchen Designer.

A KD is someone who may cost you money on the FRONT END...but will SAVE YOU MONEY once all the bills have been paid. How, you ask? Because they stop the "second thoughts" or the "bargain purchases" that turn out to be a waste of money.

There is a current thread about a painted kitchen gone bad. The "white" cabinets are now a gray/blue and NOTHING matches. As in nothing. This is what a KD will allow you to avoid. And this person's kitchen is roughly the size of yours (minus the upper cabs over the peninsula). The Paint job = $5K. The REDO = another $3K (she was offered 40% off to change the colour). That's a total of $8K and the costs are mounting.

When dealing with an outdated kitchen (your cabinets are in great shape for the 70's/80's era they came out of) that is dark and needs some reorganization, a KD is WELL worth their time/money.

Do NOT change flooring until you have decided on the kitchen. It could be a complete waste of time and money.

mik

I would explore making that an L-shaped kitchen instead of a U-shape.

Remove the lazy susan corner, move the dishwasher to where the lazy susan is right of the sink. Continue cabinets, using the peninsula cabinets along that wall & into the dining space. IOW's, you'll end up with an eat-in kitchen.

Don't know if you have enough space to pull this off. That is, room enough for a table & chairs.

You will have to demo that part of a wall the peninsula cabinets are attached to. And deal w/ ceiling repair w/ getting rid of the popcorn ceiling being a Major Plus.

if You’re selling I don’t know if I’d do a full renovation unless that’s expected in your area. I might just update the lighting and move on. maybe discuss with a realtor. Do the math about how much you’d get back from the renovation

Janice, don't even think about gel staining these cabinets. If you don't want it to look like a cheap DIY project, it will take you days of tedious prep work. And for what? espresso color, dated cabinets? For the amount of work that takes, you'd be better off painting them.

You said you're selling. Why go through the expense of taking up all of your flooring to lay down a vinyl plank? it's not exactly a high upgrade, and certainly not high enough to warrant extra money in your pocket you'd get after selling. Do you plan on doing the entire area (living room, kitchen, bedrooms?) What is the complete price for demo of current flooring, PLUS buying the new products and install?

The one thing that will definitely give you bank for your buck is to scrape those ceilings and get a smooth, painted finish. (check for asbestos first)

No one wants a popcorn ceiling. Start there.

look at this link. her kitchen cabs are very similar to yours. Minus the appliances, she spent approx $1600 to completely make-over her kitchen. She actually did a pretty good job. (the flooring was already there and makes a huge diff compared to yours. )

https://inmyownstyle.com/kitchen-makeover-plans.html

also, if you paint, you can fill in the middle handle holes and put in new ones where they should be.

Instead of removing the upper doors, you could remove the middle panels and replace them with glass. (seeded, frosted, clear, etc...)

https://inmyownstyle.com/diy-kitchen-makeover-completion-cost-breakdown.html

(she bought new appliances, but if you need to replace anything, check Craigslist for slightly used items for a killer deal)

My kitchen floor is in terrible shape. The cooking u shape is extremely cut up from cutlery and things being dropped. Because a realtor told me to replace the kitchen floor we started ripping out the linoleum down to the plywood. The old laminate flooring throughout the remainder of the upstairs has swelled at the seams where they had become wet. The bathroom floors have discoloration around toilet area (I imagine from moisture) One of the contractors had said it would be best to run the new vinyl planks throughout every room in the upper floor. To create a complete flow. The flooring has been purchased at $35,00. and I just need to pick which color I want.

Oh...so sorry. I would ask if you can get a refund on unused product. Personally I would have used a sheet vinyl in the kitchen and baths and then new laminate throughout and have done with it.

As has already been discussed, the KITCHEN is the biggest issue. We must assume the new owners will rip out the kitchen. The sheet vinyl would be an easy removal/cheap install for both YOU and the new owners.

The laminate would be a lower-cost one-to-one replacement from what you have. It would be appropriate AND cost effective for a home that has a kitchen that needs removal.

I agree that LVP is an UPGRADE from laminate...but it is an expense that will not pay off (at time of resale). Kitchens and bathrooms are ALLOWED to have different floors. Especially if the kitchen update has NOT happened.

In other words, new homeowners have NO PROBLEM removing sheet vinyl and midgrade laminate. I would discuss the 'payment' you have already made to see if you can get some sort of discount for using different materials for your project.

was that 3,500?? just for the product? Or does that include install? what about demoing the old floor?

how many square feet is it?

I'm asking all of this because if all the above is extra, you're looking at another 5-6K. spending almost 10K for that laminate seems excessive. you could get a decent quality engineered hardwood for that price.

And doing a sheet vinyl or a marmoleum in the kitchen would look nice, fit w/the style home and take care of your water worries.

$3,500.00 is the cost of all the plank flooring for the total upstairs with out install. I don't understand what you mean by demoing the old floor.

The square footage of my upper floor is 1200'

i thought you were doing the downstairs in the kitchen? who is going to take out the old flooring and prep the surface for the new stuff?

what about the living area? are you taking that out? (the flooring the butts the kitchen)

what is currently on the floor upstairs? normally installers charge extra to remove the old flooring (demo'ing the old floor)

what is the brand of the LVP you've chosen?

1200 sq ft just for the upstairs? that's a large house. so you purchased the flooring at $3500 just for the upstairs?

Now you have to pay someone to take out the old flooring and install the new flooring. Figure another $3-5 a sq ft. (possibly less,,,depends where you are and how much work it is)

what about baseboards? if those are staying, you'll have to install quarter round molding (unless you can get your new flooring under the old baseboards.

The cost is $2.92/sf just for flooring. That's the same cost as a HIGH END laminate. Or it is a low-end vinyl. To install a click-together vinyl = $2-3/sf (vinyl is thin and picky and fiddly and can be a diva to install). And the removal of old product can be $1-3/sf (scraping old vinyl = $2.50/sf). It should also include getting the product to the dump (dumping fees).

And the subfloor preparation means checking the flatness of the substrate. If it is not flat enough, it must be made flat. That can mean sanding and/or filling with cementatious material. This is the subfloor prep = $2-$4/sf ($2 is considered a medium amount of effort).

As you can see, the purchase of the flooring is only 1/3 of the cost. The other 2/3 = demolition/dumping and preparation.