Some things I'd consider include an induction range like a Bosch 30" with a hood. And all wide drawer base cabinets. You can draw up and post a large layout.

What is your budget? How can we answer your question when we don't know if you want to spend $500 or $50,000.

Since you gave no guidelines, an update would be tear it all out - the cabinets are dated, appliances are old, you don't have an exhaust hood, your floors are old, and lighting is fussy and old-fashioned.

If you could provide some guidelines, let us know what you need to keep and your budget for changes.

What M Miller said. To me, this is a total gut job. Floors, cabs, lighting, appliances…all quite outdated. And, get rid of that teensy island. A kitchen either has space for a properly sized island, or it doesn’t.

if storage and layout are meeting your needs I'd get better ceiling lighting/ pull the tile and lay a wood floor and remove the strip and place a backsplash.

M Miller,
I guess it was just a “general question”. To me, people who work in an aesthetics industry can look at something and have a suggestion to make it look better.

We don’t necessarily have a certain budget. We were just looking for ideas to update

its a great idea to throw up a moderate kitchen in terms of age and quality for random feedback. Sometimes its mindboggling to know where to start.... And thinking over the ideas sometimes takes a while....maybe you'll begin more research and do cost/reward for starters / there is no need to react instantly. even just a few updates are big projects sometimes.....

RoyHobbs, not sure where you get a refusal to provide info….? As I stated above “we don’t necessarily have a budget….just looking for updates”

I would rip it apart and do a 800K designer level upscale kitchen with a 70K French range in pale aqua blue. Solid custom polished acrylic cabinets from Pogghenpohl in the palest aqua that was almost white. Stainless counters. Add 100K full slab of Calcatta marble for the bigger bleached bookmatched anigre island. A couple of SZ beverage fridges would supplement the glass walk in refrigerator, with different glass walled humidity zones. 5x10 slab porcelain floors in a metallic influenced concrete look texture. The beverage bar would be more bleached bookmatched anigre, with an aqua Pyrolave counter.

Anyone who ”doesn’t” have a budget should be OK with doing all of that!

Not even doing all top of the line mogul on an a mountain with those selections. https://www.abt.com/La-Cornue-Chateau-Supreme-Grand-Palais-180-FR-Blue-With-Polished-Nickel-Dual-Fuel-Range-G48USNMSPESUPREME/p/163637.html

@Martinique no need to go off on a designer tangent when a question is asked. The thread started as “how would you update this kitchen”. With a further explanation that there wasn’t necessarily a “CERTAIN budget” and was looking for ideas.
I could ask 10 people how to decorate a SINGLE WALL and get 10 completely different ideas w 10 different budgets. Not really clear how it became so heated and personal to some…

If you are talking about simple cosmetic changes I would update the lighting and cabinet hardware.

If the microwave vent hood is vented to the outside, I would consider replacing it with a range hood and using a countertop microwave maybe over by the fridge.

If you wanted to do something as extensive as replace the floor, I think that would be part of a larger project where you may want to modify the cabinet layout and do a full remodel.

Hi, I do think providing an order of magnitude of what you're willing to spend would be helpful. $50k? $100k? $250k? Those are all reasonable numbers but they come with distinctly different limitations and possibilities. I think it's reasonable for people to ask that before they take the time to provide their ideas. Though they could have been nicer about it ....

Wow, bet you never dreamed you'd be attacked and insulted when asking for help and opinions. 

 Let this be a lesson to you and me ,"Make sure you know your budget, and for gods sake don't waste people's time ... Shame on you girl!!!

   People suck, hope you have better luck finding help...

I’ll be ok🤣 I guess I didn’t realize what a sensitive subject it was..

Wow. Not a very encouraging community here. I think it was a general question on what stuck out as the most obvious place to start. I agree budget determines what is doable, but the tone of most of these responses is very aggressive

Here is a list of what I'd do to "refresh" (where it looks more modern, but doesn't price you out of the market if you needed to resell - also doesn't make other items in the house look more obviously tired.). I'd replace the cabinet door/drawer fronts, paint and update hardware. Replace the lights with something more "modern farmhouse" and transitional, maybe consider a new cooktop/range that looks more built-in (without the vertical piece at the wall). On the floor, you could reasonably do a porcelain tile that looks like wood or LVP. Hope this helps. Good luck with your project.

Well, it is nice to have some idea of what budget is, so you don't give a lot of ideas that are way out of scope.

When "Trading Spaces" was a popular show, someone asked me "What would you do in this LR for $2000?" (Because that's what the budget of the show was).

It was a really nicely finished room with very high quality furniture, antique lamps with the soft style of fabric lampshades on wire frames and such.

And I said "Get all new lampshades? Pick one chair that needs to be reupholstered?" Because with the quality of everything in the room really you couldn't do much more. You probably couldn't have made any dramatic changes in that particular room for less than $20,000.

But on the other hand, in a different sort of room $2000 may have been enough to make some big changes.

@Brenda Langford, thank you for your ideas-I appreciate your insight and for “keeping your cool” with this type pf question

Not a pro … or a mean person. I don’t care for range hoods (personal quirk) and actually like the cabinets, assuming they’re in good condition. I would get a black countertop, solid off white backsplash tile (preferably something a little more unique than subway tile), black modern cabinet pulls and light fixtures, put down some vintage looking rugs with green in them, and paint the walls Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams. (Sea Salt has a cult following for good reason and I think it will cut down on yellow undertones in the cabinets.) I’d also get rid of the island if the floor underneath was in good shape.

Uh boy. Gosh there’s a lot of unnecessary nasty. I’m no pro either. Tilc123 - I could live with everything but the floor - assuming things are in working order and the cabinets aren’t falling to pieces. But it’s a lot of white flooring. Maybe start with painting the walls? Maybe change the floor to wood but then you’d have to consider the layout and then the real money gets spent… ☺️. I don’t know how much you want to spend, but it could easily be $100k + for a total redo. Good luck to you.

We just tore out that same flooring from our home and i dont regret it. good luck to you. you have a good amount of space to work with. find a good kitchen designer to look at your options.

@projectmode this floor should be banned! What did you replace yours with?

If you are going to replace the floor, make sure you are happy with the island size and position and buy extra tile so if you want to make any tweaks in the future you can repair. It's not a bad idea to have extra anyway.

This forum is getting to be less and less helpful - a lot of snarky jerks with too much time on their hands. For less than $10k, I would get the cabinets painted, pull out the 4 inch countertop edging, and do a nice simple backsplash - probably a simple subway tile. Plus replace the lighting and hardware - which can be done for not much at all. I think the countertop is lovely and probably a big improvement over what was there before. I don't like the floors any more than you do, but honestly by the time you're tearing out floors, i would just save that project until you're ready to do a full kitchen gut. This forum will tell you that the only way to paint cabinets is to pay someone $12k to do a professional job. But lots of people do the work themselves, and while it's extremely time consuming, it lasts 5+ years or longer (my mom did this in 1983 for our kitchen and it lasted until 1989 when she gutted the whole thing).

I may be in the minority, but I absolutely love the granite. I just think it would look better with a darker wood, and a more modern style of cabinet doors. I would also replace the floor.

Try this backsplash

To add interest to the wall? Though could be the classic 90s cabinet doors throwing me off. Maybe choose custom cabinet doors? Also new cabinet pulls and light fixtures. Cabinets and countertop will always be the expensive items to buy. Try working with what you have. Learned trends come and go but basic classics stay forever and will alway be functional.

Thank you all for the added feedback! I completely agree about the countertops, they’re nice…just not with those cabinets.

To EmilyC thank you!

To EmilyH…oops