Background: The house is a little over a hundred years old and is a semi-detached house (south wall is attached to neighbour’s house). We are empty nestors with two golden retrieves. The kitchen is heavily used - we cook and bake a lot.

The kitchen is 10’x15’ and was last renovated in 2000. The kitchen is not open to the remainder of the house except for stairs off the kitchen that lead to the backyard and the renovated basement as well as a door to the dining room. There is a need to walk through the kitchen to access the backyard and the basement.

The cabinets are MDF with cherry wood shaker door/drawer fronts. They are overall in OK shape – wearing/polished near the knobs, veneer on box edges coming off in a few places, veneer at end of cabinets is bubbling, a few knicks in the wood. These are things I only notice when cleaning the cabinets.

Countertop is Absolute Black granite – no seams, never sealed, looks good except for a crack over the dishwasher that can only be seen if you look for it. The granite may have been polished when first installed but not shiny now.

Backsplash is tumbled marble.

Floor is covered in porcelain tile with large grout lines – impossible to clean or perhaps is clean but the grout was always this ugly gray colour.

In addition to the kitchen cabinets , there is small, narrow “pantry” – door from the kitchen leading into a storage space under the stairs to the second floor.

We want to update the kitchen and add/optimize storage at the same time. We definitely want to change the cabinet knobs, the backsplash and the floor – replace the porcelain tile with hardwood we are considering for the remainder of the house. As replacing the floors likely also means moving the cabinets temporarily (and perhaps means a new backsplash is needed) we also went through a “what would we have done differently” exercise and have some ideas but would appreciate your thoughts on these as well as other ideas.

Note that I THINK I can get additional cabinets as these cabinets are still available via the manufacturers web site. I’ll check with a dealer on obtaining replacement veneer as well as cabinets with the same stain. The doors don’t appear to have faded -outside is same colour as inside – one advantage of not having a ton of direct, natural light 😊.

Pics of the kitchen are attached.

Pic #1 – general overview of the kitchen along with measurements

Pic #2 – Breakfast bar area. This cabinet is 48” wide, 42” tall and has a 11” overhang. The cupboards are difficult to access due to the overhang.

Idea: Remove the overhang and replace the two doors with either four or six drawers.

Pic #3 – Refrigerator/pantry area. To the right of the refrigerator is a 51” space with no cabinets, but there is a door at the end to the under stair “pantry”.

Idea: Add additional tall cabinets – drawers on bottom and either shallower on top or 24” deep cabinets with pullout/shelves combo. Move the door to the dining room or have some other way to access the space under the stairs.

Pic #4 – Sink area. While not a lot of space between the sink and the stove, this works for us. Much of the food prep is done to the right of the sinks and easy to pivot to the stove.

Pic #5 – Stove area – The lower corner cabinet to the right of the stove is almost useless – difficult to get to although there is a lazy susan in the cupboard.

Idea: end the cabinet beside the stove at the wall and place drawers in this cabinet.

Please let me know what you think of the ideas above or if you have other suggestions.

Is switching doors for drawers and/or adding cabinets a reasonable approach if not painting the cabinets – assuming we can obtain the same cabinets?