You'll never have a modern kitchen with those cabinet doors and that wallpapered arch above the cooktop. (Does that even have any ventilation?) But, would your home's existing style even support something modern? Or would it look like a bad plastic surgery facelift? What type of home is it (Colonial? Southwestern? Ranch?) and when was it built? That can help to give you style clues that you can use to create something that will look at home with the rest of the house's architecture and yet give you enough of your desired style to please you.

While you are pondering design decisions, the absolute first step would be to rip all of that wallpaper down. You may end up ripping down the drywalled arch too, but the paper is a good start.

Thank you for the feedback. The arch above the cooktop is not wallpaper, it's ceramic tile. Ventilation goes down. The house is about 30-years-old two-story - I don't what colonial/southwestern are. Replacing those ceramic tiles is doable. So, you think the cabinets are pretty old-fashioned? My wife got a few handles to try out on the cabinets to see if we could update them a bit just with new hardware. One of them is on one door in the pic but probably hard to see (fifth door from left in 1st pic). I'm afraid that one, which is I guess a chrome, modern handle, may be too modern for those cabinets though.

Do you have pics of the home's exterior? A floorplan? That would help to see what style it might be. Where is your general location? Some features are more popular in some areas of the country than others, and prices are always location specific.

If you like the layout, you can purchase replacement doors. Arched raised panel doors can be country. They can be traditional. They can be retro. What they cannot be is modern.

However, even without an overhead layout (that you should draw out and post) I can see that your functionality would be greatly improved by adding a small prep sink to the island. Would you have access to the plumbing from a basement below to be able to easily do this? I can also see that you never use your desk area except as a dumping ground for flotsam, so you could eliminate it in favor of some other type of storage. Maybe a wine fridge or beverage cooler to create a bar area? And hang a MW under one of the upper cabinets so that snackers don't have to walk through your prep zone to get to it.

And you might as well start ripping off all of that tile and drywall down right now and do the drywall repair. With a downdraft, it's going to be pretty gross with grease. Then go shopping for an actual vent hood and have an HVAC person come out and do the ducting and wiring. Looks like you it's on an exterior wall, which will make it easy. I don't know why they didn't do that in the first place. Something in a chimney style would be appropriate to a modern style and can work with most home styles.

Are those cabinets original to the house? If so, I wouldn't recommend putting a granite countertop on them. Do you know how old they are? Sadly, cabintry has a shelf life, and if you're getting to the end of it there's no point putting on an expensive countertop for just a few years. If they still have lots of life, you have lots of options: sand and paint, sand and refinish in the stain of your choice, take off the old doors and replace with new ones in a different style (check out Scherrs.com for a look at what's available in new doors and drawer fronts), or even clean them up and wipe on some Howards Restor-a-finish. Definitely do new hardware, because that's just fun.

Besides that, there are some tools here that can help you out. One is the Sweeby Test linked below. Also read the "New to Kitchens" thread that can be found on the first or second page of this site. Another site you may find very helpful is one Eric-E posted a couple of days ago. It's a building company's site from Nebraska, but they have some articles on there that you may find very helpful at this stage in your thinking.

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/articleslist.htm

One of the best things you can do is give yourself lots of lead time before you begin your project. Read this site, check out the pictures on houzz.com, and just look around. You've got a great space to work with and pretty soon you'll be able to see the possibilities. Hint: check out how much, much, much people love having all or nearly all drawers in the lower cabinets. That is only useful if you actually decide the cabinets you have are sufficiently decrepit that they really do need to go. You could have your cabinets go all the way to the ceiling if you end up in that position.

Keep on coming back. Read the threads, let the info soak in, take advantage of people's good ideas, and try to avoid the pitfalls.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweeby Test

If no replacement of cabs is in sight-take down all uppers-get open shelves-change hardware on lowers-do something with the island-paint it [create contrast], get new stools. Change light fixture over table -maybe canister recessed lights on dimmer, if nothing blends with the pendants. Much more can be achieved in a large space but by saying you want to keep cabs I'm thinking budget is an issue. Evaluate the perimeter base cabs and counters as to pontential "keeps" and work on an island-replacing it and contrasting counter there would be beneficial, if affordable. Do open shelves instead of leaving those uppers-maybe get a couple of upper replacement cabs in strageic location. I don't know-the arch over cooktop doesn't bother me-are there structural/venting probs requiring demolition of it? Figure out your budget!

