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Thank you, everyone, for taking a look. :) I'll try to answer all of your inquiries to help with the advice. I'm attaching a photo of the room on the other side of the diagonal wall. If you shoot through the small door in the kitchen you hit the dining room. If you go left it's the living room. I'm probably going to leave the diagonal wall as it makes the living room less boxy. I've swapped all the flooring to wood-look, hand-scraped tile. I wanted hardwood but wanted bullet proof tile for my dog. The picture shows the installation. I haven't finished the kitchen floor but all of the other rooms are done. I'm adding 4" baseboard molding and painting it Farrow and Ball's All White. I'm looking for a beach, light blue with depth for the kitchen/family room. The cabinets are maple and in good shape. It makes it hard to donate/toss them. The family that had the house before me took the refrigerator and the microwave did not work so I purchased Kitchenaid counter-depth appliance in stainless. My Mom felt the built in oven was too small and so I purchased a down draft oven to replace the cook top. I already have to do some electrical there to move the extra wattage. My Dad is an electrical engineer so he can help with that. I would probably put the sink in the island and so I would have to move the plumbing. The good news is that I can almost stand up in the crawl space so hopefully that will make it a little easier. Because of the changes I'm already going to have to replace some of the cabinets... The granite. It's kind of pink/salmon with black and it is on every cabinet surface throughout the house. :0 I would like to swap this with Carrera marble and tile the black splash. I'm hoping the original granite can also be donated. I really want a timeless classic look. I priced inset cabinets (including the island) I think through the cabinet joint and they came in at around $15k. I think they were MDF and I really wanted wood. I haven't decided on a sink. I was concerned that farmhouse sinks were trendy but they seem to be staying around. :) The house theme is modern cape cod. So for the island option it would probably cost $22k. I priced cabinets at Home Depot (non-inset) and they came in around $5k. So less expensive cabinets would bring me in at $12k. If I leave the layout, paint the cabinets, order the replacement ones I need, swap the counter top and backsplash it would probably be around $7k. It's a pretty big difference in dollars. I also don't know if at some point if I would rent the house out. I don't know how bad a kitchen would take a hit. That's about it for now. Thank you again and please let me know if you have any other suggestions. :)

Hi! I think that for the finish of the hardware, you should either go with stainless steel or oil rubbed bronze. Both of these finishes would look very nice in your kitchen, it really just depends on how noticeable you want them to be. As far as style, I'm not sure how big of a change you are hoping to make from the current hardware, but I would go with something sleek that compliments the traditional door style. Here are a couple of ideas, a mix of transitional and contemporary: I hope this helps!!

Hello - we are painting our kitchen cabinets white and replacing our hardware (knobs and pulls). I am deciding between black, polished chrome or polished nickel (Top Knobs Ascendra design). The color scheme of the kitchen is a white quartz with grey veins countertop and gray subway tiles for backsplash. Can't decide whether to go the silver or black route. And if I go silver- would welcome any advice on which material is best for a kitchen - polished chrome or polished nickel. Thank you!