Limiting yourself to a single color will give you a classic look. Multiple colors are not such a good idea. However, your cabinets don't have to be white if you prefer color. A pale mossy green for kitchen cabinets can look wonderful.

I was originally planning to paint the top cabinets white and the bottom the aqua color, which I love. I had painted one of the doors in aqua as a test and had put it up against a white cabinet in the adjoining family room and it looked so good together. My kitchen is pretty open with an island between the kitchen and dining room, so I think two diid colors would work.

I agree with what's been said already, and would look for a soft muted color like green or blue to add personality to the room.

Since you have both wall cabinets and an island, why not paint the island aqua and the wall cabinets white?

I like your original plan - maybe do the lowers and the island in the aqua you love. Whenever I see a boldly painted kitchen I wish I had the guts to do that myself.

Wellll, it's not really an island, more of a peninsula. I was actually considering painting it and the adjoining floor to ceiling cabinets in white and the rest of the kitchen cabinets either white below and aqua above or all aqua. The back of the cabinets on the peninsula side face the dining room and would coordinate better in white. I will be getting rid of the wall paper above the cabinets!

as you can see my kitchen is old and dated. I can't really do a remodel now, but I thought painting the cabinets, adding new counter tops and flooring and painting above the cabinets would make a big difference.

You won't like the white on bottom and blue on top because having the lightest color on the bottom will make your kitchen seem ungrounded and off balance. If you go with the white vans and blue doors you will achieve a very country look. What style do you want to have in the end? I certainly understand not having the budget to do a full remodel so doing things in small phases is the practical thing to do. But you need to know what your overall plan is and the overall style. Also it sounds like you're not selling this house so you should do what you love.

My iPhone keeps changing my typos into unintended words...ugh I think I'm too old for this. I hope you can puzzle out what I meant. ☺️

I do Kristi and you're right! I did type it backwards- I want white on top and aqua below. Thanks for your suggestions!

And Kristi, you're right. I am not planning on selling this house. We've retired and moved closer to my daughter. We bought this house and have done some improvements/remodeling and are now looking at our very dated kitchen. We are getting a new wall oven ( our current one is the original from 1958 and is pink!)and stove top and I thought this would be the time to paint etc.

It should work fine to paint all the uppers white and the lower cabs aqua, or you could do the entire kitchen in aqua.