There is nothing wrong with your cabinets as long as they aren't falling apart. If you do a search for OTK you'll quickly see that only one kitchen style is allowed on this forum.

Welcome to GW.
You have come to a great place with a world of ideas.
I agree with Herbflavor, great helpful advice!

Your kitchen looks like it has good bones, beautiful space
and a good place to create a Renovation. Hooray for you
taking the first steps.

Can you get a pad of paper and measure the entire room?
Every nook & cranny, outlets, and get a feel for your
floor plan.

Are you handy? Do you have a friend, brother, uncle,
father who can help you? I assume too
that budget is an issue since you want to keep the cabs.
Renovations can be 10,000 to 100,000.00
DIY??? Can you build a support for the lowers?
My DH (darling Husband) did and we were able to keep our
cabinetry?
Cabinetry is expensive but can be worth it if you are
inclined to create a new space. I kept my cabinets and
changed the countertop to granite. It can be done if your
base cabinets are strong.

Can you rip out the tile around the ugly arch? You could
keep the arch and even paint it a trendy fun contemporary
color to go with your "modern" feel. Or do as others have
suggested and get a hood. But hoods can be expensive.

Plan your budget to see what you can do yourself and
what you have to hire out. Are you keeping appliances?

Lastly, Visit the link below to get a feel for what you
want and what you want spend.

Here are a few visuals of ideas you can do to start to
changes...

Maybe paint your lowers black (change the doors to flat
panel.) These are obviously expensive cabinets but
you could have a similar effect by paint with your
space. The black would match your appliances.

Keep the uppers but take the doors our and change
up the shelves. A cheap and pretty way to go.

Not contemporary but notice no uppers and they
kept the lowers and did not change the stain

A few more links to help

Replace just your cabinet doors
http://www.newdoors.com/

Under 20K kitchen remodels Gardenweb
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0810443618847.html
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0806593120273.html
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1217155221622.html

Here is a link that might be useful: New to Kitchens Garden Web

It looks like most of your lower cabinets are not arched design and your island has a modern look that can be enhanced with a more squared off counter top. I can see that the one cabinet pull gives a bit of pop and ties well to the fridge.

Many modern designs have a darker wood tone than your cabinets. Take a look at houzz.com for some ideas. I agree with herbflavor that your table light does not give a modern feel and does not have any tie in to the island pendants.

Your floor seems quite neutral in your photos. What type is it now? Small tile? Does it coordinate with the range tile?

I think your hearth tile seem to sparkle a bit and could have a more modern feel if the surroungings were more modern. Maybe you could find a different type of tile, design accent tile, to square off the hearth for a more modern look (for example, take off the bottom row of tile on the arch and have rectangular tile, perhaps metallic, added in a straight configuration instead of arched. See the twelveth kitchen on this link which has a square range hood using similiar tile to yours:
https://www.houzz.com/magazine/readers-choice-the-top-kitchens-of-2010-stsetivw-vs~159895

Also, the hearth tile to the ceiling makes the windows and upper cabinets above the microwave look too short. If you did open shelving on this wall, how about stainless steel shelves for modern flair? Maybe you could use something tall (perhaps on the shelves) to try to balance the height to the hearth. Ikea has alot of wall rack systems that might work, but I've never looked at the sizes, etc. so they may or may not have something to work in this space. These shelves have a modern feel:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/backsplash-detail-contemporary-kitchen-san-francisco-phvw-vp~79960

https://www.houzz.com/photos/stewart-kitchen-contemporary-home-bar-phvw-vp~391308

https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-modern-kitchen-birmingham-phvw-vp~163704

If you did open shelves on the window / microwave wall, I would hesitate to do open shelves on the fridge wall as your discreet storage would be so limited.

