medium sounds good - with the black, dark would not have enough contrast. I would also rethink wall color-lighter.

Hi! What a nice house and kitchen!
If you go for brown it will be a very dark kitchen. I don't know how much natural light comes into your room?
You can also use a transparant stain, just to give the cabinets more accent. As they are now, they seem to match your wooden floor perfectly.
Love to see pictures when you're done

Do you realize in order to re-stain the cabinets you'll have to strip the sealer off all the existing surfaces of the wood? That will be an extremely messy and involved job. Painting would be far easier.

Definitely replace the backsplash or just remove it entirely and just paint--it's a small space and doesn't need the extra "chopping effect" of the tiles.

We just finished our kitchen Reno and we started to strip the cabinets to restain and finally gave up and went with a light grey oil base paint color with two coats of oil based primer under it and it's turned out great, so unless your going to hire it done by a pro I would paint. Also it's a great looking place!

Changing the wall color and adding some lighting might make all the difference. I would do that first, with a pro consult; maybe you won't need to do the cabinets. I'd also reverse the refrigerator door if possible. Good luck!

Add over-range microwave, some coordinating bar chairs, artwork. You might end up with a whole new look that you love with the same cabinets!

Agree with leelee's advice (and other's) on trying to stain the cabinets. Several options come to mind for me that might give you a different look without having to change the color of your cabinets:
- Consider changing the backsplash maybe even adding a tile feature/focal design above the stove,
- Possibly change a couple of cabinet doors out for glass panels,
- Add some drop lighting over the island,
- Maybe change out the rangehood from black to silver to match the refrigerator and stove.
And agree with marlena1948 on reversing the refrigerator door. It's usually simple to do. If you don't do anything else, perhaps change the outlets and switches and faceplates to another color.

I agree with the others—in addition maple is a difficult wood to stain evenly and well. Not a job for amateurs! I would keep the cabinets as they are and decorate around them. You can easily transform this space with paint and a few other relatively inexpensive changes.