Hi, I love the natural wood features of your cabinets---as they are---no paint. People are all into natural and eco-smart but are they seeing the virtue in the beautiful natural wood of your cabinets? Your cabinets may not be sufficient to keep all your stuff so, in my op, it may be easier, not emotionally but in the overall picture, to donate or sell some or a lot of your stuff. We all could make nice meals and enjoy cooking without 3/4 of the stuff we have or want. (Think tupperware and salad bar/mayonnaise jar, marg, etc., containers) And I am a queen of containers. I am a modernist, minimalist, so that is the point of view, somewhat, that I will suggest---Somewhat- You have a high chair lovey in your house. You may be emotionally torn between having a magazine kitchen and doing right by your family-but the conclusion that I and my neighbors have come to is, that we are happier when our kids are fed, played with, toss and bounce balls, see smiling parents-often with their own parental agendas-paid work, play, crafts, pals, blah,---yes, we, the parents, are happier, when we are not Architectural Digest cops. I would change the hardware, pulls and hinges to chrome or ss. Change the light fixtures and find a fan that's more modern- they are there-I have spent $35 on a decent looking, functional fan. Your planned darker floor and countertops match reasonably well and are very pretty, but looking at the overall pic, of the not painted caramel color of the cabs, white appliances-they'd be a great investment, but you need to ruthlessly de-stuff----pretend that you are Europeans in a wonderfully located but small space- your existing floors are ok, but with new cabinet hardware, new modern lighting, some stainess shelving between the bottom of the cabs and the counters, from Ikea perhaps---your k room would be well modernized. I hope that you are near an Ikea store so that you can benefit from their point of view. I think your cabs are beautiful. I'd try to figure out a way to keep them, UNPAINTED, and fix everything around them. Your appliances, look quite nice, unless you are really set on replacing them. New hardware, lighting, counters, perhaps, and then re-evaluate. Just my 2 cents.

It's easier to go from lighter to darker than it is darker to lighter. In our case our cabs were very dark and we went to lighter. That meant having to strip them down to bare wood. Our cabs are Ash, not Oak but also have a very visible, distinct grain pattern. It was actually uncovering that pattern that inspired us to strip and re-stain (with cherry) rather than paint. I LOVE the patterns. Our granite has a lot of movement and I think it looks great with the cabs. Rather than clashing I think it carries through with the theme / feeling. Our floor is plainsawn select white oak which also has lots of grain pattern (in the process of being stained red mahogany). As far as color selection goes, that's really such a personal thing. What inspires you? What makes your heart sing? Take inspiration from nature. In our case our inspiration is a sunset over the ocean - blues, purples, pinks and grays with lots of warmth. This was taken on our honeymoon: Here is a link that might be useful: I ramble a lot, here's some pics

Lucky you, being able to reuse your cabinets. Ours were in terrible shape. Your choices sound great. I can understand your excitement. I don't really have any advice, as we've only just started our DIY, but I just wanted to wish you good luck with the process.

I want to add I know vinyl/fake leather would be cheaper and is less ‘fussy’ to clean than regular leather, but I think for some things it’s probably worth it to spring for a good quality leather because vinyl doesn’t give the same ‘feel’ and also if people are sitting on vinyl cushions on a warm day, it is rather unpleasantly sweaty. Given your somewhat unique situation with power, you’re probably going to have to think outside the box a bit, but I do think it is important to have more softness in the sitting and meal areas, so try to brainstorm what you could manage to keep washed or cleaned reasonably well. Maybe table runners would be easier to wash often but still give some fabric texture and color? Throw blankets on the seating areas? Also definitely look for local or regional artists or artwork to feature. Given the restraints for cleaning soft furnishings, I’d keep an eye out especially for things that can introduce softer-looking textures, like fabric wall hangings. You don’t want to make the place look like a quilt shop, but I think only framed ‘hard’ surface paintings or glass-fronted photographs wouldn’t do enough to help break up the hard floor/tables/walls. So you want to aim for a blend of textures in your art pieces. I still wouldn’t paint the wood - I think painting it will just highlight the 70s-era diagonal pattern in the paneling, which is not what you want to call attention to. But some more light really would help. I don’t want to tell you your business, but are you sure you’re maximizing the power you have? There’s lots more possible with relatively low power LEDs these days than there used to be. If you haven’t recently I might look into that again just to be sure. Plus, again, think outside the box - if you don’t want to use actual candles or lamps due to fire risk, maybe you could use solar lanterns? You’d have to remember to put them out to charge, but they do make some that give a nice light. Or battery candles with rechargeable batteries? Perhaps you could schedule recharging the batteries for the candles for when you’re more likely to have a surplus of power, or maybe someone has standalone solar battery chargers you could use. (Again they’d need to be put out, but if you had enough batteries on hand you should be able to have some in the candles and some charging and some ready to go, so even if a charging was missed it wouldn’t be a dire situation.) I’m just throwing out ideas, I don’t know what will work for you.