You don't seem to have a backsplash, so this is an area where a modern feel can be added relatively inexpensively. I used tin look tiles (from Lowes) to do a part of my backsplash. You could see if they have a pattern that looks more modern.

Another important element where you could add modern flair is stools and paint. Accessories and artwork too.

I think you should evaluate what is feasible and make a plan for different phases if you decide to keep the bones of your kitchen. I like the new doors from Scherrs idea or look at the modern doors at ikea and see if the sizes work. If you cannot do new all doors, consider whether you can do enough uppers with glass doors or open shelves to leave you with only squared (not arched top) doors for the remaining cabinets.

Note that I have absolutely no design expertise and my taste tend to be more traditional, so take my ideas with a grain of salt. However, I have been putting lipstick on my pig of a kitchen for 15 years, so I have some knack at this point.

You exaggerate, cindy. Yes, there is lots of enthusiasm for white kitchens modeled on the "One True Kitchen," but in reality there are lots of kinds of kitchens in lots of kind of spaces. Just yesterday we had aceofdiamonds' new kitchen:

but we also had vsalz's new customized Ikea kitchen which is totally different:

This is BalTra's in progress kitchen as of last Friday. I think the cab fronts are going to be walnut and the counters a concrete-recycled glass, and maybe some open shelves over on the left:

This is my kitchen, also not an OTK, and not the most popular style going here, but it contains many (some?) of the elements people enthuse about here:

There are large and small kitchens, fancy and plain kitchens, big-buck and super-economical kitchens, ordinary and extrodinary kitchens, houses newly built and houses 100+ years old, pretty much something for everyone. It's a big tent, just look at all the samples boxerpups came up with.

Thank you all so much for your input! I new posting here would be a great idea. I'm a bit overwhelmed with all your ideas but that's not bad as it'll give my wife and I plenty of things to consider and study. hollysprings, the house is a Colonial style and looks very much like this: http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=mog&hl=en&gl=us&client=safari&q=colonial%20style%20homes&sa=N&biw=320&bih=356#i=6
I'm quite intrigued with the possibility of painting the cabinets. I saw some amazing transformations of similar cabinets, mostly to white. All were a 1000% improvement (to my eyes). I also really like the black cabinets one of you posted above with the shiny handles. I wonder if I could get somewhat close to that effect by simply painting. If we had to, we could just get rid of the cabinets altogether but of course that would cost more and we'd take longer to get to something we really want.

Do any of you have suggestions for color schemes? Again, we know nothing. And, speaking for myself, I have no original creativity for this kind of thing. I'm more than happy to simply shamelessly copy what I know looks good from someone else rather than try to be original and end up with a mess.

Again, thank you all so much for your comments - I'm so happy to have joined this forum! My wife and I have a lot of homework to do.

Terry

I think if there is nothing structurally wrong with the cabinet carcasses, you could get a lot of mileage from doing new doors on the uppers or changing the uppers.

I would be hesitant to take a sledgehammer to that arch just yet. The wall that encloses the arch creates a break in the existing cabinets, and removing the arch would defeat the purpose of the wall, and it may look strange to have a wall in the middle of the run of cabinets. It may look better to keep something "old fashioned" for the time being rather than eliminate part of it.

It also may be a rather complex solution to some other issue such as plumbing or HVAC. I have opened up such "decorative" elements only to find that they were designed to hide part of a plumbing stack or a bump in a heating duct instead of having e weird piece of soffit there.

Its also not much different than the mantle style things people are doing over ranges right now, in essence.

Since that appears to be an outside wall you may be able to get some kind of low profile hood in there with minimal modifications that could be vented straight out the back wall to the exterior.

Please forgive me, but what does OTK stand for?

Sue

Do take the time to study the "Read Me" thread and to draw out the current layout. Take some pics of the rest of the home's architectural features and your furnishings. This will help with an analytical approach rather than an emotive one and will keep you more on track style wise and budget wise.

