You are lucky that your cabinets are not honey oak, that orange builder-grade color. Yours actually look like they have a nice dark stain. Painting, prep, etc is a lot of work. Your other finishes are nice too, dark pulls, pretty granite. Would you consider just doing a very pretty light backsplash? If you do go with paint, be sure to use BM cabinet coat. It will help cover the grain, though probably not all. There are many posts here on GW to help you with the process. With your brown granite you might look at BM Bone White. If you are looking for whites, lean toward the warmer whites. Here is a link that might be useful: [Kitchen with BM Bone White[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/kitchen-traditional-kitchen-minneapolis-phvw-vp~363542)

Try posting this on the kitchen forum, along with a photo. It seems to get a lot more traffic. Having said that, some shade of white seems to be the most popular paint color for kitchen cabinets. You have a wood floor, great because wood is the current trend in kitchen floors. With the black appliances, not sure how the white cabinets will work. Maybe upper cabinets white, lowers in a dark gray? Using more than one color in kitchen cabinets is very popular also. I've read a lot of postings about painting honey oak cabinets, seems like we all had them, they were very popular in the 80's and 90's. (I still have my honey oak bathroom cabinets) But, there are a lot of really knowledgeable and helpful people on the kitchen forums, with great decorating talent, so try and post there and I am sure they'll have some good suggestions for you.

Thanks everyone! The fridge now is out of the shot, it's to the left of the far counter in the upper left of the shot. It's literally right next to the passway to the laundry room/garage/bonus room. We plan to change to a counter-height and keeping it on the same wall, just moved to the left where there is currently a 36" side counter. I forgot about the work triangle. I've read that a few times. Thanks for the reminder! I do appreciate all of your input. To help solidify the flow: we just made a huge batch of homemade pasta sauce, meatballs, and we make homemade pasta on the big long counter. We don't run into each other but a 3rd person would be tighter. We can do all of that very comfortably with no issue, no running into each other, with a little room to spare to keep our wine glasses close by :) At the end of the day, maybe it's all about how we live, how we need to use the space and what works best for our lifestyle v. what's trendy. For us, this has worked famously and when we have parties, we can get 45 people through the buffet line in no time. :)

Hi Suz, I’m late to the party but thought I’d play around with your fun puzzle. It is so nice to see Buehl’s still creating wonderful layouts and generously providing such great advice. Many others have great ideas as well! I used Buehl’s empty layout and just moved her appliances and things around. I have zero design experience, but here is my attempt anyways. :*) The existing sink under the window could stay with the 2 DW’s on the sides. This area i see being the messy prep zone and clean up zone. That way you won’t see it from the open pretty kitchen/dining/living room area. You could keep small appliances you use often out on the counters like a mixer, blender, air fryer, coffee maker, etc… Maybe an under-counter beverage fridge could fit? Being the entry from the garage, I do see potential for a traffic jam at certain times. Like if the kids come home from school at the exact time someone is emptying the dishwasher. Or someone needs the laundry as you are blending a margarita, but hopefully it would not happen too often. I also don’t love a sink on the island, so you could have the prep sink in the corner or over a little more on the stove wall. Depending on if you get the humongous fridge/freezer or not, you could get more counter space on either side for unloading groceries. I would probaly just use the island and pivot myself. I am not sure where you would like to display your large bowls, but I think you have a few options. Maybe have a custom cabinet made. Maybe it could match wood or color of the island cabinets, then have the perimeter a different color? I like the idea of keeping an entry wall too. Or, maybe just a half wall? Ok, I think I better quit decorating your house now or I’ll want to move in. You must be super excited!