Thanks. I concluded that even painted, I would not totally like the top arched doors, so we had new ones made. And changed them to as close to full overlay as possible.

Yes, the full overlay really makes it look so much more high end.

I have your before kitchen and hate the dated arches; love your new cabinets! (I'd do french cafe chairs for the island...). Were the new doors/drawer fronts costly? Is there a product that goes on the end unit and cabinet edges to change the brown to white?

I think you made excellent choices. It looks beautiful.

Huntegreen, we had extra panels made for all the exposed ends. I wouldn't say it was inexpensive. It cost about $7-8k for doors, drawer fronts, crown moulding, redoing island into stained maple (the entire island was redone with new panels), slow close hinges, and painting. But it was still much less than new cabinets and counters. A more cost effective way would have been to just have new doors made for the uppers and keep the lowers intact, no full overlay

Great job! The white is so much more bright and inviting!

Nice job! I so much prefer the new cabinet doors to the previous. Wine rack is a nice addition as well.

Great job! Very clean look!

Nice job! As far as the stools go, I think a colorful square cushion with a corded piping and ballet shoe ties that criss-cross and tie a little way down the stool legs would work to add color to the stained stools.

The stools do have me a little stumped. They were actually left by the prior owners and are a great size for the island and my kids to climb up easily. Changing to white contrasts the wood island but no contrast with the floor. In the absence of finding new stools I like, I may darken the stain and upholster the tops with a fabric and piping or nailhead trim.

What about painting the stools an accent color that picks up the tones in your rug? Here's an example using brighter reds, but any color could work as long as you committed to the accent color in few places in the kitchen. Or, alternately, you could paint the stools the color of the cabinets or the walls, which would create a contrast against the dark wood island.

Here is close up of the rug... I also thought about painting them the lighter shade of blue and using that as an accent color. Maybe look for a ceramic or glass fruit bowl along that color as well. We have a similar color as an accent in the adjoining great room. I'm on the fence.

What does full overlay mean?

Full overlay refers to doors that completely cover cabinet fronts, little to no space between doors or drawer fronts. Partial overlay cabinets have space between the doors and the frame of the cabinet is seen. I think true full overlay cabinets may have to be made with frameless cabinets (maybe a cabinet pro can better describe this). In the before pic, you can see there is space between all the doors and drawer front.. A couple of inches. We had all the doors and drawers enlarged to meet each other... Or as close as possible anyway. The other design difference for us was going from outside hinges to concealed, slow close hinges.

Thanks for the info. Your kitchen looks amazing!

Yesss!! RE-FACING is the way to go!! Smart! I will do this soon. Yours looks amazing :)

This is a great option! Looks fabulous! What company did you use for the cabinets? What is your backsplash? Thanks!

Beautiful! Do you mind if I ask you (ballpark) how much the refacing job was? I'm considering it for our kitchen, but ours is much smaller.

Beautiful transformation- love the new cabinet doors! Thanks for posting this...want to do full overlay refacing in the future in my kitchen. Only have the money for new countertops this year. Did the 2 cabinets over the stove get moved up higher...or does it just appear that way with the new molding?

The stools look wonderful! I would keep them. Gorgeous kitchen!

Leidigkr, we used a local cabinet refacing guy / carpenter in northern Virginia. The backsplash is Nova Gold limestone from Quarry Collection in 3x12.

Taurusgurl5984, the cabinets work and installation was $7-8k for about doors, drawers, end panels, crown moulding, sanding, painting, wine rack, and redoing the island in maple (so that could be stained). So not particularly inexpensive but more cost effective for us than doing a full remodel with new counters, etc. In a prior post, I noted a couple things that would have made it less expensive. The tile and installation was another $1.5k give or take. Though we have tiled in the past, we didn't DIY this time.

Cabingirl13, we did move up the cabinet over the stove. The vent was pretty low before and it was a way to break up the very long wall of cabinets. One suggestion, if you are replacing counters, it is worth having new cabinets priced out as an alternative. In a prior, smaller kitchen, we faced the same remodel question and ended up going with new cabinets as we were also planning to do the counters.

cjh4q - thanks for the cost info you replied to me and also here. I am also in N VA, can you share the refacing guys's name? Is that OK on houzz? The sad brown arched cabinet doors must be a VA thing....

Looks great! Nice job:)

Huntegreen, search Pro Refinish in the Find A Pro section under Washington, DC.

The cabinets have made such a different in the remodeling of this kitchen! Looks great

Looks great!

Thank you for the information!

Thank you!!! We have the same cabinets as your old ones -- we're discussing having new top cabinet doors made to get rid of the arch as well. Glad to see our ideas (white, full overlay, simpler style) played out! If only we didn't also have these terrible tiled countertops and backsplash (seriously, who chose that?!)!

Well done !!!

Looks good! Under cabinet lighting would be a nice addition.

Your kitchen looks beautiful. We are in the planning stages of renovating our kitchen which is 21 years old. One of the contractors recommended we change our floor as the tile grout is stained. Did you consider changing your flooring or did you keep it as it looks very good? Thanks.

Jlkimber, we have a very open floorplan and I'm deferring the floor decision until we decide to change out flooring in the adjoining great room. I felt like the floors and counters (though not what I would pick out) were worth keeping... two big reasons to reface. If we were replacing either or both of those, we would have thought much harder about new cabinets.

On the grout, have you tried oxygen bleach? It can do wonders on dirty grout. That plus a steam cleaner. I did both on a test spot to see how the grout would look after a good clean as part of our decision making process. But that is only worth doing if you like the floor enough to keep...

Your kitchen looks amazing !! I am in the process of refacing my cabinets as well and I am wondering what material you used for your doors and side panels ? Wood or mdf ?

Doors and side panels are wood. The island was done in maple.

Thank you so much.

It's a beautiful resurface job.

Great job! What color did you use on the island?

The island is maple and the stain was color matched to our kitchen table (which is a round pedastal table from Potterybarn).