I agree with Pal's more cautious approach to the arch, but at the same time, I'd be popping off a tile, cutting a hole in the drywall and using a borescope or dental mirror and light to see what the heck is inside all of that surround. If it wasn't chock full of plumbing or HVAC ducts, the sledgehammer would come out pronto. Those "wing" walls would go as well, and the base cabinets would be unscrewed and repositioned.

As far as an aesthetic that will work with the cabinets and the home, I'd consider choosing that catchall, "transitional" rather than a pure modern look. Since the look of the black cabinets appeals to you, if the cabinets are in good condition, I'd paint the base cabinets black and choose a light colored but warmer counter.

I could not personally live with open shelving and you could be different, but I could live with glass doors to give an open feeling but that were frosted to hide a bit of the interior. Investigate buying new open frame upper doors and talk with a local glass shop about sourcing a something like frosted glass or ribbed glass to install yourself after painting the doors. If the home were not a Colonial, I might have suggested aluminum frame doors, but that would be too cold and modern for a more traditional type home. If you did all obscure glass, you could paint the uppers black also, but without glass, you would really have to rework the room's lighting to go with black. You could choose something like a white, or yellow, or apple green for your uppers or you could save the color for the island.

I agree with investigating putting a prep sink onto the island, as that will greatly increase it's utility. As it stands now, it's one of the infamous "barrier" islands that is in the way of good traffic flow from the fridge to the sink.

OTK stands for "One True Kitchen" which is a name that was made up to describe a very typical Gardenweb kitchen that is comprised of White cabinets, a dark stone countertop, and a subway tile backsplash, with stainless steel appliances, often with some kind of mantle-type range hood.

----

tcmartin: this hood may be way too modern, but I was thinking along the lines of these newer wall mounted hoods. This one is contemporary, white, low profile, and could be ducted outside. It's expensive but its relative cost could be offset by not having to do much to make it work. The other option would be some kind of range hood insert.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elica Mini OM

A place by me made me think of this thread today. How about something like this wall paper with stainless trim above the open shelves:

The ceiling in this place is similiar in tone to your cabinetry. They used a high gloss plastic like tabletops (not shown) that have a faux wood grain. They also painted the walls a dark chocolate brown with cream colored trim.

I think you have to be careful about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Your cabs are fine. If you want to make them more modern, I'd gel stain them darker and stay with a lighter counter. Have someone shore up the support if needed, but there is no reason to think they won't hold a heavier counter. If the arched upper doorss bother you, then have them replaced with a more modern door or glass insets put in them. You may be able to find nice glass ones with a stainless frame to them, which would them complement hardware in the same finish and you would not have the worry about matching the finish of the counters. If replacing or tweaking the doors on the uppers would cost too much, then swapping them for open shelving would fit the budget. The arched doors are really not so bad and may be able to stay as is anyway once you modernize around them. Quartz for the counters is a very clean modern look and has a lot of light choices with no stain issues.
Your arch is fine but I'd remove the exterior tile and just leave the backsplash part. If you can retrofit some real venting that would be a worthy improvement.
For the floor, bamboo or cork are modern choices and would work fine with your cabs and other elements.

OTK stands for "One True Kitchen" which is a name that was made up to describe a very typical Gardenweb kitchen that is comprised of White cabinets, a dark stone countertop, and a subway tile backsplash, with stainless steel appliances, often with some kind of mantle-type range hood.

Thank you.

I'm another one that plans to someday do some updating, and retaining my perfectly good, sturdy, hickory stained (darker) oak cabinets, thus I lurk and learn, and note what I like. I'm another one that just couldn't live with open shelves. Too much dust and dog hair.

Carry on.

i can agree that the ventilation tile surface is overkill. If your operating principle is to fix only those things that need fixing, you might leave it, or leave some of it like the backsplash wall. In the Appliances forum you will discover that 99.9% of the forum experts will fall in love with that big arched canopy structure that some previous owner built. It is a million times more effective than a low profile hood. It could be turned into a feature instead of demolished. But it may just be a greasy mess right now. What to do with it? It is hard to tell from the photo. If you have time skill and money to consider rebuilding it all, go ahead and plan for this.

