Vera, I just went through and looked at your kitchen several times. My kitchen is very similar in color and look to yours except I think mine is larger. You are not going to like what I am going to say. My kitchen has nothing on the walls except one large picture on a long wall as you enter from the side door and said wall is about 16-feet long. I have a bar and a portable island. On that long wall is the portable island which I can move around and even use as a tall table if I choose. My breakfast nook is larger than yours and I have nothing on the walls except a telephone (a real one from the year I was born which was given to me many years ago as a gift from a special human being) and on a skinny wall going to the pantry area, I have a copper dipper, a copper platter and another copper thingie which looks like a quasi-strainer/collander. I have dark hardwood floors as well, and I like the paucity of "stuff" on the walls. I think you can keep the copper above the door and then add the vegetables on that wall in the breakfast nook area. I would not use the roosters but would put them away and substitute them in winter where the veggies would go now. The veggies sort of reflect the outside and your plants in the window. In cooler weather, put the poulets there to remind you of a chicken in every pot in cool weather.

I would leave the tops the way they are. Did someone paint the bottom part? Was it dark before? If so, I would strip the paint off the bottoms, so that the columns and the base all blend together. Without the dark bottom, the dark tops appear to be floating in air. The bases need to be dark to anchor the tops.

There have been some great suggestions, but I feel like we’re working in a vacuum here. What is your vision for your home? Although this has focused on the knotty pine, whether to paint it, and what flooring to pick, so much of the process is about the style you want, the furniture you have (or will buy), the colors you like, and the budget. I could go with light oak flooring, old Oriental rugs, nautical touches, red and navy and off-white, but I could also pick a dark green marmoleum floor, Morris chairs, black painted bookcases, a more rustic vibe, and plaids. How do you see it all coming together?

Here it is. This is an east facing room. It’s extremely dark.