Well, to start, I'm glad you're up to redoing those existing cabinets--I really like the style (and my needs are what's important here!) and they do look good.

I'm way ahead of the game here, but I'm thinking metal backsplash accents to complement your mixer.

That passthrough is weird. Are there any windows in the kitchen? Maybe it's meant to window things up, or maybe originally the peninsula wasn't there so it was usable?

Can you recess your fridge so it sits counter depth? I'm guessing you have at least 3 boys to feed so you won't be wanting to get an actual counter depth fridge, but having the new fridge not sticking out helps a lot for overall feel. And if you can bring out the cabinets above the fridge to make them reachable, they'll look nicer too.

IS it possible to do one layout change? Moving the DW to the other side of the sink would get it out of the way of the main food prep area (the area between the sink and the stove).

Do you use the passthrough in any way (including to keep an eye on kids)? If not, close it up and put in open shelves.

It looks like making the peninsula wider would block a major walkway from the livingroom to the kitchen.

HI-
I am feeling your distressed black cabs...I am also picturing blowing open the area of the wall where your window-passthru thing is and, like Anne said move the DW over- maybe then create a corner sink area where you will face the family room?? Or just a corner cab area. A distressed painted white cab would also be beautiful. You have great space and lots of potential...can you lose the soffit? One more thought- make the peninsula more narrow and then "L"-it back towards the fridg just a couple of feet? May be too tight, but with a counter depth fridg you may like the extra landing???
Good luck!

I agree with arc1017. I was thinking that maybe you can blow away the entire wall at the end of the counter (thus opening up all the way from the pass through to the door). If you want a more open feeling kitchen to what looks like the family room, I think that would work really well. I think your idea for distressed black cabinets will look great. If you want to disguise the soffit, you could add some molding (making it look like upper cabinets) and paint it the same as the cabinets.

Disclaimer: This is only an idea since I have ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE with sanding or staining any type of wood. We have just ordered oak cabinets with an ebony stain for a rec room kitchen after I have sworn for half of my life that I would never have oak anything in my house (traumatized, I think, in early childhood by visits to old grumpy Victorian aunts). If there is a way to stain your cabinets and apply a very dark espresso or ebony stain I think they would look great with stainless appliances.

Check out Celticmoon's and Projectsneverend's light oak makeovers. They're in this thread. It's a great look and probably not more work than painting (I might be wrong on that!).

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down to find them

Thanks so much for all the great ideas! I was really nervous about the distressed black cabinets, but I am gaining confidence with each nice comment! :-)

I do like the thought of moving the DW...will have to talk to the hubby about that one. The pass through REALLY bugs me. The only thing it gets used for is to sit junk on it and for my husband to check out the TV! I would be blowing out that wall for sure, but the room on the other side is a sunken family room so there would be an awkward height thing going on...plus, the entire soffit has to stay...grr...so that chunk of it would always be randomly sticking out. I really like the idea of putting up open shelves or maybe another section of cabinetry and then doing decorative glass front cabinets on each side of the microwave. And I am going to play around with trim to disguise the soffit like some others did.

I am also concerned about the fridge sticking out too much. The new one we looked at is going to stick out another 3 inches than the one we already have. Its also much taller than the one we have and the cabinet above will have to come out. I was thinking about building a wine rack to go in the narrow leftover space. (I know its not the best for the wine, but I don't really drink it so it would be mostly decorative.)

Any thoughts about pendants vs. recessed over the peninsula?

By the way, my husband is in the garage right now doing a test panel of the cabinets. Per recommendations found on this forum, we are trying MH Ready Patch to cover the grain in the wood. Amazingly, it seems to be working! I think he'll have one primer coat on tonight (luckily we have access to a spray booth for the big project) so we'll see how that turns out. Hope might just exist for those of us with builder's grade orange oak! :-) I saw a few threads regarding this topic that seemed to have a lot of questions but died out, so I will try to update our status.

Thank you thank you!

You can help the ref a bit by doing an enclosure. Take the "over the ref cabinet" off the wall and plunk into the front edge of the enclosure - maybe of wood, maybe drywall.

It needn't be framed like a wall. Building Codes allow for ref panels - so you could do plywood. You could add some moldings and tart it up and do the black finish if you want. It will look like a built in.

Some people have been able to do msg centers or kids chalk boards or art display surfaces with magnetic whiteboard on the side panels for the ref.

Good luck.

Maybe you take out part of the wall to open it up to the family room? You could put a column at the end of the soffit to tie it in. You could also lower the level to counter height and extend the granite.

{{!gwi}}