I believe you are "just looking for some basic ideas/recommendations."
Here is one: more lumen, more lux, more light. Get some undercabinet lighting. Thin tube fluorescents or LED strips. This will make a difference. Also it will please you since you "both lean towards more modern design."

To be modern, something like granite could be good. Consider quartz (an artificial stone), soapstone, slate, and quartzite. Some are white and some are dark. I would go with a lighter color. Maybe Nougat quartz. But don't let me influence your colors.

For the floor, consider cork.

About your cabinets, you wrote "trying out new hardware for them and/or possibly painting." Whatever you do is fine. It's not a big deal in terms of function.

To be modern, you need to be functional. The sink may be disfunctional in the corner. The desk area may be wasted space. You might consider a different layout. Since you "plan to replace countertops with something else," consider making the island countertop a lot larger. It will overhang more. But before doing this, post a layout of the floor plan. From the photos it is hard to know whether there are any pinch points.

People will need to know about your exhaust ducting, your plumbing (vent), and your electricity. The kitchen's extraction fan could be replaced by a new one that is virtually silent, and more powerful.

I'd probably leave the whole arch thing alone structurally and just yank off the tile, repair the drywall and cover the whole thing with stainless steel. A local metal fabricator ought to be able to do the job, or even the HVAC person that I would hire to put in a hood insert into the upper portion of the mantle. A cool stainless mantle hood echoes the traditional mantle hood that is so popular in traditional cabinetry, but the stainless updates it to modern.

As for the doors, I agree that nothing about arched raised panels will work with either modern or transitional. I'd just take the doors off and paint the boxes to match the bases. Here's the key, though. Paint the cabinet back walls the same as your wall color. That will make the shelves and boxes "float" and appear more as open shelving that just cabinets without doors. I wouldn't fill the hinge hardware holes just yet though. If you can't live with keeping things tidy and dust free, then have some open frame doors made for glass and install those. If you find that you love the open shelf look, then you can fill the holes and touch up the paint.

For the island, I'd pick a fun modern color and have at it with paint. Orange, eggplant, fuschia, lime, turquoise---there has to be a great color out there that you've used in the rest of the house. Even a "neutralized" color could work, like a sagey green, or a greige, or a gray-lavender or a browned orange or a blackened red. Pick up that island color with accessories for the kitchen and breakfast area.

Here is a "how to" to paint those cabinets. It was originally posted in response to how to judge a professional paint job from a contractor, but the steps are the same even if you DIY.
_________________

Here is how I would expect a pro to spray paint kitchen cabinets. A brush painted job would differ slightly in that you wouldn't hang the doors to paint. You'd place them on a work table or easel instead. It's time intensive work, and should take 7-14 days to accomplish completely and cost between 3K-7K depending on kitchen size and amount of detail in cabinets.

Remove doors and drawer fronts.
Remove hinges and hardware.
Clean with TSP (tri-sodium phosphate)
Rinse and let dry.
Scrape any loose finish.
Fill any damaged spots or hardware holes that won't be reused.
Sand fill smooth.
Scuff sand the rest.
Tack off dust.
Hang in dust free paint booth with wires through hardware points.
Tack off dust again.
Spray with alkyd based primer.
Scuff sand again.
Tack off dust.
Spray with second coat of primer.
Spray with first finish coat of latex enamel.
Spray with second coat of latex.
If glazing is to occur, that is next.
Spray with conversion varnish.
(If being brush painted, this step is typically skipped.)

Add more molding or decorative details to boxes, filling nail holes and sanding smooth.

Repeat prep process with face frames and exposed cabinet sides using plastic to create a spray booth on site. If interiors are to be done, they are done before face frames and sides. Interiors are difficult, and add both time and expense to the job.

Allow everything to fully cure.
Clean hinges and hardware and clear coat if you're keeping the old hardware.
Install new (or old) hinges and hardware.
Re-install doors and drawers and adjust for proper clearances.

If you are receiving a job without this amount of effort, then you are not receiving a quality professional job.