I would kill for vintage 50s metal cabinets! Alas, it wouldn't fit in my house. I do love these colors

[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Minneapolis Kitchen And Bath CliqStudios Cabinets

Actually wood would really warm up that gray, either as countertops (as in the picture above) or flooring. Ikea butcherblock countertop is cheap and gets high marks.

I do like the wood contrast from the picture you showed. Thanks for that suggestion!

-Rebecca

What colors do you see in that kitchen? Are you considering painting the cabinets or do you want to work with them as they are. The wood counter would (wood, wud) look great. Would (lordy) you consider a wood (ahh!) floor?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck....?

What about a nice 50's turquose? It's a color you see used a lot today as well. Pair it with black accents.

Maybe Wilsonart Sea Glass or Bottle Glass laminate for a counter?

No suggestions. Just wanted to say your cabinets look cool and the layout doesn't appear bad either. Good luck. Be sure to post photos as you make changes.

Welcome to the forum. What is great here is that you will gets lots of encouragement and advise. I find that although everything can be specific to taste, if the majority of the members agree, you should give it serious thought.
What I would do: 1. Remove the wall paper 2. Paint the cabinets,I would do a white. (Grey is gaining in popularity, butI just don't see that color in your kitchen. 3. Remove the carpeting.
I would need to know more about your long range plans. Not sure if i would invest in new counters if you are only going to keep them for a year or two.

I like using wood to warm up the grey and would probably use green or blue for a bit of life and color, but you need to look at the undertones in the grey to see what will compliment it. Grey can be a bit blue, green, pink, lavender -- really hard to get a grey that doesn't lean towards some other color.

What colors are you likely to have in the adjoining rooms? That's another consideration. Also your favorite colors. The kitchen should have colors that make you feel good.

You can also do black and white -- maybe add some red or yellow. You don't have much wall, so it can be a strong color if you want bright and lively, or bright white.

Keep in mind that the wood could be flooring or counters. The color can be on the wall, the counters or in your splash. You have spaces for a couple of choices.

Congratulations on your new home!
The wallpaper would be the first thing to go after the carpet. I love your metal cabinets, and I would (spray) paint them fire-engine red gloss, and install white Formica counters with a white 2x2" tile backsplash with colored accent tiles. Black and white checkerboard or wood floor, white walls and appliances, including a white sink. I think the soffit should be white as well.

I also think white cabinets with wood counters would look great, as would black and white. But the metal cabinets scream for something bright and wild to me. I can think of dozens of color combos that I would love to see in your kitchen. Butter yellow cabinets with depression-glass green corian counters? Turquoise cabinets with white counters flecked with cherry red, gray, and yellow, with a white subway tile backsplash? Oh, how I envy you. "Audacity, more audacity, always audacity." -Danton

Rebecca- great kitchen once you get rid of that carpet! You will have fun and be the envy of GW with those classic cabinets! I am not sure about the wood countertops.

Hose - LOL - When I looked at this kitchen, I saw the same thing and this is coming from a boring color person.

And the good news - they can be painted again downstream.

Otherwise - I would go with a nice white but bring in color with the counter and BS - I love that Bottle Glass color above!

Looks like everyone likes your cabinets, it's rare to buy a house and get somrhing so "workable" :)

Throwing out ideas (& agreeing with others about removing carpet/wallpaper)
COLOR !!! Turquoise, cherry red, white or black cabinets ?
Checkerboard vinyl floor ?
Wood counter would be GREAT-- see thread on cleaning Ikea butcher block.

Here is a link that might be useful: cleaning wood counter

Oh YELLOW(with red accents-toaster/towels/cherry oilcloth) would look nice too.

Take a look at what it takes to paint metal cabinets, particularly the prep work. I have not but it's possible it would be a PITA. I like how they look - original, unapologetic.

I'd be more inclined to leave the cabinets as is and tackle the rest, with an eye to warming up the kitchen to counteract the grey cabs. I'd take a lot from that fabulous inspiration pic that Julie posted. The idea of wood counters is a great one. If you don't think you'd like the maintenance of wood, I believe Cesaerstone or similar makes nice warm medium brown counters.

I'd go with a medium or natural toned wood (or vinyl plank wood-look) floor and warm white tile backsplash (don't be scared, tiling is really easy). I can see really skinny white 2x6 or 2x8 tile in a herringbone pattern, actually :)

I'd also see if you could remove only the cabinet over the stove (you can keep the soffit) and replace it with an actual range hood that vents to the outside. I was going to say that if you are replacing your range, IKEA makes a snazzy matte black range and matching hood that I think would be a great focal point and break up the grey tones even more - but it looks like the range is no longer offered. :(

Finally, I would dress that soffit up with some trim. Maybe you just nail a flat 1x6 or whatever would totally cover the soffit, and perhaps a small crown or cove trim on top of that, at the ceiling. Or just a huge piece of crown, or a baseboard piece upside-down and then a crown on top of that - there are a lot of options. Take a cab door to the paint store for a color-match so you can then paint that trim. Voila - you no longer have a soffit, you have really pretty trim!

As for wall paint, I'd go with a warm beige, again to warm up the place.

Good luck!

You might want to read up on painting the metal cabinets - there was a thread a couple of weeks ago that discussed this: Has anyone painted (or had painted) metal kitchen cabinets?

I actually think if the cabinets are sturdy, and the paint is in good shape, there is a lot you could do just by changing the floor, and adding a backsplash.

Right now, at least in the picture, it looks too monochromatic. A new countertop with more contrast, a vivid backsplash and new flooring would go a long way to making it a lot nicer.

Depending on the gray of the cabinets, maybe something like this maybe?

or or with darker counters, something like this?

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! The first thing we'll be doing is ripping up that horrid carpet and putting in new flooring.

For the cabinets, my husband seems to think he wants black cabinets. If we did that, I might consider a red/maroon back splash with maybe a cocoa accent wall on the opposite side? I'm still trying to envision it and I haven't seen anything online like what he's thinking so it's hard to picture.

I'll keep looking at pictures and will consider options for keeping the cabinets the same grey color but bringing in more pops of color with the backsplash, etc...

Thanks again!
-Becca

I would paint the cabinets as a last resort. As recommended above, be sure you know what you are in for. We had original St Clair metal cabinets that had been poorly painted by the previous owner. The paint chipped easily, and was so thick that some of the drawers and doors would not close properly. Even more special was the painted over crumbs that gave the effect of sandpaper in some of the drawers.

Keep us in the loop as you start the flooring.

I like everybody's ideas. Here's mine.