I also don't think you'd need to change the slate in the entry. Does it have a color you can work off of and love for the kitchen? If you don't think light painted cabinets will suit your taste or lifestyle, then don't use them, or use them sparingly and do the rest in a wood. There are so many colors and species of wood to choose from. ...Or one of my favorite kitchens is one of Crown Point's 'Early American' kitchens done in black painted cabinets with a combo of wood and grayish granite counters...So light colors are not your only option with paint. I've seen 'Colonial' done in reds, greens, and gray blues. What other colors are going on in your house (on architectural elements as well as your other furnishing and decor)? What other color of wood? Is all the trim painted or wood? I think that besides continuity of style it is good to have continuity of the architectural detail colors, like on wood trim. Keeping it simple is good advice, since that always seem to better stand the test of time and fit into more types of styles and decor. If the builder wasn't fanatical about doing authentic colonial details, which would give you cues from which to work, I wouldn't worry enough about the integrity of the 1970s version as to limit all of your material options, like granite color. You just want to avoid styles that will jump out as being different from the rest of the home...as if you've stepped into a different house. But you should have the flexibility to allow your own personal preferences and style to shine through. Here is a link that might be useful: crown-point black kitchen

This is a story of what you should NOT do with your house. Bought a tiny 2 bedroom 1950s ranch in 1989. Added a floor and put the living, dining and kitchen on the top floor. It gave us a view of the mountains and the lake. Garage in the basement was incorporated into the basement floor space. Built a detached garage in 1997 to augment the garage that was lacking. Tried to see if we can move up in the neighborhood. Could not afford the comparable view and did not want to give it up. So we brought the middle floor to the stud and reconfigured it for 3 bedroom and 2 bath in 2002. (previously only 1 bath and very knarly floor plan which was inherited from the original house.) Finished the basement with a media room, infloor heating, trim to match the rest of the house etc. Fast forward another few years... We still cannot afford the view in the slightly better neighborhood any other way. (The upcharge is about 1/2 to 1 mil.) We looked at many houses recently! I recently saw a beautiful house that was done very well. But there was no view from the kitchen or the dining room. Saw another house that had a view from the living room only. We are not in the living room until it is dark outside! We would lose our breakfast with sunrise over the mountains. This was the usual story of all the houses that we looked at. At the comparable price point, the houses have the view from the bedroom, not from the kitchen or the living space. Because we have the ususual space arrangement of living/kitchen/dining floor at the top, we have the view from the rooms we use everyday as a family. This is unusual but gives us a very open space with 180 degree view. We are now embarking on a kitchen remodel of the kitchen that was put in 1989/1990. The kitchen was done on a budget and is not at the level of the quality that we have updated the rest of the house. So we are actually the other way around. Whole house remodel first and back to the kitchen which is 20 years old. In the end, we have the house that we want to live in. Had we not done this and lived with what is there or moved to another house and given up a few things, ie view, open living configuration, natural light etc, we would be way ahead in the money! Oh well, you can't take it with you...

These are some great ideas ... to be clear, I can paint the cabinets no problem (have experience and appropriate equipment), but I have resisted over the past couple of years because we had higher priority things to get done in the house. We're getting past those now, so have time to go back and tweek. I like idea of crown on the uppers. Removing the cab over the sink is problematic ...it has an LED under it that is really important to the sink function ... will have to look and see if I can pull it, route the wiring into the ceiling and then back down into another dangly fixture that could match whatever ends up being over the island? Funny thing ... taking photos and then studying them actually helps ME! The fan is ugly ... but it is a wonderful thing ...maybe paint it white to match ceiling? (we did this to two fans in this house and two in another ...makes them sort of disappear). We replaced two in another house with dark brown ones to hook up with the dark woodwork ... it looks good, too. We'll look at replacing the glass on the two dangly lights ...it does need some contrast from the white ... since they don't do much, anyway, perhaps industrial stainless, dark gray, red or black?

No expert here, but the layout is confusing to me. What are all those dark, shaded blocks--new walls? It seems to me the traffic flow through your original kitchen would be better, but without knowing what you are trying to achieve here, it's hard to say. I'm right handed and appreciate having my dishwasher to the right, but plenty of right-handed people will tell you that having it on the left isn't a problem at all.