We are buying this house and will remodel/upgrade some areas over the next few months. The kitchen looks great in photos but in reality is not quite so... I like the stone, which you can't see well, the counters, back splash and walls under cabinets are all this dark red stone, very good quality. So, I can't change the cabinets because I don't want to remove the damage the stone . I also like the floor stone, although we were discussing possibly changing it to hardwood for continuity with the other areas around the kitchen... How about painting the cabinets white? I have a hard time visualizing but I think that might look good. The island is too small, we are replacing it with a larger and more functional island.

The biggest challenge there is a bar area which we have no idea what to do with... because it opens to the living room (which living room is about 3-4 feet higher than the kitchen), so the "bar" is VERY low on the living room side, making it very dangerous for kids (and we have a crawler). I don't want to close the bar with a wall because it provides much needed light to the small kitchen... It's hard to describe the complexity of this space... hopefully the photos can help. I'll have to post the bar photo a bit later.